Qabasat

Qabasat

Scientism as a basis for New Atheism (Critiques and Challenges)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Sayyid Abdurrauf Afzali 1
Mohammad Mohammadrezai 2
1 Assistant Professor at the Al-Mustafa International University. Qom. Iran.
2 Professor in the Philosophy of Religion Department, University of Tehran, Farabi College, Qom. Iran.
10.22034/qabasat.2025.721570
Abstract
After the decline of the Church and the entrance of the Western world into the modern era, scientism emerged on a very broad scale. Initially emphasizing experience, scientism gradually transformed into the only reliable means of acquiring knowledge, and efforts were made to apply this method to evaluate non-empirical issues as well. In this analytical-descriptive paper, an effort has been made to first familiarize the reader with the concept of scientism, relying on the works of Western scholars, and then illustrate how new atheists utilize this concept to promote their atheistic views. Finally, the paper aims to critique scientism as the foundation of new atheism from various angles (especially philosophical ones). The dependence of experience on analogy, the non-obviousness of experiences, the uncertainty of experiential content, the reliance of experience on the principle of causality (as a non-empirical matter), the meaningfulness of metaphysical and universal propositions (as non-empirical propositions), the limitations of empirical sciences, the problems posed by empirical sciences in the absence of rational sciences, and similar concerns are just some of the critiques and challenges that this paper presents against scientism as the foundation of new atheism.
Keywords
God
scientism
new Atheism
positivism
experience
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