Religion, Ideology and Science

What is something that is religious?

- The adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve faith of a spiritual nature and a study of inherited ancestral traditions, knowledge and wisdom related to understanding human life.

What is something that is ideological?

- A system of ideas, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy. It will view issues through a particular ideological sense.

What is something that is scientific?

- An evidence based belief system, follows the premise that the world is ultimately understandable through observation, experiment and prediction.

What are the 3 stages of Human Development according to Comte?

1. Theological stage (pre 18th C, religious and superstitious beliefs are dominant and are not open to debate)

2. Metaphysical stage (18th C, philosophical beliefs are dominant and people are trying to explain meaning of life rationally)

3. Positive stage (19th C onwards, science becomes the dominant belief system, people believe in things that can be tested and proven using objective knowledge.

What does Polanyi believe?

- Religion is a closed belief system, it claims to have absolute truth and can not be challenged or changed. '

- If it is challenged it has these devices to protect themself: circularity (each idea is explained in terms of another), subsidary explanations (if any evidence is contradictory there will be a reason to explain it) and denial of legitimacy to rivals (denial of the claims made by science)

What does Popper believe about open belief systems?

- Science is an open belief system. It is open to scrutiny, criticism and testing by others.

- Scientific knowledge is cumulative and based on discoveries of predecessors.

- Not the absolute truth

- Falsification, shows if the theory is shown to be false, it can be disregarded.

What is the hypothetico deductive method?

- Hypothesis formation

- Falsification

- Prediction

- Theory formation

- Scrutiny

What does Merton believe about the place of science in society?

- Religion: people wanted to prove religion correct, science will only thrive when supported by other institutions and values, science as an institution requires a set of norms to make scientists act in a certain way.

What are the CUDOS norms?

Communism

Universalism

Disinterestedness

Organised

Sceptivism

What does Dawkins believe?

- 'God Delusion'- book

- Religion/holy books are not falsified

- Science=superior

- Religion=inferior

- Critical of religion

How is science a closed belief system?

- Dr Velikovsky: new theory about the origins of the earth, rejected by scientists and those siding with him lost their jobs

- Science is not always open

- Paradigm: shared assumptions, any assumption has to fit these and those challenged will be shunned/ignored.

What is the sociology of scientific knowledge?

- Interpretivists: scientific knowledge is socially constructed

- Knoor-Cetina: new invention of instruments permits scientists to fabricate new fabricate new facts.

- Woolgar: most important factor in a discovery being accepted is if it fits a paradigm.

- Capitalism: if there is enough money, a drug will be developed.

- Technoscience: science serves capitalist interests by producing commodities for people.

What does Mannheim believe about ideology?

- It is an ideological thought that aims to maintain the status quo, it reflects the interest of the dominant group.

- It justifies social change as utopian thought.

- Biased/partial world view

- Thoughts are in opposition to each other causing conflict.