Abstract
In 1982, T.M. Moore claimed that positivism was in the process of being “unmasked”. Its shortcomings were being unmasked by its enemies as well as by its adherents. In describing the process of unmasking, Moore resorted to T.S. Kuhn’s sociological theory of normal science, paradigms, crises and revolutions. Moore then went on to challenge the Christian scholarly community to (inter alia) develop a new paradigm for science. Now, after just more than two decades have elapsed since this exhortation by Moore, a survey had to be done to see to what extent the secular as well as the Christian community has taken up the challenge and how both of them have progressed in the directions that Moore had predicted. It has also become time for the Christian community to assess its own progress towards developing a “new” scientific paradigm. In this article, the first part of a two-part article on this subject, the author concludes that modern science has not only surrendered the positivistic search for universal foundations and truth, but has become characterised by secularism, postmodern fragmentation and a preference for contingent foundations.
Highlights
We hope to point out an important weakness in the theoretical foundation of modern science and to call evangelical scientists, teachers, preachers, scholars and concerned laymen to a concerted effort to exploit that weakness unto the creation of an entirely new paradigm for scientific activity (Moore, 1982:70)
We can conclude that secular philosophy of science and scholarship has been unmasked both from within and without as having surrendered the positivistic and scientistic search for a stable universal foundation of science, an optimistic cumulative view of science, and for universal absolute certainty
It seems to favour diverse searches for contingent foundations, “credible testimony”, “discipline boundary maintenance”, social constructivism, postmodern pluralism and fallibilism, all of which tend to result in the magpie and other piecemeal approaches inclined to seeing theories as flexible formulations that can be plied and used to suit particular situations
Summary
Just more than two decades ago, T.M. Moore (1982) published a study entitled The unmasking of modern science. At the time of publication, Moore was able to conclude that “the unmasking of modern science has begun”, and that “clearly the bastion of modern science is under assault, both from without and within” (Moore, 1982:71, 83) He concluded that the scientific enterprise was being forced to examine itself and to face up to inconsistencies, contradictions and anomalies for which it could give no answers which satisfy its own criteria for validity. He thought, it was possible that modern science might be entering – or might be forced to enter – a period of crisis such as in the past has preceded a paradigm shift, a major alteration in the generallyaccepted view of science and the scientific method. A Biblical view of science, he said, would only make sense to those who had learned to trust in Jesus Christ and had received the gift of eternal life and the new perspective it provided (Moore, 1982:85-86)
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