J.P. Moreland, Scientism and Secularism (Wheaton: Crossway, 2018), 210 pp.
When Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species in 1859, the intellectual tectonic plates shifted with a force that continues to reverberate to this day. One of the tragic consequences (among many) that the book helped spawn was the philosophical notion of scientism. While this trendy worldview looks and sounds scientific, it is anything but. On the contrary, scientism aggressively advances the idea “that the hard sciences alone have the intellectual authority to give us knowledge of reality.” Stated another way, the other disciplines (theology and philosophy, for example) which have long sought to provide epistemological answers are no longer valid and offer no new insight when it comes to truth claims.
Scientism and Secularism by J.P. Moreland explores the themes of scientism in particular and helps readers uncover the diabolic implications of this school of thought. Dr. Moreland offers a comprehensive explanation of scientism and provides several examples of how it is influencing students in a postmodern age. He pulls the curtain back on scientism and helps the unsuspecting see that it is, in the final analysis, the enemy of science and as a result, is at odds with the historic Christian faith.
Moreland is typically fair and even-handed in his treatment of scientism. but ultimately argues that scientism has nothing in the way of explanatory power and should be rejected.
Science and Secularism is a readable and winsome book. It should be carefully read by university students, Christian and non-Christian alike. Christians will be better equipped to respond to typical arguments posited by scientism and non-Christians will be challenged to reconsider their presuppositions.
I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review.
Veritas et Lux 