Science as External Authority
Science as External Authority
All four schools denied the theory of evolution, distinguishing between neutral and praiseworthy “science” and atheist scientists who “preached” evolution. People in the schools liked science itself, and understood it as a kind of actor, authorizing certain practices and forms of knowledge. Unlike scripture and prayer, science was an authority largely shared with the secular world, and it gained its power through a more complex network of authorizing practices and arguments, seen most clearly in the roles of teachers and tests created by secular entities. To hold to creationist science was to situate oneself within this network of various kinds of scientific claims and authorities, attempting to leverage certain authorities against others. Perhaps ironically, it was in disagreeing with the scientific theory of evolution that science—or what they thought of as science—became most obviously an agent capable of action in the world.
Keywords: authority, science, science studies, science and religion, evolutionism, creationism, religious schools, American Muslims, American Evangelicals
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