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                                    ESSAY 50

                             THE "SCIENCE-GOD" MYTH

              The  scientific  method  is refined  human reason.  John
         Dewey made scientific method a "god" in the sense that he saw
         this  as the only source of truth.  Scientific truth is rela-
         tive  and changing.  Dewey gives the five steps of scientific
         method:

                   (1) The  indeterminate situation.  This is de-
              fined  as ". . .some  rupture ... to the smooth on-
              flowing of life's affairs.  To a research scientist
              it may be an idle puzzlement, an inchoate curiosity
              or a gap somewhere in his scientific knowledge that
              he wants to close."
                   (2) The  defined  problem.  The  next  step is
              "... a refinement of the difficulty to diagnose the
              situation  to  see  more precisely what the problem
              is."
                   (3)  The  inventory  of  solutions.  "At  this
              stage the individual sets out in  research of every
              conceivable  potential solution to the problem.  He
              permits his imagination to run free; any guess, any
              hunch,  any  intuition  is admissable.   Indeed the
              `freedom  of thought'  has  its  epistemological as
              well  as  its POLITICAL [italics mine] root at pre-
              cisely this point."
                   (4)  The  conjecture  of  consequences.   "The
              fourth  stage consists in projecting these possible
              solutions  in the mind so as to consider the conse-
              quences each would  be likely to lead to; we  think
              through  what  would  happen  if  we adopted one or
              another plan of action. Dewey called this the stage
              of reasoning . . . ."
                   (5)  The test for consequences.  "Finally, the
              fifth stage is that of testing.  We consult experi-
              ence  directly  to  see  if  the conjectured conse-
              quences do in fact occur."  (Van  Cleve  Morris and
              Young  Pai,  PHILOSOPHY AND THE AMERICAN SCHOOL, 2d
              ed.  Boston: Houghton  Mifflin  Co., 1976, pp. 143-
              151).

              Scientific method has increased both the quality of life
         and the quantity (length) of life.  Nevertheless, it does not
         meet some basic human  needs--it is not  a panacea.  If fact,
         it can become a poison, if not placed in perspective.
              Dr. McMillen  gives the following example of human hard-
         headedness.   There   was   a   famous   teaching   hospital,
         Allegemeine  Krakenhaus,  located in Vienna in the 1840s.  In
         the obstetrics department, one  out of six women  died.  Then
         a young physician, named Ignaz Semmelweis was placed over one
         of the wards.  After three years of observing the heartbreak-
         ing deaths of women, he instituted a rule that  every medical
         student and physician  had to  wash his hands carefully after
         participating  in  autopsies and  before examining the living
         pregnant women.  The rule was instituted April 1847.  By July
         1847, the mortality rate had dropped to only one out of every
         eighty-four!  Dr. Semmelweis then  directed that  physicians'
         hands be washed between patients.
              How was he rewarded?  Because of the howls of protest of
         so much "hand washing," his contract was not renewed! Up went
         the  death rate again.  This procedure was repeated in a hos-
         pital in Budapest,  his home city.   Did the  doctors change?
         No!  Women  continued  to die.  If medical schools had simply
         read  what Moses had taught about washing hands and clothing,
         much  of  the  needless  deaths would have been avoided.  Dr.
         McMillen  concludes,

              We mortals might as well face it--the human mind is
              so  warped  by  pride  and prejudice that proof can
              rarely penetrate it.  [S. I. McMillen,  M.D.,  NONE
              OF THESE DISEASES. (Westwood, NJ: Fleming H. Revell
              Co., 1968), pp. 12-16].

              There is a parallel experience in education.  Accelerat-
         ed  Christian  Education has  developed a system of education
         that  so  far  outshines  the  public educational system that
         McGraw-Hill, who  scored  the  tests,  did  not believe it at
         first!  However, the  objective  California  Achievement Test
         demonstrated   scientifically  that  the  students  from  the
         private school maxed the high school test at the end of their
         freshman  year!   But will the U  S Government Schools accept
         this?  No!  Prejudice prevails!  Or, is it  a power  struggle
         for  a  failed  bureaucracy to  maintain its existence at the
         cost of our children?
              Dr. William  Bennett  and Dr. Gary Bauer discovered suc-
         cessful  government  schools that could be  reproduced in the
         system.  But, the bureaucracy wouldn't budge!
              It is interesting to note that John Dewey was an atheist
         and a secular humanist.  He made human reason his god.
              If  we  trace  the humanist movement back in history, we
         see that Adam and Eve succumbed to the same poisonous belief:

              Now the serpent  was more subtil than any  beast of
              the  field which the LORD God had made. And he said
              unto  the woman, Yea,  hath God said,  Ye shall not
              eat  of  every tree  of the  garden?  And the woman
              said unto the serpent, We may  eat of the fruit  of
              the  trees  of  the garden: But of the fruit of the
              tree which  is in the midst of the garden, God hath
              said, Ye  shall  not  eat  of it, neither  shall ye
              touch  it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said  unto
              the  woman, Ye  shall  not surely die: For God doth
              know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes
              shall be opened, and ye  shall be  as gods, knowing
              good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree
              was  good for food, and that it was pleasant to the
              eyes, and a  tree to be desired  to make one  wise,
              she  took  of  the  fruit thereof, and did eat, and
              gave  also  unto her  husband with her;  and he did
              eat. (Genesis 3:1-6).

         Part  of  the original temptation of man was, "ye shall be as
         gods."  This was an appeal to the pride of life--Eve  thought
         she  would  become "wise."   Hence, her human reason would be
         elevated and take the place of God--she would become  her own
         god.  The  mind is prostituted when we  make a god out of it.
         Just as Adam and Eve got into trouble when they became  their
         own  gods, so  pride  has  caused many to make the same wrong
         choice.
              Part of good stewardship is to use  our minds  properly.
         Scientific  method  has solved many human problems.  However,
         it  is not our savior and does not deserve the trust that be-
         longs to God alone!


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