Scientism is a belief that scientific knowledge is the foundation of all wisdom and that, consequently, scientific argument should always be weighted more heavily than other forms of wisdom, particularly those which are not yet well described or justified from within the rational framework, or whose description fails to present itself in the course of a debate against a scientific argument. When used in a critique of science, it is dismissed by some scientists who maintain that all fields of inquiry should be subject to (and can ultimately be understood by) standard scientific methods of investigation.
Just try and engage in a epistemologicial or ontological( not religious) discussion with some and you'll get flamed for obfuscation. The words "breakthrough in science" must apply to an hisorical event or it's not "important". What Ghandi did was shit. Don't bother me with Mozart! Philosophy is next on the hit list. In the public schools to come, there will be two disciplines-Science and gay studies. Look what Lewontin has to say:
The founders of the American state understood that the proper functioning of a democracy required an educated electorate. It is this understanding that justifies a system of public education and that led slaveholders to resist the spread of literacy among their chattels. But the meaning of “educated” has changed beyond recognition in two hundred years. Reading, writing, and arithmetic are no longer sufficient to decide on public policy. Now we need quantum mechanics and molecular biology. The knowledge required for political rationality, once available to the masses is now in the possession of a specially educated elite a situation that creates a series of tensions and contradictions in the operation of representative democracy.
I find quantum mechanics fascinating and thank God for the health advances molecular biology will bring-but don't go building statues of your self up people. Is this the ultimate revenge of the nerds? IMO, I don't think Dover was a bad descision in itself; its the law of unintended consequences I worry about. The ACLU helped affect this huge case that was a big win for you. Just don't end up in a some Stockholm Syndrome-like apprectation because of it and give them a subconciuos quid pro quo.
Remember who they really are. They, along with the NEA and the usual suspects, are the ones who keep our kids performing sub-standardly against the rest of the industrialized world, The real vision of the ACLU reached some day if we embolden them to even new levels of power might well...Rememeber the jailing of the scientist move ments in the last century. Or Trofim Lyseno's destruction of s Soviet biology, declaring the genetic of Mendel's peas and Morgan's fruit flies was incoorect and a capitalist plot to destroy the working class.
I guess I'm saying be easier on those holding deep-seated beliefs given your Freepers. It doesn't become you.