British-born theoretical physicist Freeman Dyson, in a book called The Scientist As Rebel, wrote that “all science is a rebellion against the restrictions imposed by the locally prevailing culture. . . .”
Science as rebellion? That statement is about as antiquated as the belief that maggots spontaneously generate from rotting pork chops. Far from rebelling against the “prevailing culture,” science has become that prevailing culture—and woe be to the fool who publicly questions its most cherished theories, especially about creation and human origins.
For instance, when in a 2012 work, Mind and Cosmos, one of world’s leading intellectuals, Thomas Nagel—an atheist and evolutionist to boot—challenged the sacrosanct idea that everything, especially human consciousness, could be explained through the cold hard materialism of natural selection alone, he faced an assault by the science-minded that would have made Torquemada blush. A few years ago, when two respected scientists unwittingly used language in a scholarly paper that implied design, the scientific community went Medieval on them, forcing both to grovel for absolution like heretics recanting before a 15th century tribunal in Seville.
And if the scientific community does this to accepted colleagues and superstar philosophers, it's no surprise that no mercy is shown to Intelligent Design advocates or, the lowest of the low, the Creationists, those who actually believe, for instance, that, “in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
The scientist as rebel?
Surely you jest, Mr. Dyson. That is, unless the scientist openly challenges the idea that the beauty and complexity of life can be explained only by the crass materialism now espoused by the “locally prevailing culture,” and that, perhaps, the astonishing design found in every living thing, from bacteria to Blue Whales, came from a conscious Designer, like the one found in Scripture, who declares: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (John 1:13).
Now—that would be rebellion!
