I found this meme in an article posted at the blog hosting site Worldpress. The blog
is called "Why evolution is true”. Its
simplicity caught my eye. It presents an empty list of “Religious
Discoveries” (Whatever that means). In the article this meme
is contrasted with a list published by
the Wired Science web site: “10 Top Scientific
Discoveries and Accomplishments of the year 2012"
- The Higgs Boson
- The Curiosity Rover lands on Mars
- Most human genetic variation is rare and the deleterious variants arose recently, during our expansion out of Africa
- The sequencing of fetal genomes using non-invasive procedures, from fetal DNA floating in the mother’s blood
- The teleportation of entangled quantum particles over a large distance: 50 miles
- The synthesis of XNA, a new polymer that can carry information and evolve via a form of selection
- A private company, SpaceX, launched and orbited its own spacecraft, and delivered it to the International Space Station
- Discovery of an Earth-size exo-planet orbiting a nearby star, Alpha Centauri B
- The reaching of Lake Vostok, an Antarctic lake, which required drilling through more than 2 miles of ice; this may lead to the discovery of unusual forms of life
- Government policy has started to end invasive research on chimpanzees in the U.S. (yay!)
The implication in the article is
obvious: religion lacks the progressiveness of science. Science is always
advancing by quantifiable, concrete discoveries. Science contributes to the
progress of humanity where religion is devoid of anything useful. This is
a common theme of the new atheism: Pining the usefulness of science against
religion apparent sterility.
I find articles like this one
disturbing, not because they present a serious threat to religion, but because
they reveal a disturbing worldview. To see what I'm talking about one just needs
to take a closer look at the list of scientific discoveries from Wired Science.
Of the "10 Top Scientific Discoveries" 2 are from quantum physics, 3
are from astronomy, 2 are from genetics, 1 is from material sciences, and
the last 2 (9 and 10) are not discoveries at all but milestones of exploration
and government policy. These last two could hardly be called science, and I suspect
they were added just to make the list an even 10. This seemingly innocuous fact
will become significant later.
Looking at the list of scientific disciplines
it is obvious that for the author only a certain type of disciplines produce
any discovery worth reporting. Physics, astronomy, genetics and material
sciences are part of what is known as natural or “hard” sciences. These are
disciplines which rely on quantifiable data, and mathematical models to
generate understanding of natural processes. There is, however, another type of
scientific disciplines which cannot be placed in this group because they do not
rely in repeatable mathematical process but on observation, inference,
conjecture and qualitative analysis of data. Examples of these are
anthropology, sociology, paleontology and archeology. These disciplines are
also known as soft sciences.
Apparently for Wired Science, soft
sciences did not produce any significant discoveries last year; at least significant
enough to make the Top 10 List. You might be thinking "well in a 10 items
list it is impossible to report everything!" but we need to remember
one important fact: items 9 and 10. The reality is that these can hardly be
called discoveries. To be more blunt: Are we to believe that last year, the
government, changing its policy on chimpanzee research, is more significant
than all the research performed by archeology, sociology, paleontology,
psychology and the rest of the soft sciences?
This is the crux of the matter. For
the person compiling the Wired Science list and for the atheists using it to
score cheap points against religion, the only science with any significant
value is the type of science which only advances our knowledge of the physical
world. Science which is quantifiable and can produce repeatable data. Disciplines
such as sociology, anthropology, paleontology or archeology are not worth
the ink in which their scientific papers are written.
You might be asking why this
worldview is dangerous; what is the big deal? Well, soft sciences, when applied
to the human race, provide a view of who we are as a species, where we come
from, what motivates us, what gives meaning to our existence; the things which
make us unique among all the other species in this planet. Denying the validity
of these disciplines makes scientific advances to be guided exclusively by utilitarian
goals. Science becomes the search of just the things can be replicated,
reproduced and exploited. This worldview deprives science of its humanity; and
when we allow this, science, to paraphrase the great Mahatma Gandhi becomes evil.
The new atheists would like very
much to convince us that religion has nothing to offer to the human race. The
problem is that it does not matter how much they wish for it to be gone,
religion IS part of the human experience; it is intertwined with everything the
human person does; it is part of our collective culture and art. It
follows then, that any contributions of religion to the human race will occur
in the fields of science which study the human person and its development. It
is in these areas of scientific study that we will find the contribution
religion has offered to mankind.
There is one last thing about the
“Why Evolution is True” article. In their zeal to take jabs at religion and pin
it against what they consider the only valid type of Science the writers of
this article place themselves in an embarrassing position. Perhaps you already
noticed: The soft sciences of anthropology, paleontology, sociology, etc. are
the same disciplines which have provided most of the evidence for the Theory of
Evolution. The same theory they named their site after! The irony is exquisite; they
have to go to that which they disdain the most to justify their own name.
I hope you chuckled as much as I did
:-)
One last thing...
Here is some homework for you. Go to
Discovery's "Top 10
Archeological Finds of the 21st Century",
Take a look and tell me how many of these are religious in nature. Extra credit
if you can see any references to Christianity. Enjoy!
"Viva Cristo Rey!!"
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