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Free Webinar, May 16: Compliant or Critical? Scientific Authority in the Age of COVID-19

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The coronavirus and the lockdown have made taking a critical look at the moral authority of science more urgent than ever. The same “science guild” that bungled the pandemic demands our consent in other matters: “that Darwin’s theory is a fact, that the mind is meat, that quantum mechanics is the ‘nothing’ from which the universe popped into existence, that free will isn’t real, and that science disproves God’s existence.” 

As neuroscientist Michael Egnor and others at Evolution News have asked: Isn’t it time to think about science, with its immense prestige and ever-changing prescriptions, in a less compliant and more skeptical light? Join Discovery Institute scholars this Saturday, May 16, for a discussion of scientism and the scientific “consensus.” It’s a free live webinar, “Science, Scientism, and Society,” with political scientist John West, computer engineer Robert J. Marks, and physicist Brian Miller.

We’ll open the conversation at 12 pm Pacific time. Look here for more information and for a link to register. Discovery Institute’s last webinar was oversubscribed, so be sure to reserve your space now.

Hope or Despair from Science?

We will discuss:

  • “Science and Scientism in the Age of COVID-19: Wisdom from C. S. Lewis” (West)
  • “AI: Menace or Savior?” (Marks)
  • “Hope from Science: Evidence for a Purposeful Universe” (Miller)

John West is Associate Director of the Center for Science & Culture. Robert J. Marks is Director of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural & Artificial Intelligence. Brian Miller is Research Coordinator for the Center for Science & Culture.

In our culture, authorities in academia and the media increasingly use science as a tool, not for its traditional role in exploring nature, but for marshaling the public toward destinations that may not be conducive to our own flourishing. “Follow the science!” we’re told. “Listen to the scientists!” Should we submit to such calls, or insist on thinking for ourselves? This webinar sponsored by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute offers you a framework for considering science and scientists in new and more productive ways. Please join us.