tyranny of science

The tyranny of science

Science was intended to replace the dogma of religion and the tyranny

of monarchy. Reason was supposed to bring enlightenment. Science was

never intended to become an ideology in and of itself, its own belief

system.

Sadly, however, science has become the dominant ideology of our era.

In an excellent essay, Furedi writes: it frequently seems as if

scientific authority is replacing religious and moral authority, and

in the process being transformed into a dogma. At first sight, it

appears that science has the last word on all the important questions

of our time.

In short, Furedi's essay shows how science has become the very dogma

it was originally intended to replace:

* In the absence of political vision and direction, society

continually hides behind scientific authority....whatever

misgivings people have about science, its authority is unrivalled

in the current period.

* ...the environmental lobby depends on the legitimation provided by

scientific evidence and expertise. In their public performances,

environmentalists frequently use the science in a dogmatic

fashion.

* Today, religion and political ideologies no longer inspire

significant sections of the public. Politicians find it difficult

to justify their work and outlook in the vocabulary of morality.

* Many religious leaders, politicians and environmentalists have

little interest in engaging in the voyage of discovery through

scientific experimentation. Instead they often appear to be in the

business of politicising science, or more accurately, moralising

it...(there is a)... growing tendency to treat science as a belief

that provides an unquestionable account of the Truth.

* Such science has more in common with the art of divination than

the process of experimentation.

Saul contends that democracy has consistently been placed in the hands

of those in society who are the least democratic in their ideology:

those who can exercise power through the authority of their religion,

their economic power or their military might. Today we have to add to