I’ve felt for a long time that the right wing here in the US puts too much faith in religion (Yes, that’s a deliberately ironic word choice).\u00a0\u00a0Christianity becomes a means to solve all kinds of social problems, and perhaps some of those problems are better fixed through non-religious social institutions–governments, the economy, family, and so on.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, more recently I’ve also started to feel that some on the left have put too much faith in science and by extension the academy.\u00a0 Now given that I am a “social scientist” (the kind some folks think are not real scientists) and an academic, this is a fairly controversial position.\u00a0 It’s not that I do not think science and education are valuable, but it seems like some people on the left lose track of the fact that science is evolving (Once again, a deliberately ironic word choice), and we forget that claims of objectivity\u00a0frequently have underlying assumptions and biases.\u00a0 For example, even the choice of a particular subject for scientific inquiry reflects some subjectivity.\u00a0 Moreover, the scientific method itself may be limiting our thinking at times.\u00a0 I’m not going to give any thorough critique of the scientific method or objectivity in this post, but what I am curious about\u00a0how people feel about\u00a0the relationship between the social\/political left and science\/the academy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What do you think?\u00a0<\/p>\n
I know I said much more about the left having too much faith in science and the academy, and that’s because I would like to focus on this since\u00a0Alas is a progressive site and most commenters will likely agree with my statement about the right and religion.\u00a0 However, I also don’t want to go into too much depth about my personal opinions on the second proposition because I’m open to persuasion on this topic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’ve felt for a long time that the right wing here in the US puts too much faith in religion (Yes, that’s a deliberately ironic word choice).\u00a0\u00a0Christianity becomes a means to solve all kinds of social problems, and perhaps some … Continue reading