Claim 1 of 5 · Case 07 · Philosophy
The rule “only what science or logic can prove is worth believing” cannot pass its own test.
One claim from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
This is the assumption hiding under the common objection. Notice what kind of statement it is. It is not a finding of science and it is not a theorem of logic. It is a philosophical rule about what may be believed. So it fails the very standard it sets. This is usually called strong scientism, and the honest limit is that it defeats the strong version only. A weaker claim, that science is one good way to know among others, is not self-defeating and has to be answered differently.
Backed by 3 pieces of evidence
The Vienna Circle and the verification principle
This is the most serious attempt in modern history to turn “only the empirically testable counts” into a working rule, and it failed by its own lights.J.P. Moreland, “Scientism and Secularism”
This gives the clean, repeatable form of the argument and names the move, so it’s a step you can walk through rather than a slogan you repeat.
The best defense of scientism, and the reply
We give the strongest form of the objection first, since it deserves a fair hearing rather than a strawman response. The reply shows the objection either shrinks to something harmless or smuggles back in the very thing it denied.