How can one still be religious in this age of science? The main reason: because scientism is false.

Scientism is the belief that only science provides us with knowledge. Or to phrase it another way: science is the only way of arriving at the truth about reality. I’ve tackled this objection briefly here. In this post, I want to share an awesome talk by Dr. Edward Feser that takes apart the central claim of scientism.

First, I provide an outline of the talk with timestamps. Second, the talk itself. Third, I provide one additional resource to help master this material.

The Outline

Dr. Feser demonstrates the following main points:

1. Scientism is either self-refuting or trivial. (1:28 – 7:04)
   • Scientism is a philosophical claim that does not follow from scientific discoveries.
   • If science is construed so broadly to include such claims, then theology and philosophy are not ruled out as kinds of scientific pursuits.
2. There are limits to what science can describe. (7:04 – 30:20)
   • Our grasp of reality is qualitative, not merely quantitative.
   • This leads to a paradox for the believer in scientism regarding the human mind.
   • Bertrand Russell admits that the methods of physics do not capture all of reality.
3. There are limits to what science can explain. (30:21 – 45:09)
   • Science often appeals to laws of nature.
   • The scientistic conception of laws of nature fails to provide ultimate explanations.
4. The positive arguments put forth for scientism is extremely bad. (45:09 –  54:29)
   • The successes of science do not show scientism.
   • A really good metal detector does not show that there is no such thing as wood.
5. Daniel Dennett’s new book applies scientism to the human mind. It commits many fallacies and fails to address difficult issues raised earlier in the talk. (54:30 – end)
   • Dennett avoids the tough questions.
   • He begs the question in favor of materialism.
   • His summaries of new scientific discoveries do not support his radical theses.

The Talk You Don’t Want to Miss

Click on the image below to play the talk.

One Additional Resource

If you’re interested in philosophy and going deeper into the arguments for the God of classical theism, I highly recommend Scholastic Metaphysics: A Contemporary Introduction by Dr. Edward Feser. Chapter 0 contains Feser’s takedown of scientism. The remainder of the book provides important groundwork for defending an Aristotelian proof of God.

It’s not a book to read cover to cover in one sitting. However, you can keep it on your shelf to reference when someone raises philosophical objections to Thomistic principles.