End of Science: the death knell as sounded by the Royal Society

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A somewhat abridged version of this document is published in Network Review (Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network, 98, Winter 2008), pp. 18-20

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Introduction

On 16th September 2008, the Royal Society (of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge) as the oldest and most eminent body of science, forced the resignation of its Director of Education, Michael Reiss (Royal Society statement regarding Professor Michael Reiss, Science News, 16 September 2008). The latter had proposed the inclusion of creationism in the science curriculum in schools (Creationism call divides Royal Society, The Guardian, 14 September 2008).

In 1210, the University of Paris, the most eminent academic body of the time, was made subject to a declaration with papal authority by the Provincial Synod of Sens (which included the bishop of Paris as a member) to the effect that:

Neither the books of Aristotle on natural philosophy nor their commentaries are to be read at Paris in public or secret, and this we forbid under penalty of excommunication.

This was followed by a Papal Bull of Gregory IX (Parens Scientiarum, 13 April 1231, following the University of Paris strike of 1229), often characterized as the Magna Carta of that university (defining it as the "Mother of Sciences") in which, without specific mention of Aristotle, but with the prohibition of 1210 in mind, he declared that:

...those books on nature which were prohibited in provincial council for certain cause they shall not use at Paris until these shall have been examined and purged from all suspicion of errors. (Lynn Thorndike, The Reaction of the Universities and Theological Authorities to Aristotelian Science and Natural Philosophy. In: University Records and Life in the Middle Ages, 1944; reproduced in Edward Grant, A Source Book in Medieval Science, 1974; see also Peter R. McKeon, The Status of the University of Paris as Parens Scientiarum, Speculum, 1964)

The following is an exploration of the parallels between the events of that time and the present and the implications of the action of the Royal Society for the future of science. Any assumption that this argument is a defence of creationism would be toa misunderstand its intent completely. Nor, however, is it an argument in support of the widely-discussed secularist positions of those such as Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 2006) or Christopher Hitchens (God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, 2007) -- whatever may be the merits of their specific arguments.

This is an exploration of intellectual censorship and the impoverished quality of thinking that results. In particular it is an exploration of the inherent inadequacy of scientific thinking -- as taught -- at a time when there is a call for cognitive skills capable of responding creatively to differences of opinion within science and in society at large. The science that has not learnt how to handle differences, except by excommunication, is clearly of questionable relevance to the most challenging issues of society -- especially those reinforced by an "us and them" binary logic.

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