THE DIMIGOD'S DILEMMA∗

Abstract

ABSTRACT In a quite literal sense, science has become the dominant religion of the late twentieth century, effectively displacing the traditional faiths of the supernatural. Yet, despite the rapidity and near-totality of its triumph, the reign of the Church of Science may be quite brief because of basic defects in its theology (methods and philosophy) and many practical shortcomings when its tenets and findings are applied to biophysical reality and the social world of human beings. If we are to cope with our rapidly escalating social and environmental problems, brought on in part by the misapplication of the discoveries of the natural sciences, we have no alternative but to resort to the social sciences. In that direction, the current prospects are cloudy at best because of major flaws in the social structure of contemporary social science and its slavish emulation of the natural science model in theory and practice. A truly radical rethinking of the premises underlying science in general and of social science in particular is urgently needed. Given the profound changes now occurring in the consciousness and the behavior of mankind, it is not unthinkable that such a remodeling of basic axioms may have already begun, however hard it may be to perceive at the moment. The shape which a reformed Church of Science, or some alternative theology, can or must achieve thus remains a matter of speculation.