Postmodernism and You: Science

Lee Campbell, Ph.D., Contributor

Science has been under unprecedented attack with the rise of postmodernism. Both in academic circles and in popular culture, we see today a contempt for the sciences that many find hard to understand. Science is viewed as the vanguard of European exploitation, a discipline run amok, the instigators of nuclear and other weapons systems, the handmaiden of big business, and as the defilers of nature.

The movie, Jurassic Park was a perfect example of the criticism of science as well as the use of quantum physics and higher math to support mystical views of reality. Others see science, not as the culprit, but as the victim. They hold that science has been corrupted by westerners to make it fit their rationalistic, "linear" form of reasoning rather than seeing that science really supports mystical religious views.

Modernism and Science

Although the founders of science were Christians, religion has been the traditional enemy of modernist science. Indeed, right up to the present, Christians have often cried foul at the arrogance of modernity. For instance, in a current general biology text the authors, through inept philosophizing, equate modernism with rationality and any other view with irrationality.

"Darwin knew that accepting his theory required believing in philosophical materialism, the conviction that matter is the stuff of all existence and that all mental and spiritual phenomenon are its by- products . . . In Darwin's world we are not helpless prisoners of a static world order but, rather, masters of our own fate . . . And from a strictly scientific point of view rejecting biological evolution is no different from rejecting other natural phenomenon such as electricity and gravity. (emphasis mine)"

This extreme modernist position is all too typical of the arrogance which has earned the ire of postmodernists along with many others in society today, including Christians. To them, anyone who refuses atheistic materialism is so ignorant, they might as well deny gravity! Never mind the implicit claim to omniscience that allows this human to know that nowhere in the universe could the supernatural exist.

Today two groups of critics have made common cause in their attacks on traditional science: Secular postmodernists and eastern mystics.

Secular Postmodern Criticisms

When postmodernists criticize the sciences, they often include the influential work of science historian, Thomas Kuhn. Kuhn is critical of what he sees as modernist misrepresentation of the nature of science. Modernist definitions of science claim that science is objective because it is empirical (based only on the data of our senses), rational (reasonable, or logically defensible) and that its presuppositions are obviously true. Kuhn claims science is a social enterprise and as such is also quite subjective. He argues that, "every individual choice between competing theories depends on a mixture of objective and subjective factors."

Kuhn applied the word 'paradigm' to the beliefs and methods used by a community of scientists at any point in time. Paul Feyerabend, a prominent and more radical postmodern theorist, uses the same word. He argues that, before scientists operating in one paradigm can change their minds to another paradigm, they have to undergo an irrational conversion experience in their thinking. He claims that, because the meaning of the words used in the first paradigm cannot be translated into the language of the second, the paradigms are "incommensurable" (e.g., cannot be related to each other). And, since these theories are incommensurable, we cannot say that one more exactly describes objective reality than the other.

He explains:

"We certainly cannot assume that two incommensurable theories deal with one and the same objective state of affairs (to make the assumption we would have to assume that both at least refer to the same objective situation. But how can we assert that 'they both' refer to the same situation when 'they both' never make sense together? . . .) Hence, unless we want to assume that they deal with nothing at all we must admit that they deal with different [conceptual] worlds and that the change (from one world to another) has been brought about by a switch from one theory to another."

We can group postmodern criticisms of science into four charges:

1. All observations are subjective, including those by scientists. Therefore scientific conclusions are not objective
2. Although scientists claim to be guided by rationality, the critics argue that rationality itself is guided along the lines of dominant theories that are social fabrications.
3. The rules of logic are nothing but socially prescribed ways of thinking
4. The presuppositions of science are only obviously true to people from our western culture.

In The Death of Truth, we examine each of these charges in turn. Here, we only have space to consider one choice comment by postmodern critic, Feyerabend that gives the feel for the postmodern view:

"The rise of modern science coincides with the suppression of non-Western tribes by Western invaders. The tribes are not only physically suppressed, they also lose their intellectual independence and are forced to adopt the bloodthirsty religion of brotherly love--Christianity . . . Today this development is gradually reversed . . . But science still reigns supreme . . . Thus, while an American can now choose the religion he likes, he is still not permitted to demand that his children learn magic rather than science at school . . . And yet science has no greater authority than any other form of life."

Mystical Critics: Fritjof Capra and Friends

The relationship between mysticism and postmodernism is a complicated one, which we cannot consider in depth here. Suffice it to say their assumptions overlap at key points (such as their rejection of reason and their critique of western culture) which leads to an alliance of ideologies. Mystics have often tried to claim that science has been distorted.

Mathematician Rudy Rucker, a mystic, explains:

"The Irish philosopher George Berkeley (1685-1753) advocated an idealistic philosophy called immaterialism . . . It is surprising to learn that such a seemingly perverse world view is embraced by modern physicists . . . I propose that we stop trying to explain our mental experiences in terms of invisibly tiny objects arranged in patterns in 3-D space. Instead let us take our actual thoughts and sensations as the truly fundamental entities."

Once we accept the 'evidence' for monism (the belief that all things are one), the source of authority rapidly changes to nothing more than personal experience. Renee Weber, a postmodern philosopher, agrees, and takes the argument one step further:

"Unlike science, which turns to the world outside the seeker, mysticism turns within, to the laws that govern the seeker himself. Science is outer empiricism, mysticism is inner empiricism . . . for the mystic the inner and outer are reconciled through the hermetic dictum: 'As above, so below...' Both scientist and sage are transformers of energy, involved in the dance of Shiva. The scientist makes the dense matter dance to produce pure energy, the mystic - master of subtle matter - dances the dance of himself . . . In the very act of interpreting the universe, we are creating the universe . . . as we dialogue [the cosmos changes] . . . its idea of itself . . . It assigns a role to man that was once reserved for the gods."

Mystical arguments are often based on quantum physics, following the line of the very popular book, The Tao of Physics, by Fritjof Capra. In that book he argues:

Complementarity (quantum physics) shows that reality is composed of contradictory truths.
Indeterminacy and Action at a distance (quantum physics) teach that the diverse particulars in reality are highly integrated, or connected to each other (thus supporting the eastern notion that everything is part of one essence, called monism).
The "stuff" of which the universe is made is not matter but energy.
All three quantum observations support the notion that reality is brought into existence and maintained by the action of consciousness.

In The Death of Truth, we examine each of these claims and the reasons for them in laymen's terms.

The Rest of the Story

In The Death of Truth we also cover:

Actual statements from prominent postmodernists fully revealing their view
Examination of the research they claim supports their view
A critical rejoinder
Detailed explanation and refutation of mystical interpretations

Send the contributor a comment or question
Return to the previous page