So all the science done through the Middle Ages, into about the 18th century, was entirely compatible with Christianity, and usually done by church men sponsored by church men.
This started to change when the modern scientific system got up and running, when Protestantism, Capitalism, and scientific research formed a virtuous circle of mutual reinforcement. The Protestant ideal of self-improvement through hard work and the Capitalist ideal of profit through investment motivated scientific research that could be put to use in technology. The Lunar Men in England would be a paradigm case -- the people whose scientific research led to new methods of porcelain production or carbonated water.
Little by little the scientific part became incompatible with the Protestant part of the equation, as Protestantism turned more strictly to literal and evangelical styles.
The genealogy of science in the West, however, meant that those who did science often retained its ideological grounding. Science per se need not include ideology, and wouldn't if scientists were pure angelic beings. But in the world we have, where science must be funded and motivated by regular flawed humans, the ideological elements remain. Sad to say, as contemporary science demands greater funding, most often from for-profit corporations or the Pentagon, and relies on publish-or-perish for-profit journals for dissemination -- which has given rise to a reproducibility crisis -- the ideological element is as strong as ever.
Anyway, science converted from a Protestant-compatible ambition to a fantasy of pure objective inquiry. But as Freud showed, conversion is often a way to avoid cognitive dissonance while retaining the affective part that one subconsciously wishes to retain. So people who are most committed to a science-only type of metaphysics very often reproduce a Protestant-style moral judgment.
They hold that there is one way to know truth, and only one. That those who reject this way are not only incorrect but morally bad or irrational. That each of us, if we are good people, has a duty to vow allegiance to the one true method. And if we are skeptical or polytheistic at heart (more than one is possible) then we deserve judgment and -- since, alas, Hell is no longer available -- a tongue-lashing and mockery.
There are Protestant atheists and non-Protestant atheists. The most committed science types tend to be strictly Protestant in everything except belief in God.
This started to change when the modern scientific system got up and running, when Protestantism, Capitalism, and scientific research formed a virtuous circle of mutual reinforcement. The Protestant ideal of self-improvement through hard work and the Capitalist ideal of profit through investment motivated scientific research that could be put to use in technology. The Lunar Men in England would be a paradigm case -- the people whose scientific research led to new methods of porcelain production or carbonated water.
Little by little the scientific part became incompatible with the Protestant part of the equation, as Protestantism turned more strictly to literal and evangelical styles.
The genealogy of science in the West, however, meant that those who did science often retained its ideological grounding. Science per se need not include ideology, and wouldn't if scientists were pure angelic beings. But in the world we have, where science must be funded and motivated by regular flawed humans, the ideological elements remain. Sad to say, as contemporary science demands greater funding, most often from for-profit corporations or the Pentagon, and relies on publish-or-perish for-profit journals for dissemination -- which has given rise to a reproducibility crisis -- the ideological element is as strong as ever.
Anyway, science converted from a Protestant-compatible ambition to a fantasy of pure objective inquiry. But as Freud showed, conversion is often a way to avoid cognitive dissonance while retaining the affective part that one subconsciously wishes to retain. So people who are most committed to a science-only type of metaphysics very often reproduce a Protestant-style moral judgment.
They hold that there is one way to know truth, and only one. That those who reject this way are not only incorrect but morally bad or irrational. That each of us, if we are good people, has a duty to vow allegiance to the one true method. And if we are skeptical or polytheistic at heart (more than one is possible) then we deserve judgment and -- since, alas, Hell is no longer available -- a tongue-lashing and mockery.
There are Protestant atheists and non-Protestant atheists. The most committed science types tend to be strictly Protestant in everything except belief in God.
