The Scourge of Scientism: Why I Can't Stand NDT

Before going any further, read this.

Done? Ok. This should let you know where I'm coming from for this piece, which is being written on a high of caffeine and angst.

What makes me so mad about what that Federalist piece reveals is not merely the fact that Neil deGrasse Tyson, beloved host of Cosmos and demigod of the "nerd" community, fudged quotes to support his talks. It's his entire attitude and apparent compulsive need to belittle everyone who is not as "objective" or "sciencey" as he is supposed to be.

Just look at this tweet of his. If the sheer smug of that statement doesn't make you want to ralph, you might be someone who "****ing Loves Science" on Facebook. But let's take that tweet at face value. He doesn't want people who aren't grounded in objective reality to be in positions of power. Ok, so what does that mean? Who are these people who don't include such things in their worldview that are so dangerous?

Well, here's a clue. Surprised? Me neither. Closely tied to his agenda of making science the standard of political authority is the denigration of Christianity. Look no further than this clip from Bill Maher's show in which Maher takes a quote from a Creationist, Ken Ham, paraphrases it to make sound like a crazy Christian redneck rambling, and lets Tyson knock the softball out of the park with a remark, an eye-roll, and a head shake.

(As a side note, Tyson also seems to have a strange fixation with aliens and their superiority to humans).

What do we learn from this? We learn that Tyson is not trying to have an intelligent debate about epistemology or formulate a coherent empirical philosophy. He's acting as a prophet, a carnival barker, a mouthpiece to rouse the rabble of religion-haters.

The point of this isn't to make Tyson look like a jerk, though. That's too easy. He wouldn't be so popular and respected without a reason. There's a disturbingly vast contingent of people in this country that rely on this kind of brainless affirmation of their biases. They sneer at Christians, so when a guy on TV does it, they celebrate. They think looking at pictures of space and making puns about molecules makes them cool and smart, so when a guy with a meme face does it, they salivate.

This mentality has little if anything to do with actual science. As many other smarter, angrier people have explained, almost no one retweeting NDT or liking posts by IFLS actually enjoys conducting experiments, gathering data, and testing hypotheses. What they're interested in is having an Authority on their side. They appropriate Science as their trump card. "Oh, you're skeptical about climate change? You must hate Science." "Oh, you believe in God? Well, Science doesn't, idiot." And the real irony is when these people try to use Science to trump, you know, actual science, like in the climate change and abortion debates.

In essence, the crowd hanging on Tyson's every word is no different than, say, the Joel Osteen fan club megachurch, or the Westboro Baptist Church, or the Manson Family. They're all groups of people that have clung to a figure telling them things they want to hear, smoothing over their doubts, and affirming their broken philosophy. It's a way of shutting out skepticism and doubt. It's a way of avoiding the tough questions of life by blindly accepting a man's words as Revealed Truth. It's a way of trying to fill a void, of finding diversion from the inquietude of the soul, as Pascal puts it.

Science is their God, and Neil deGrasse Tyson, for the moment, is its avatar.