Scientism's conclusions fail the 'what if...' test

Listening to deep space: a 500-metre Aperture Spherical Telescope in Guizhou, China.

Imagine someone you know has been studying radio waves and has invented an impressive satellite dish that can pick up every kind of radio wave in existence. You are being shown the instrument by its inventor, and you are impressed by its sophistication and the wealth of information it provides; it essentially covers the world of radio waves. At a certain point you pose the question: “I wonder if there are other kinds of waves out there that aren’t radio waves.”

You then receive the confident answer: “Nope. Nothing but radio waves exist out there.”

You are surprised and interested by this claim.

“How do you know that?” you ask.

“Because we’ve never picked up anything but radio waves on the dish.”

You are a little confused. “But I thought your dish was fashioned precisely to pick up only radio waves.”

“Right.”

“So what if there are other kinds of waves?”

“But we know there aren’t.”

“Because…?”

“Because radio waves are all we detect with our dish.”

At this point the circularity of your friend’s thinking has silenced you, so you begin to talk about the weather.

Something similar can happen with certain supporters of a scientistic view. They will note, rightly, that God, angels, and the human soul cannot be measured or observed by the methods of natural science. They will then say: “Science makes clear that such things don’t exist.” If you ask “How is that?” the answer will often be: “Because if they did exist, we would be able to see or detect them scientifically.” 

If you then reply “But what if there is a whole order of reality that is not material, and therefore cannot be detected by the methods of natural science?” the answer comes back: “No, such an immaterial reality doesn’t exist, because our scientific investigations don’t pick them up.”

Time to talk about the weather.

It is worth noting that the scientistic view is very narrow: if it is true, it leaves us with a much smaller and more boring world than the one presented by the Christian sacramental vision. The Christian vision grants all that Scientism suggests as far as the visible world goes, but it adds infinitely more.

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