Dogmatism of the “supernatural”

Because of the summer solstice/New Year holidays I am reposting some older articles. This one from last June.

Do scientists ever concern themselves over terms like ‘materialist,’ ‘natural,’ or ‘supernatural’? I don’t think so – at least those scientists working at the coal face. I have never heard any scientist posing the question – “is this phenomenon ‘natural’ or ’supernatural’?” before investigating something.

Yet today science is attacked by some people for limiting itself to only ‘natural’ phenomena. Intelligent design (ID) proponents (and they aren’t the only ones) rail against the ‘materialism’ of science. They demand that science should be changed to include ‘supernatural’ explanations.

These are attempts to introduce dogma into science.

Dogmatism around science – the “supernatural.”

Do scientists ever concern themselves over terms like ‘materialist,’ ‘natural,’ or ‘supernatural’? I don’t think so – at least those scientists working at the coal face. I have never heard any scientist posing the question – “is this phenomenon ‘natural’ or ‘supernatural’?” before investigating something.

Yet today science is attacked by some people for limiting itself to only ‘natural’ phenomena. Intelligent design (ID) proponents (and they aren’t the only ones) rail against the ‘materialism’ of science. They demand that science should be changed to include ‘supernatural’ explanations.

These are attempts to introduce dogma into science.

Expelled Bingo

Management dogma and “management speak” are probably familiar to anyone who has worked in large institute. This really got out of hand in New Zealand during the 1990 and continued into the present decade. For a while there was a Bingo game making the rounds. This was a card containing sets of management “buzz words”. The idea was that we could amuse ourselves during management-imposed meetings by ticking off each buzz word as it was used. In theory, the first person to fill there card should have jumped to their feet, shouting “Bingo.”

Last September Skeptico introduced an ID Creationist Bingo (see below). This brings together all those arguments we here so often from the Intelligent design/creationist people. I’ve come to recognise them as mantras. This could be put to good use. Just imagine – these bingo cards could be handed out to people attending viewings of the anti-evolution film Expelled: Not Intelligence Allowed. From what I have heard the film is full of these mantras. I have a vision of patrons periodically jumping to their feet during the screening and shouting “Bingo!”