09.29.05
The Anti-Science Dragnet: Are You At Risk?
One of the most dangerous charges against anyone these days is that of ‘anti-science’. No kidding. Jobs are at stake, you could be out in the wilderness. Now that the Darwin debate is in its ritual overdrive, the charge of anti-science is being thrown around for those who dissent on Darwin’s theory.
This is misleadingly pegged as a science vs religion debate, but here’s my buffalo nickel betting YOU are guilty of anti-science (unless you keep your mouth shut, or join the groupie chorus for Darwin being orchestrated by the various science orgs).
The list of heresies you should be wary of is stupendous:
most philosophy is suspect. To be sure, they pick on creationists, but the average philosophy department gets special treatment, although they should be included in the dragnet. Kant-studien? Beyond the Pale, should be thrown out of the university system….
Anything but reductionist views on consciousness are suspect. Be wary there. If you still have Cartesian traces in your system you are prone to the dragnet…
New Age beliefs, Buddhist et al. All suspect, totally, red light blinking there.
There are lots of tricky pitfalls here. Darwin’s theory is reductionist and implies that evolution proceeds without meaning in a scheme of blind chance. So if you believe that culture, man, history have meaning, you are in trouble. Be wary of the fact/value distinction. The value domain is mystical bunk.
If you think art arose from anything but an adaptation in a selectionist scenario, Problem, anti-science! The list goes on.
Generally speaking almost any views on divinity, self, soul, free will that contradict Darwin could get you caught in the dragnet.
That’s a shortlist.
Your best option is to simply bluff your way through the whole game, the strategy of most scientists themselves, who don’t really believe in the reductionist charade.