The Scientist

Or, one who rejects his own faith.

This modern day white cloaked magi is venerated by many people. He is the Priest archetype of the secular west, and people have put their faith into his words. They have faith in Science, and that he knows its way.

The scientist disparages faith. He is devoted to no such “superstitions”. Yet, he does not know his own faith. Even though he does have it.

Why? to begin with he must have faith that truth exists! The scientist—an empiricist really—holds that all knowledge is gained experientially through observation, but within this framework one can never conclude that something is true, only regularly observable under certain conditions, a seeming constant conjunction; and, experiment alone, even infinite experiments, cannot demonstrate that a class known as truth exists (Empiricism alone does not even have the capacity to establish its own existence since sensory experience does not provide enough information to produce a non-sensory category known as empiricism), so the scientist must have faith that truth exists, and not only that truth exists! But that it is orderly, consistent, coherent, systemic, in order to make conclusions, build theories, integrate into a whole, or else all would fall apart. And he must believe that truth is relevant, that he has a purpose for finding truth, and that it is more valuable than non-truth; And so, he has faith too in Purpose…

This is why the scientist is one who rejects his own faith, his faith in science, and in this way he does not see the truth. Where does he lead the people, this man of science?