Recovery of a Thick View of Humans

In our next move, we want to transcend scientism’s caricature (reductionism) of human existence, towards a more whole and rich perspective. What are we to make of homo sapiens sapiens?  Beyond the initial exhilaration, nihilistic materialism offers a very empty paradigm for how we are to live together. It starts in nothingness and offers naked choice. When we accept a view of other humans that takes them as nothing special, we head down a very treacherous road. Reductionistic anthropologies have led to much political oppression and abuse in the twentieth century, where the government became the pirate of the people. History cannot deny that scientific materialism has morphed into political-economic exploitation, with massive human suffering. We strongly resist this impoverished, thin model of persons in search of an alternative–a thick view. This is not merely academic, but an urgent quest in our age of global terrorism, corrupt business leaders, shrinking resources, global warming and political flash points. Read More…

Beyond Scientism: Retrieval of Excluded Knowledge

In our recovery from scientism, we attempt to retrieve excluded knowledge, addressing the refusal of the transcendent inherent in scientism, including the biases endemic to the new atheists. During the Cold War, the Russians constructed a city map for Moscow which excluded churches, a practice that made it difficult for tourists. They were making a point; they wanted to eliminate knowledge and memory of religion in their quest for the New Man. Charles Taylor offers some very insightful discernment on this problem of the closed or one-sided mind. He notes that transcendence can be read from two opposite angles, both of which involve faith at some level, i.e. the belief goes beyond mere rational argument or evidence.

We can either see the transcendent as a threat, a dangerous temptation, or an obstacle to our greatest good. Or we can read it as answering to our deepest craving, need, fulfilment of the good. … Both open and closed stances involve a step beyond available reason into the realm of anticipatory confidence (Taylor, A Secular Age, 548 & 551). Read More…