{"id":41519,"date":"2020-07-25T18:51:27","date_gmt":"2020-07-26T00:51:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/?p=41519"},"modified":"2020-07-26T10:48:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-26T16:48:51","slug":"the-religion-of-scientism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.markmallett.com\/blog\/the-religion-of-scientism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Religion of Scientism","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

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scientism <\/span><\/strong>| \u02c8s\u028c\u026a\u0259nt\u026az(\u0259)m<\/span> | noun<\/em>:
\n<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

We must also face the fact that certain attitudes\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\nderiving from the mentality\u00a0<\/em>of “this present world” <\/strong><\/span>
\ncan penetrate our lives if we are not vigilant. <\/strong><\/span>
\nFor example, some would have it that only that is true <\/strong><\/span>
\nwhich can be verified by reason and science…\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>
\n\u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2727<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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SERVANT<\/strong> of God Sr. Lucia Santos gave a most prescient word regarding the coming times that we are now living:<\/p>\n

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People must recite the Rosary every day. Our Lady repeated this in all her apparitions, as if to arm us in advance against these times of\u00a0diabolical disorientation<\/em>, so that we would not let ourselves be fooled by false doctrines, and that through prayer, the elevation of our soul to God would not be diminished\u2026. This is a diabolical disorientation invading the world and misleading souls! It is necessary to stand up to it\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014Sister Lucy, to her friend Dona Maria Teresa da Cunha<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This “diabolical disorientation” is manifesting in confusion, fear, and division, not only in every day life but notably in the field of science. One of the main reasons for this disorientation is that the voice of the Church is no longer heard, or rather, respected; the sexual and financial scandals that have rocked the clergy have taken a catastrophic toll on credibility.<\/p>\n

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It is a particularly serious sin when someone who is actually supposed to help people toward God, to whom a child or a young person is entrusted in order to find the Lord, abuses him instead and leads him away from the Lord. As a result, the faith as such becomes unbelievable, and the Church can no longer present herself credibly as the herald of the Lord.<\/b>\u00a0\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI,\u00a0Light of the World,\u00a0<\/em>The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times: A Conversation With Peter Seewald, p. 23-25<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The consequences are none too little. Because, while the Church does not necessarily provide the practical <\/em>answers to questions pertaining to health and science, she has provided a guiding ethical \"\"and moral voice that at one time was not only respected, but heeded. Ironically, this voice has never been so crucial<\/em> as it is now.<\/p>\n

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Science and technology are precious resources when placed at the service of man and promote his integral development for the benefit of all. By themselves, however, they cannot disclose the meaning of existence and of human progress. Science and technology are ordered to man, from whom they take their origin and development… <\/span>It is an illusion to claim moral neutrality in scientific research and its applications.<\/strong> <\/span>\u2014Catechism of the Catholic Church, <\/em>n. 2293-2294<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In other words, the intrinsic dignity and truth of who man is\u2014made in the image of God\u2014must govern all “human progress.” Otherwise said Pope Paul VI:<\/p>\n

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The most extraordinary scientific progress, the most astounding technical feats and the most amazing economic growth, unless accompanied by authentic moral and social progress, will in the long run go against<\/em> man.<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014Address to FAO on the 25th Anniversary of its Institution, November, 16th, 1970, n. 4<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But who is listening to the popes anymore? In this Great Vacuum<\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>another voice has risen to fill the void: science<\/em>. As churches all over the world closed, Holy Water was poured on the ground, the faithful were barred from the Sacraments and priests barred from the faithful… it became clear just how insignificant Christianity is to a world possessed by a spirit of rationalism<\/em><\/a>. Who will save us? Jesus Christ? His power that once pushed back plagues and barbarians? No, CNN’s Chris Cuomo provides the answer:<\/p>\n

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If you believe in one another and if do the right thing for yourself and your community, things will get better in this country. You don’t need help from above. It’s within us.<\/strong> \u2014July 4th, 2020; CBN.com<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

But who exactly determines what is the “right thing”? It’s obvious: Cuomo, and those in power who are literally imposing a…<\/p>\n

