Article April 21, 1980 Issue

Combating scientific materialism

STEVEN LEE FAIR

Today many thinkers feel humanity has arrived at a critical juncture in its technological development. Some observers believe that the very scale, complexity, and interdependence of society required for a high-energy-use, high-technology civilization raise serious questions about whether present social and religious institutions can survive.

Nobel laureate in physics B. D. Josephson comments: "In the past decade science has been dominated by a materialistic ideology, the assumption that the concepts of value, meaning, and purpose have no place in the description and understanding of nature. ... This ideology has had a contaminating influence on the minds of scientists and reduces the degree to which science follows lines that are good for humankind."^{Quoted in Omni, October 1979, p. 102;}

Another name for this materialistic ideology is scientific materialism: the philosophical doctrine that matter is the only reality, that everything—including thought, will, and feeling—can be explained only in terms of matter. Riding the crest of physical science's undeniably spectacular accomplishment, this ideology threatens to sweep all before it, unless challenged. Some feel that only an enlightened response based on a practical demonstration of Spirit's reality can prevent a modern dark age.

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