The Cult of Scientism

This morning I was browsing Reddit, and I came across this article. This was on /r/space, a seemingly scientific community, right?

The article explains that aliens may have trouble leaving their planets due to gravity. Seems interesting…wait…what?

Aliens have not in any way been proven to exist. In fact, while there is evidence for UFOs (I have seen some myself), there is little to no evidence for aliens. In fact, I’d even say there is more evidence for God than aliens (though that is debatable).

I clicked open the comment section, thinking somebody would call this out, but nope, nobody did.

Now, before you say something like, “Well they were just hypothesizing or theorizing”, I want to stop you right there and think. Many of us do the same thing on this conspiracy forum on different topics (with the same amount of evidence or even more!), yet we are ostracized.

Most of you here have heard of scientism, which is having an unshakeable “faith” in science and scientists themselves. It is the belief that “There is nothing outside the domain of science, nor is there any area of human life to which science cannot successfully be applied. This view (or similar views) has sometimes been called scientism. (It has also been labelled scientific naturalism or scientific materialism). Source.

Today, I wanted to discuss the limited worldview of scientism, and ironically, how there may be a larger, spiritual conspiracy behind this all.

I want to caution that the end of my post is highly spiritual, but please do not take away from the fundamentals of this post.

I Believe in Science

I am sure you have heard the phrase "I believe in Science" muttered somewhere before, whether it be online, on a t-shirt, or in real life. I always kind of laugh to myself because I feel that there is also some sort irony in this statement.

Now, this post is not anti-science, and I want to make that clear firsthand. Science, as in “the intellectual and practical activity encompassing the systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment” is not what I am discussing.

The science I am talking about is when it goes beyond this, and this type of science is prevalent deeply in pop culture. I am talking about the type of attitude that scientists are always right, trustworthy, and benevolent. I am talking about the ‘faith’ that there is never any agenda in science, and that is always for our best interests. Further, I am talking about the worship of science itself as a doctrine, where other areas (philosophy, spirituality, or other schools of thought) are often dismissed or ridiculed. Finally, I am talking about an undeniable trust in the scientific ‘word’, as if it is purely gold and without flaw, error, or limits. So, from this point on, I am not talking about “science” but rather “scientism”, and I hope readers can separate these words. Science is a process, and I believe in the process of science, too. But scientism goes far beyond that, and that is what this post will discuss.

Scientists as High Priests

In scientism, there are those who are revered as all-knowing and much better and smarter than you and me. These scientists are placed on a pedestal and often worshipped. Any criticism of these “high priests” is often hidden from the masses, and I will explain how in a moment.

Before I do, the scientist that comes to mind is Neil deGrasse Tyson. Tyson is an agnostic/atheist (changes depending on the source) who is the epitome of scientism worship. He is admired in pop culture beyond measure, and even when his words are flawed, they are ignored.

One seemingly huge and intriguing hypocrisy of Tyson is that he bashes religion and God repeatedly in interview after interview, yet, he actually has defended scientology. "One of his more stunning actions, in 2015, Neil deGrasse Tyson defended Scientology, making him probably the only non-Scientologist to ever do so. When Daily Beast reporter Marlow Stern asked Tyson his thoughts on the controversial faith, Tyson responded, "You can believe whatever you want, otherwise it's not a free country—it's something else … I don't care what the tenets are of Scientology. They don't distract me. I don't judge them, and I don't criticize them."

At the same time, he has said, "If your belief system is not founded in an objective reality, you should not be making decisions that affect other people.:

Scientology, with its major influence on Hollywood, gets some sort of exception?

Before you go defending Tyson in the comments, the point of this is that today, these “scientists” are viewed without flaw, and this is just one example of his many hypocritical statements.

Now, another high priest, Bill Nye has gotten some flak for his show “Bill Nye Saves the World”, especially the “my sex junk” video, but what do they do? They just delete the evidence. At one point, “my sex junk” was one of the most disliked videos on YouTube of all time (4chan had something to do with it), but now that originally disliked video is nowhere to be found.

Bill Nye, a mechanical engineer, has been criticized for covering topics such as climate change, but this is where the issue lies. It is not that these scientists are not criticized or not flawed – it is that the masses likely will not hear about it, or this type of criticism gets buried or erased.

We will be going back to the high priests and their beliefs in a little bit, but I want to talk about another issue with scientism.

Scientism Lies

The issue with scientism is that people do not understand that even scientific studies can be biased and flawed; moreover, many of these studies exist simply to advance a certain agenda.