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\u2026dictatorship of relativism that recognizes nothing as definite, and which leaves as the ultimate measure only one\u2019s ego and desires. Having a clear faith, according to the credo of the Church, is often labeled as fundamentalism. Yet, relativism, that is, letting oneself be tossed and \u2018swept along by every wind of teaching\u2019, appears the sole attitude acceptable to today\u2019s standards.<\/strong> \u2014Cardinal Ratzinger (POPE BENEDICT XVI) pre-conclave Homily, April 18th, 2005<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Ethics and morals? Sure\u2014but no longer according to the Church<\/em> or to moral absolutes<\/em> or the natural law,<\/em> but according to the god of reason, expressed concretely in science. Indeed, a recent commercial<\/a> by multinational pharmaceutical giant, Pfizer, preaches: \u201cAt a time when things are most uncertain, we turn to the most certain thing there is:<\/em>\u00a0science.\u201d<\/p>\n

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THE GOD OF SCIENTISM<\/p>\n

There is a little section on science in Pope Benedict’s Encyclical letter Spe Salvi <\/em>(“Saved in Hope”) that is incredibly prophetic. It gives a stunning picture of what has transpired over four centuries and is culminating now as science\u00a0<\/em>is becoming de facto <\/em>the new religion of “hope.” Benedict points back to the Enlightenment period when “faith and reason” began an unnatural separation. A new era was born where the correlation between science and praxis (practical application) would mean that, now, the dominion over creation\u2014given to man by God and lost through original sin\u2014would be reestablished, no longer through faith, but reason.<\/p>\n

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Anyone who reads and reflects on these statements attentively will recognize that a disturbing step has been taken: up to that time, the recovery of what man had lost through the expulsion from Paradise was expected from faith in Jesus Christ: herein lay \u201credemption\u201d. Now, this \u201credemption\u201d, the restoration of the lost \u201cParadise\u201d is no longer expected from faith, but from the newly discovered link between science and praxis. It is not that faith is simply denied; rather it is displaced onto another level\u2014that of purely private and other-worldly affairs\u2014and at the same time it becomes somehow irrelevant for the world. This programmatic vision has determined the trajectory of modern times and it also shapes the present-day crisis of faith which is essentially a crisis of Christian hope. <\/strong>\u2014POPE BENEDICT XVI,\u00a0Spe Salvi,<\/a><\/em>n. 17<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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The “hope” is now in science. <\/em>It is science that will save humanity. It is science that contains all answers (even if not yet discovered). It is science that will heal us. It is science that can now create life, manufacture food, and rewire genetics. It is science that can produce miracles such as turning boys into girls and girls into whatever they wish to be. It is science that can interface the mind with artificial intelligence thus preserving ones consciousness digitally and securing immortality<\/em> for modern man (so they say). Who needs religion when we can recreate the universe in our own image?<\/em>\u00a0<\/p>\n

There is perhaps no prophetic revelation that so succinctly nails the current ethos of our time as the one allegedly given to Fr. Stefano Gobbi (which bears the \"\"Imprimatur<\/em>):<\/p>\n

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\u2026the Antichrist is manifested through a radical attack on faith in the word of God. Through the philosophers who begin to give exclusive value to science and then to reason, there is a gradual tendency to constitute human intelligence alone as the sole criterion of truth. \u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u2014Our Lady allegedly to Fr. Stefano Gobbi, To the Priests, Our Lady\u2019s Beloved Priests<\/em>, n. 407, \u201cThe Number of the Beast: 666\u201d, p. 612, 18th Edition; with Imprimatur<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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USURPING GOD’S THRONE<\/p>\n

Thus, it is a “crisis” because the hope of restoration no longer lies in the power of the Gospel and the coming of the Kingdom of God, but, says Benedict, in “scientific discovery” from which “a totally new world will emerge, the kingdom of ma<\/span>n.”[1]<\/sup><\/a>Spe Salvi<\/em>, n. 17<\/span><\/span>