The Rational Attack On Science

We often confuse rationality with science. Science demands evidence and experimentation. Rationality does not. During the Covid epidemic, the world witnessed the immense power of science. Guided by recommendations from the world’s top doctors and epidemiologists, everyone was instructed to stay at home and isolate themselves to prevent a global catastrophe. Never before in history has a single idea impacted every human life so profoundly. It was scientific, but it offended not just the religious folk but also rationalists. Science could easily become the handmaiden of politicians in their quest for power, as religion has always been.

This is the reason for the resistance to scientific protocols (masks, quarantine, vaccine) in many parts of the world by seemingly educated folk. These individuals were labelled as anti-science fools. However, at the heart of this rebellion was the rejection of what was seen as an ideology with the power to control all of humanity.

For centuries, human beings have created ideas to domesticate and control others. Socialists do this through taxes and government policies, as we see the doctrine of “diversity, equity and inclusion” being pushed into American schools by activists. Capitalists do this through banking systems, as seen in the European Union’s attempt to unify Europe using financial systems. Catholics did this through education systems. Muslim countries increasingly rely on the power of clerics to shape the minds of the devout during Friday prayers. But only science reaches almost every home of the civilised world.

Religion became the tool of control most notably when the Roman Empire imposed Christianity to erase pagan traditions. This was mimicked by the Islamic Empire, which, in less than a century, conquered vast territories from Spain to Sindh, divided the Mediterranean into a northern Christian half and a southern Muslim half. Mongols who controlled most of the known world in the 13th century, had no religion, and were quite secular and meritocratic. But eventually they used Buddhism to control China and Islam to control Iran. The British Empire succeeded in expanding globally using industrial and military techniques, shunning religion. Underlying industrial and military, and medical expansion was science that offered the promise of progress-measurable progress not metaphorical progress. This is why science triumphed over religions.

But it is the atheists who turned against science. The education world was divided into the material sciences and the social sciences. The latter was deemed pseudo-science as it relied heavily on opinions and theories, which could not be measured mathematically. Material sciences invented new things, new products, that could easily be monetised. This wealth could be used to control governments. The social sciences (aka humanities) sought to control government too by their understanding of politics and economics. They blocked the path of the technocrats through policies and regulation. The rich hated them.

Originally, in the 18th century, rationalists and scientists were in the same camp. They challenged tradition, religion, feudalism, using science and logic. In the 21st century, the rational folk came to realise that science, like religion, was becoming the handmaiden of those with power and wealth. Those who hated religion, now hated science. Post-structuralists and postmodernists argued how science was medicalising the human body. They fought back. So now ‘gender experts’ with no understanding of biology are denying what womanhood should be. They are arguing that ‘morbid obesity’ is natural and should not be stigmatised as a disease. In fact, the ‘woke’ reject measurement and value feelings. Science is now being seen as religion, one that takes away individualism.

At first, modern people opposed all religions and spoke about the importance of science and rationality. Then the modern folk were divided along ideology: Capitalists and Communists, the Left and the Right. Neither valued religion. But now Right and Left are divided as to followers of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) and followers of Liberal Arts. Most ironically, we see Christians siding with STEM, and followers of the Liberal Arts unable to criticise Islam. For the first time in human history, Christians are siding with Jewish folk and the two are opposing the Muslims. The language is not religious. The language is rational-justice, equality, war crimes, genocide. Numbers are being hurled by the media at the public to justify violence. Numbers, we are told, are the truth. But are they?

Accounts know how numbers can be used and misused to present different truths. The same is true of science. In the 1970s, corporations influenced scientific journals to promote the idea that fat was harmful and carbohydrates were beneficial. Today, we know that excessive carbohydrate consumption causes inflammation, and this has led to growing scepticism about scientific research. Following the Covid pandemic, which frightened humanity into isolation and widespread vaccination, many are questioning whether the response was appropriate. Doubts are surfacing about whether such immense power should rest in the hands of scientists, who can be easily manipulated by technocrats, bureaucrats and autocrats. This is why the mystics and the magicians are back in business. Belief clearly shapes the world, not facts.

First published December 20, 2024 in?Economic Times