WEEK of VAN LIFE in Australia

Rupert Sheldrake: Science does not tolerate dissent

Alfred Rupert Sheldrake, an English author, and researcher in the field of parapsychology, who proposed the concept of morphic resonance, talks about the concept of scientism, the quasi-religious belief in science and scientists, has risen in prominence over the past year. 

Rupert Sheldrake also talks about scientism: “It is the idea that science can solve all the problems of the world,” he tells Freddie Sayers in today’s LockdownTV. “Where science becomes a religion and that it’s humanity’s salvation. The scientists are the saviours of the world.”

The religious fervour with which phrases like ‘following the science’ and ‘trust the experts’ have been uttered and adhered to over the course of the pandemic would seem to underscore Sheldrake’s point. But according to Sheldrake, who has spent his entire career researching controversial or ‘fringe’ areas of science, the phenomenon is “nothing new”. As he himself has experienced, the scientific community does not like entertaining radical or dissent opinion, and goes out of its way to snuff it out.