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Essay:Scientific perspectives
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This essay is an original work by Ed Poor. It does not necessarily reflect the views expressed in RationalWiki's Mission Statement, but we welcome discussion of a broad range of ideas. Unless otherwise stated, this is original content, released under CC-BY-SA 3.0 or any later version. See RationalWiki:Copyrights. Feel free to make comments on the talk page, which will probably be far more interesting, and might reflect a broader range of RationalWiki editors' thoughts. |
The three main perspectives on science are all related to the main schools of thought concerning the philosophy of science. The theological perspective takes faith in God as paramount, rejecting any scientific finding which rejects revelation, scripture or interpretation. On the opposite end is the atheistic or materialistic perspective, which rejects all possibility of supernatural causation. The middle ground is held by those who exalt God and religious faith, while respecting any scientific discovery backed by actual evidence.
In the Origins debate, the tendency is for the left (atheistic) and right (fundamentalist) wings to dismiss the middle ground. Materialists, employing methodological naturalism, lump all competing ideas together as "Creationism", including Intelligent Design. The Young Earth Creationist view sees naturalistic evolution as its main opponent and emphasizes Creation science while tending to ignore the prospect of an alliance with design theorists.