The Saving Order of Science: New Atheist Sam Harris’s Scientism is not Fundamentalism but Affective Attachment to a Salvific Epistemology

The New Atheist movement has been called “fundamentalist” in its allegiance to science. While true that New Atheism is remarkable among the various historical formations of atheism for its championing of the sciences, it is not fundamentalist. Where it does share a resemblance to Christian fundament...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Eidos. A Journal for Philosophy of Culture Vol. 8; no. 2; pp. 27 - 80
Main Author: Ruper, Stefani
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: University of Warsaw 31.08.2024
Subjects:
affect theory
implicit religion
new atheism
religion and science
sam harris
scientism
theory of religion
ISSN:2544-302X, 2544-302X
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:The New Atheist movement has been called “fundamentalist” in its allegiance to science. While true that New Atheism is remarkable among the various historical formations of atheism for its championing of the sciences, it is not fundamentalist. Where it does share a resemblance to Christian fundamentalism is in their respective attachments to a salvific epistemology either of science or of faith. For New Atheists, science “saves” as it provides order against chaos. This paper focuses on the writings of the New Atheist Sam Harris, drawing attention not just to the ordering function of science generally but also the ways in which Harris deploys science to engulf 1) morality, 2) the Buddhist belief that the self is an illusion, and 3) Buddhist practices of meditation. This study illuminates some affective potencies of science (or other potential epistemologies) as an ordering, and therefore “salvific,” way of navigating the world.
ISSN:2544-302X
2544-302X
DOI:10.14394/eidos.jpc.2024.0009