Why Embrace the Mystical?

An Argument for Mysticism and Other Transcendent Narratives (Vol. 4; Issue 48)

A story about the physicist Niels Bohr best introduces this expansion on my earlier critiques of scientism as an international, master narrative. When visiting the Nobel Prize–winning physicist’s home, a guest gasped at seeing a horseshoe hung above the entryway door. She asked if Bohr—a devoted man of science—believed horseshoes brought good luck. He said “no,” but added,

I am told they bring luck even to those who do not believe in them.

You can easily see how Bohr reveals cracks in his closed-system of empiricism. How can he be both scientist and superstition believer? The horseshoe superstition comforts—despite Bohr’s (alleged) disbelief in anything unscientific.

Riffs on the problem of scientism, triggering annoyance and irritation in some readers, beg for clarification. Most importantly—and those miffed by the issue (like you, Monica)—please take note: The problem is not with science itself. Science represents one of the great achievements of human civilization. The hitch is that scientism, as a belief system, dominates the international narrative despite its being faith-based itself.

For more than two millennia, the Church held authority over “truth.” Under the sway of Christianity and, to a lesser extent of Judaism and Islam, most inhabitants of the planet Earth believed that God operates all things. They remained convinced century after century. The movement of the planets, the status of living beings, and even human subjectivity emerged from supernatural sources. Phrases like, “It’s God’s will” controlled people’s lives. They certainly overshadowed ones like, “Let’s see what the experiment reveals,” because experimentation, as a concept, did not yet exist (at least in any sophisticated, methodological way).

Fast forward to the mid-17th century when the Scientific Revolution begins. Marked by the emergence of hypothetico-deductive reasoning, physics, astronomy, biology and chemistry flourished. They dissociated themselves from theologies. The application of the scientific method spread like wildfire throughout the world. The transformation affected how individuals around the world viewed nature. It became natural rather than supernatural.

Reflecting on the sea change in master narratives, Friedrich Nietzche (1882) famously proclaimed:

God is dead.