William Jamison

Week 9: Do we think of scientists as the new priesthood?

I find that the work scientists do, whether they are primarily theoretical or practical, is essentially what the priesthood used to do. Priests were viewed as the ones who knew about God and the world and how we should live. They were not only the ones sought out for advice and guidance, but even the source of medical assistance and worldly knowledge.  

As the paradigm of science changed with the Scientific Revolution, the Enlightenment, and Relativity, the vocabulary changed from spirit and matter to energy and mass. We go to therapists and psychologists for advice and guidance. We go to a medical doctor for our health. We put our faith in scientists to find ways of solving our problems and keeping us in favor with nature.

It seems they have failed in creating ceremonial ways for us to participate in maintaining order in the universe. We do not get ecstatic collecting trash from the roadside as part of a cleanup or recycling effort. We do not sing praises to the energy of the sun and ask that it forgive us so that it comes back at Christmas newborn. We do not perform Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring as a religious festival in celebration of the resurrection of life. If the vocabulary of science has replaced the language of theology and scientists have replaced the priesthood, how should scientists include the “laity” so that we understand the role we play in the universe?

For an interesting book on this subject have a look at: