scientism unhinged '...religions can be dismissed as dogmatic, dependent on the authority of scriptures, prophets, and priests. by contrast, so the argument goes, scientists are open to evidence; they ask clear questions, test them by experimentation, and establish a reliable consensus through repeatable observations. i used to believe this myself. but I was disillusioned when i found that some people have made science into a kind of religion and are often exceptionally dogmatic. they accept the scientific worldview on faith, impressed by the authority and prestige of scientists, and imagine they have arrived at this worldview by their own freethinking. i still believe in the ideal of open-minded science. but i see the religion of science, scientism, as a dogmatic ideology. in my own experience, believers in scientism are much more dogmatic than most christians. most believers in scientism are not scientists. they are devotees rather than researchers. most have made no empirical observations or scientific discoveries themselves...they take what they are told on trust, accepting the prevailing orthodoxy of institutional science as conveyed by textbooks and popularizers. they are incapable of questioning the authority of the scientific priesthood because they lack the necessary education and technical knowledge to do so... scientism has a very wide influence, largely because of the undoubted triumphs of science and technology...but many people, including me,think that this philosophy has hardened into a dogmatic belief system that is actually holding the sciences back.' - rupert sheldrake (science and spiritual practices p. 161-62) 210920 ... unhinged trust has no place in real science show me the data 210920 what's it to you? who go blather from