A new "religion" adhering to science?

[rlogan]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before. I have been wondering about the possibility of a "religion" that expressly defers to science and focuses on the advancement of science as a long run solution to suffering on earth. Is this an oxymoron?

There is a Universalist-Unitarian church that does not have a specific "God-creed". Advancement of science is not a part of their program.

Can one imagine a "service" where the leader speaks to the principle of falsification or reproducable results?

This is purely idle thinking. I'm wondering if there is a possibility along these lines where charity and fellowship are merged with science as a "religion".

[Gurdur]

Scientism (http://www.skepdic.com/scientism.html)

You will find an awful lot of scientism around in various POV's of posters on this board, from two groups:

1) atheists/agnostics who actually know little natural science and practically no neurophysiopsychology or cognitive psychology or any real philosophy at all --- this is the largest group on this board, and in essence they see "science" as an answer to everything, and they evangelize the faith that "science" will eventually answer all questions, including ethics.

2) the smaller (by far) group of atheists/agnostics is those who come out of some natural science, but have practically no real philosophy, and repeat the error of thinking somehow "rational" thinking can magically wish away all problems of choice of values.

You'll find precious little fellowship or charity within or from each above group.

In the outside world, you'll find precious few real scientists who would ever believe in such crap as scientism --- it seems mainly to be a disease of American males between 18 and 27.

Various religious groups have made stabs at incorporating science, notably the Christian Scientists, who are very far from being scientific and arguably very far from Christianity.
There are other religious groups like the Theosophists etc.; all these groups seem most noticable by their lack of success.

[premjan]

Is there any religion such as "explanationism" i.e. belief in the best explanation (theory) where best means most compact and supported by facts. To my mind this is the most logical scientific "religion". Of course the ground for belief would keep changing as rival theories were to take hold.

[Ojuice5001]

This sounds like an inadequate religion to me. Let's assume that religion means worshipping something, like Paul Tillich's "ultimate concern." (Unlike the concepts of philosophy, theology, occultism, or political ideology; I would say that a non-worshipping belief system falls under one of those categories, but is not a religion.)

Now the proposed belief system is built around science, which is a way of explaining things. It sounds like, if a religion's doctrine consistently concerns itself with the scientific method, and all religions by definition worship something, the proposed religion must worship the scientific method, or consider it to be the ultimate concern. But from a religious point of view, the scientific method doesn't make that great an object of worship, especially if someone proposes that it's the best one around. Most religionists would want to worship things like virtue, or the forces of nature, or the various aspects of life. But a religion that made provisions for worshiping these would no longer be primarily a science-oriented religion.

[seebs]

Originally posted by premjan
Is there any religion such as "explanationism" i.e. belief in the best explanation (theory) where best means most compact and supported by facts. To my mind this is the most logical scientific "religion". Of course the ground for belief would keep changing as rival theories were to take hold.

If you weaken the word "belief" a bit, you could be pretty close to Huxley-style agnosticism.

[rlogan]

Thank you for the responses.

Most of these churches seem to get mileage out of the promise of the afterlife. Some of is is charity and fellowship but gaining entrance to heaven is a key marketing program.

I tried to think through how a "Church" could be established that would promote both science and charity to the poor & infirm.

But I don't see how it can be done. You need a magic trick like golden tablets or an E-Meter to get going.

[Amos]

As a rule scientists are very rational and much like a corporation unto themselves that only see the need of charity to remove guilt from their image.

So you're right, it is an oxymoron.

[Marduk]

I think many forms of Buddhism fill the bill, they are open to all science & scientific investigation (Dali Lama) and they don’t really worship anything. They respect living things, nature, moral behavior etc.