Title: Science and Western Civilization by William H. Young | NAS
Headings: Science and Western Civilization
Science and Western Civilization
Content: The new scientism argues that man’s consciousness arises from electrochemical brain processes, not from an immaterial psyche or soul. As before, it is not the science itself that is the issue, but the speculative philosophies, especially on religious belief, not necessitated by the scientific discoveries. For the first time in our history, academic postmodern multiculturalism rejects Western science and denies the validity of scientific actuality and methodology. Ironically, it also rejects the verities or truths provided by Western liberal education, in both instances adopting the illusion that all reality is socially constructed, and reflects mere opinion. And the sustainability ideology revives the romantic worship, rather than the understanding, of nature. Our colleges and universities should once again teach the unique philosophic, humanistic, scientific, and religious heritage of Western civilization, as recommended by NAS in The Vanishing West and earlier reports. Science and the scientific method provide only a partial set of answers to our material reality. Science cannot and does not answer questions of being, cause, purpose, inwardness, hierarchy, and the goodness and badness of things. Philosophic reason, revelatory religion, and humanistic literature and art are complementary sources of such answers for man provided by a liberal education. However, natural science—not religious or irrational belief—and the scientific method are, and should continue to be, the basis for measuring and predicting man’s interactions with a non-sacred physical nature.