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Science vs. scientism

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After viewing Hutchinson's YouTube video (listed below), please provide a one page (single spaced) response to the following questions:

Question 1: Explain the difference between science and scientism.

Question 2: How does this distinction influence how Christian counselors view the relationship between psychology and the bible in relationship to counseling?

Name of YouTube video:
The Scientism Delusion - Ian Hutchinson at UC San Diego.

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Solution Summary

The solution discusses science versus scientism. How the distinction influences how Christian Counselors view the relationship between psychology and the bible in relationship to counseling is discussed.

Solution Preview

See the attached file.

The solution below should get you started. In this particular task, you are being asked to reflect on a particular video. I suggest using this simple guide:

1. Science & Scientism - 150 words, include ideas from the video
2. Christian Counselors on their practice - 150 words, include ideas from the video

Hutchison's Lecture on Scientism

Before anything else, I would like to define what scientism is. This, according to PBS (n.d.) is what the viewpoint is all about:

"Unlike the use of the scientific method as only one mode of reaching knowledge, scientism claims that science alone can render truth about the world and reality. Scientism's single-minded adherence to only the empirical, or testable, makes it a strictly scientific worldview, in much the same way that a Protestant fundamentalism that rejects science can be seen as a strictly religious worldview. Scientism sees it necessary to do away with most, if not all, metaphysical, philosophical, and religious claims, as the truths they proclaim cannot be apprehended by the scientific method. In essence, scientism sees science as the absolute and only justifiable access to the truth."

In the video, Hutchison decries that science, while applicable in the construction of knowledge relevant and important in today's world, is applied in the wrong manner as a perspective of world view by those who use it as the only arbiter of knowledge. Science is a method of interrogating the world. When we say something is scientific, it means that the manner by which that piece of knowledge has been arrived at is through the fact that it was processed via the scientific method of inquiry. Over the last century, science has become the arbiter of knowledge. If a claim is not proven by verifiable facts, it remains suspect knowledge. Science has taken over the manner by which religion once was the arbiter of knowledge with logic and method overcoming religious claims. For Hutchison however - this ...

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