Reflection for Today ▶️ ⏩ ⏹️
A New Dawn, photograph by Tobias Mayer, 2021
These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.
— Jude 1:16
It may not have been apparent at the time of writing, but it is certainly apparent today. There is a new kind of religion rapidly developing in the western world. It is Science (with a capital 'S'). The high priests of Science speaketh great swelling words drawing the gullible in to their righteousness by admiring them for their own right thinking. Think like us, they say, and you are honoured, not like those doubters of the Truth. Thus the advantage received by proponents of this new religion is the advantage of great numbers of followers. All religions require this: unquestioning followers who take the word of those in power as truth, and never ask questions. Tragically, this is what science, that noble endeavour has become in our day and age.
We can identify the decline of science from an art to a religion through the repeated phrases such as "Science says", "the Science is complete", "Scientists agree". Room for error is now non-existent. If it doesn't fit the current Science paradigm it is pseudo-science, fake news, conspiracy theory. And who are these high priests of Science? To find out we only need follow the money. The pharmaceutical industry, owning great swathes of the world's wealth, inflicting "cures" on the rest of us, is a good place to start.1 Never mind that the "science" changes all the time, on a whim, e.g. one day such and such a drug is a "miracle cure" the next day it is known to be addictive, or physically damaging and withdrawn from the market.2 And still we pray to the pharmaceutical gods, believing them to have our best interests at heart. They do not. The motive for medicine is purely profit today.
Science (at its heart) is a wonderful, and necessary art form. It keeps our minds open to new possibilities, allows us to see the world in new ways. It is not incompatible with faith in any way, rather the opposite, science can enhance ones faith. It is only now that it is becoming a religion in its own right that we need to be wary of it, just as Jude warns we are to be wary of any false religion, and any person or group of people setting themselves up as equal to God.
1 "Big Pharma and medical device companies make billions of dollars every year. They've also spent billions on fines, settlements and jury verdicts...", from Big Pharma and Medical Device Manufacturers
2 Consider this list of withdrawn drugs, with side effects including liver and kidney failure, hepatitis, jaundice, limb distortion, neurotoxicity, skin cancer, cardiac arrest... the list goes on