humility

The charge of  arrogant "scientism" is often lodged against the scientifically-disposed by those in my camp (the humanities) without sufficient regard for the ironic precariousness of their own position. That's Massimo Pigliucci's perspctive in "The Place of Science," which concludes:


There is no parallel whatsoever between science and religion. One can practice one or the other or both, but to pretend that they yield common insights into the nature of the world is an intellectual travesty. To go further, as Huston Smith and so many religionists do, and assert that science is arrogant because it claims to provide the best answers to a circumscribed set of questions is astonishing, especially when the alleged alternative is so obviously the result of Pindaric flights of imagination. Now, here is my modest proposal: what if religions would treat themselves to a little dose of humility? Imagine what the world would be like in that case.