Science and Religion

Question 1

Thomas Kuhn

Science as ideological

Answer 1

• Thomas Kuhn found that scientific research tends to be limited by dominant paradigms.
• A paradigm is a set of assumptions about the way the world is, which frames scientific research.
• Kuhn found that scientific findings which didn’t fit in with the existing, dominant paradigm, were ignored.
• In this sense, groups of leading scientists who operate within the dominant paradigm ignored the work of younger scientists whose work may challenge their world view.

So, for example, any new scientific discoveries today need to fit into a paradigm that accepts that theories such as evolution or gravity are true. If a new theory were to shake the foundations of such firmly accepted truths, it would be rejected as unscientific. This is not so different from a religious institution rejecting the existence of fossils because it undermined the creation story in the Bible.

Question 2

Bruno Latour

Answer 2

Found that scientists would limit their research depending on where their funding came from.

For example, if a particular drug company was funding a lab, there would be reluctance to conduct research which found anything negative about that drug company’s products.
OR
For example, scientists funded by oil companies have often been those to reach conclusions questioning the extent of man-made climate change.

In this way, scientific research which harms powerful funding bodies is less likely to be carried out.

Question 3

State and Religion vs Science

Answer 3

Furthermore, although in the UK there is still an official state role for the Church of England, for the most part religion in western liberal democracies is no longer as closely linked with government as it once was. However, there often are government scientists and scientific advice – on health issues for example - is often pushed quite forcefully by the state and through the law. So religion is more independent than is often presented, and science less so.