Even the Guardian warns, “Before you read another scientific study, check who is funding the research.”

Yet, how many people actually are going to do that? From the article, “New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle began informally tracking studies funded by food and beverage companies, as well as trade groups, in 2015. Her research uncovered 168 such studies in that year alone, and of those, 156 showed biased results that favored the sponsor’s interests, she told the Guardian.”

It is not just the food industry that has an agenda. Here is an article about the “dark side” of medical research, with its widespread bias and omissions.

Or even take the psychological field. There is a rash of invalid studies.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. The point is that when science becomes mixed with money, corporate power, and hidden agendas, then you get scientism.

Again, we hear the cry “I believe in science”, but what are these people really saying? I would say most of us agree in the fundamental process of science, but do these people know the influence of wealth and power on seemingly simple studies?

Scientism goes beyond corporations though, as many celebrities are used to promote certain agendas. I do not care what your views on climate change are, but it is pretty odd that people (the UN?!) trust Leonardo Dicaprio’s words on climate change. Not sure if anybody knew this, but he is not a scientist, but because he has money, good looks, and power, we should absolutely believe what he says.

Finally, what about the scientists who go against the agenda? Well, we probably are not going to hear from them, and there are conspiracies that go as far as murder, though Snopes claims that is not true.

Whatever you believe, the point is that most are going to believe the top “scientific” articles on Reddit (or whatever source) before they do any research for themselves.

A Deeper Problem

On a conspiracy forum, we are often criticized as not being “educated” or “lacking critical thinking skills” when we question what the mainstream narrative is telling us. Interestingly, though, I want you to think about our education system. For one, science and math programs in the United States have some major problems. Ultimately, we are failing our students in math and science.

While this could be a post itself, I want to come in from a very specific perspective – the classroom experience. By the way, I am generalizing here based on my background and experience, and there are schools and teachers that do break the mold. Still:

• Science and math classes, today, fare much better with supplies, technology, and hands-on activities. Unfortunately, that is not is what happening in most classes. Most classes use “lecture/notes/regurgitate information” style of teaching, and most classes, especially science classes, are lacking resources for students to see what they are learning in reality. What is missing is application. Students trust a text book and a teacher, and have little ability to question what they are told.

• Math is generally taught isolated of science, but math and science should actually be interconnected. Because of this, math is often viewed as a terrible, meaningless subject. While there are many theories on why students hate math, I lean toward the fact that it seems “disconnected” from the world at times, when it is certainly not. Students are learning equation and equation, and they are not seeing how these equations tie into scientific realities.

• The average student is memorizing, not evaluating, applying, or thinking critically about what they learn. Look up Bloom's Taxonomy for more information on levels of learning. Because of this, after school, little of the information “sticks” in a student's brain. After years memorization, students still are NOT prepared for college level math and science courses.

The education system is failing our students. Students in science classes are likely never hearing about “proofs” or why some scientific theories have been accepted, whereas others have been thrown out. In math, students learn equations in complete isolation of science, when math is the language of science.

So, unless people go into scientific fields later in life, we have a huge part of the population who could probably not understand a scientific study on their own. That is why, they often rely on a Reddit comments section to help them (or others' opinions in general - like Bill Nye).

The problem is, they are putting their trust in other people but not their own mind.

The conspiracy here then is that this intentional. They do not want people with the ability to actually think like scientists, so they create shitty and poorly-funded math and science programs, where even after years of classes, the average student could not tell you what they have actually learned.

Then, if somebody does have the audacity to question mainstream science, they may be ridiculed or ostracized by society and labeled “uneducated.” It is a giant loop of ignorance, really. Plus, those who claim to be "educated" themselves, are merely regurgitating facts and equations they have learned, but may not even understand them at a deeper level.

Going Even Deeper

Warning - this is where the spiritual section starts.

Ironically, scientism has become a religion; the question is, what is this religion teaching you? I want to go back to our “high priests” and what they say you should believe. I want you to tell me if there is a similar theme:

• Neil Degrasse Tyson: “We are part of this universe; we are in this universe, but perhaps more important than both of those facts, is that the universe is in us.” He also said, “We are not figuratively, but literally stardust.”

• Bill Nye: “I’m this guy standing on a planet Really I’m just a speck Compared with a star, the planet is just another speck To think about all of this To think about the vast emptiness of space There’s billions and billions of stars Billions and billions of specks”

• Carl Sagan: “We are a way for the cosmos to know itself.” ― Carl Sagan, Cosmos”

• Stephen Hawking: “The human race is just a chemical scum on a moderate-sized planet, orbiting around a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a hundred billion galaxies. We are so insignificant that I can't believe the whole universe exists for our benefit. That would be like saying that you would disappear if I closed my eyes.”

