{"id":1780,"date":"2022-07-06T09:33:02","date_gmt":"2022-07-06T13:33:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=1780"},"modified":"2022-07-06T09:33:02","modified_gmt":"2022-07-06T13:33:02","slug":"facts-and-opinions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2022\/07\/06\/facts-and-opinions\/","title":{"rendered":"Facts and Opinions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Philosopher J.P. Moreland remembers the time he was invited to speak at a gathering on the validity of faith.
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A friend gave him fair warning.\u00a0 One of the guests, a man who was finishing up his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, was an outspoken skeptic of all things religious.\u00a0
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They ultimately crossed paths at the dessert table.\u00a0 The man could hardly wait to descend upon Moreland.\u00a0
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\u201cI understand you are a philosopher and a theologian,\u201d he began. \u00a0\u201cI used to be interested in those things when I was a teenager.\u00a0 But I have outgrown those interests.\u00a0 I know now that the only sort of knowledge of reality is that which can be and has been quantified and tested in the laboratory.\u00a0 If you can measure it and test it scientifically, you can know it.\u00a0 If not, the topic is nothing but private opinion and idle speculation.\u201d
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Moreland\u2019s conversation partner wasn\u2019t just a fan of science.\u00a0 He was an enthusiastic proponent of scientism<\/em>.\u00a0
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There\u2019s a world of difference.\u00a0
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Science is the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment.\u00a0 It is unquestionably one of humanity\u2019s greatest blessings.\u00a0 If during the next 24 hours you\u2019ll be driving a car, wearing breathable fabrics, eating two-inch long strawberries, or enjoying the effects of an air conditioner, you can thank the scientists and their technological partners who have made such everyday miracles possible.\u00a0
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Scientism, on the other hand, is a perspective.\u00a0 It\u2019s a commitment to the idea that science alone delivers knowledge.\u00a0 The \u201chard sciences\u201d of chemistry, physics, biology, cosmology, and the like yield real information about the real world.\u00a0 Philosophy, psychology, ethics and religion, on the other hand \u2013 the \u201csoft sciences,\u201d if we should stoop to calling them sciences at all \u2013 deliver little more than feelings and opinions.
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Devotees of scientism are astounded that so many people believe their religious feelings about the world are \u201ctrue.\u201d\u00a0 To them, it\u2019s absurd to talk about moral absolutes (science reveals nothing of the kind), let alone the phenomenon of \u201cknowing God.\u201d\u00a0
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Anyone who has spent more than 10 minutes in today\u2019s halls of academia is well aware of this perspective \u2013 and the fact that it has won the day.
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But scientism has a problem.\u00a0 A stunningly significant problem.\u00a0
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Let\u2019s let J.P. Moreland put it into words.\u00a0 After listening for a while to his new friend at the dessert table, he finally broke in.\u00a0 \u201cSir, you have made 30 to 40 assertions in the last few minutes, and as far as I can tell, not one of them can be quantified, measured, and scientifically tested in the laboratory.\u00a0 But this places me in an awkward position.\u00a0 By your own standards, all you have been doing in our conversation is spouting your private opinions and idle speculation.\u00a0 Given this, I am wondering why I or anyone else ought to give you the time or day or think a single thing you said is knowably true.\u201d
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It\u2019s a wonder J.P. gets invited to anyone\u2019s barbecue.\u00a0
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Moreland reports that the scientist was taken aback.\u00a0 Apparently no one had ever pointed out to him that his scientific basis for knowledge was self-refuting.\u00a0 The very idea of scientism is not scientific.\u00a0 It\u2019s a philosophy that cannot itself be evaluated through observation and experiment.\u00a0
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Make no mistake:\u00a0 Followers of Jesus should be stark raving fans of scientific research.\u00a0 No one would willingly want to turn back the clock 200 years on surgical procedures, modes of transportation, or food safety.\u00a0 Less than 5% of current scientific perspectives conflict with faith.\u00a0 No one quarrels, for instance, with the fact that there are four hydrogen atoms in every molecule of methane.
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But when scientism<\/em> masquerades as real science \u2013 when scientists assert that lab-tested truths are the only reliable forms of knowledge \u2013 we must respectfully disagree.\u00a0 And then provide a gentle but firm reminder that scientism flunks its own standard of validation.\u00a0
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Ironically, all the things that most human beings would put at the top of their lists of what matters most in life \u2013 love, joy, peace, relationships, forgiveness, purpose, and the hope of reunions beyond the grave \u2013 are not subject to laboratory evaluation.\u00a0
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Without such things, life would be unlivable.\u00a0
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Which is no doubt why Jesus said, at a critical moment during his ministry, \u201cI didn\u2019t make this up. What I teach comes from the One who sent me. Anyone who wants to do his will can test this teaching and know whether it\u2019s from God or whether I\u2019m making it up\u201d (John 7:16, 17).\u00a0
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In other words, you can do an experiment.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be in a laboratory, but in your business transactions, your conversations, your decision-making, and your private thoughts and prayers when you\u2019re lying awake at 3:00 am trying to make sense of the world.\u00a0
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Jesus invites us to find out for ourselves if there is an invisible world.\u00a0
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And it\u2019s a sure bet that what you\u2019ll discover will be more satisfying than anything else you might find on the dessert table.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Philosopher J.P. Moreland remembers the time he was invited to speak at a gathering on the validity of faith.\u00a0A friend gave him fair warning.\u00a0 One of the guests, a man who was finishing up his Ph.D. at Johns Hopkins, was an outspoken skeptic of all things religious.\u00a0\u00a0They ultimately crossed paths at the dessert table.\u00a0 The man could hardly wait to… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1781,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[463,6,462],"class_list":["post-1780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-philosophy","tag-science","tag-scientism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1780"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1782,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1780\/revisions\/1782"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}