Opus 2025-035: Pagan Science

Words and concepts change as time marches on.  Some of that is cultural differences that were always there locally and gradually spread across cultural lines.  The Greek concept of the Logos was adopted by the Christian church and modified to meet their needs.  Other times it never crosses over because of a lack of need.  The Eskimos, now going by Inuit, have at least four different words for snow.  Arabs would just ask, “What is snow?”  

One word that has changed in meaning is “science”.

In the pagan world, the meaning of “science” was totally different.  In Aristotle, the meaning of science seems to be any area of study or interest.  In that way of thinking Theology was called the “Queen of the sciences” in medieval times.  The concept of science as we think of it was very limited.

Only with the renaissance and the emergence of the scientific method do we come to the modern concept that science is something that studies the physical world and investigates the principles, called laws, behind it.

Today we are reverting back to the pagan concepts that science is anything you want it to be.  That’s why we have terms like political science.  Politics is not a science in our modern way of thinking and in the Renaissance concept it is just an area of study.  At the heart of this is the humanistic philosophy that there is no absolute truth; truth is within you; it is anchored in your world view and self image.

Science may have passed its usefulness.  If science does not reach back and grasp the concept that there is truth then they will have no basis for further investigation.  All they will need to do is sit in their ivory towers, get grant money from the government and work their imaginations.  In many areas of science that is what they have been doing for years.

Keep in mind that the airplane does not fly because the pilot has a strong self image but because of Bernoulli’s Principle.

homo unius libri