What are these scientists saying? We are one with the universe and it is one with us. Still, ultimately, we are just a speck, nothing really, and we are not special. God did not create us, and there is nothing special about our existence. Ultimately, they are preaching a form of nihilism, whether they see it that way or not.

Well, who cares?

The Quantum/Kabbalah Connection

This belief system is actually nothing new, and it can be traced to the occult mystery schools.

Aleister Crowley, a Hermeticist (keep this in mind), said “Every man and every woman is a star.” Sound familiar?

Now Hermeticism arose from the Kabbalah, which is the ancient, Jewish mystical interpretation of the Bible (the origins of the occult, essentially).

Today, these ancient mystery schools, like the Kabbalah, have been linked to Quantum understandings of the world. The fundamental concept is [all is one](www.kabbalah.info/eng/content/view/frame/38908?/eng/content/view/full/38908&main).

Now, why is that “bad”? Doesn’t that sound appealing to most? Can’t science and spirituality merge?

The Problem

What if they are wrong? What if they are deceiving us with a form of new age spirituality that denies God, but accepts Satan/evil as a necessary evil?

From Kabbalah.com,

*“Satan is real, but not the Satan that we imagine—a devil flying around with a pitchfork. That is not Satan. The literal translation of Satan is the "disturber" or in Hebrew, the "adversary". Satan is a negative force that we all have within us. It is a tool created by the Light to help us to grow, to overcome, to shine, and to become the unlimited soul that we are supposed to be in this world. One of the manifestations of that force called Satan is our ego. But it’s not just the ego. Every desire that is for ourselves alone, stems from that negative force. The code name for this selfish desire is Satan.

It is not something physical. It is within us, like the intelligence of the soul, which is the pure energy of sharing, giving, and trusting—an electric extension from the Creator. We have another intelligence within us, which was also created by the Light—it is the source of all selfishness, reactive feeling, egotistic behavior, jealously, sadness and depression, victim consciousness, and blame consciousness. It is the part within us that feels wronged whenever something does not go our way. There’s a difference between the soul consciousness and the Satan consciousness, both of which we all have within us. The soul consciousness is our real essence that, according to kabbalists, will stay forever. Satan consciousness will eventually be limited or transformed completely because it’s not our real essence, even though those feelings seem to be real in our lives. Anger, upset, hurt, and disappointment feel so real. Yet, The Zohar teaches us that they are temporary forces that exist to challenge us until we reach the collective transformation of the world. So, is Satan real? Yes, it is. The Zohar calls it an evil inclination—the impulsive desire that exists within us. But it’s not a devil that exists externally. Satan is actually a good angel whose job is to help us to grow.*

In this “we are all one view” of the world, evil is connected with good. Evil is said to exist with good. But, ultimately, this creates moral relativism.

We are all on a conspiracy forum today because we know something is not quite right with the world, and many are starting to find out that evil does exist, whether it is child pedophile rings, corruption, lies, etc. Yet, these powerful people are telling us that this evil is good and necessary. They are saying evil does not really exist, and if it does, we need it!

The problem is, though, that evil does exist, and while there are shades of grey in life, to say that there is no such thing as “wrong" or "bad” is inherently flawed. Think of the most evil thing you can think of in your mind. For me, right now, that is somebody raping or torturing a child. To connect that to good in anyway is flawed. To say that is a “necessity” in anyway is flawed.

Evil exists, and it is not necessary for good. The lines between good and evil are being blurred more and more daily - look at our world today, where everything is upside down.

New Age One World Religion/CONCLUSION

This post is running long, so let me get to the point. When scientism becomes our new view of spirituality, the concept of God goes out the window, and so does the view of “bad” or “evil.” Perhaps, in a way to unite all people, somebody will come along and say, “ We can all be one. Let us all upload our consciousness into some sort of system and exist as one! It will be great.” In fact, they might even say, “You can be a God yourself!”

And people will happily accept this “mark”, but they will have forgotten the original lie of Satan:

“"For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." – Genesis 3:5

But, maybe after realizing their mistake,

“During those days people will seek death but will not find it; they will long to die, but death will elude them.” – Revelation 9:6

Scientism may very well become the new age spirituality of the masses. It will be without God, where we are all one and can as Gods ourselves.

Either that is a good thing, or somebody is lying to us...