In his recent Wheaton Alumni article Dr. DeSoto of the physics department implies that it is "scientifically literate" to believe that scientific theories can be falsified.  But this Popperian falsificationist criterion is as dead as the verificationist principle that Dr. DeSoto quite rightly dismissed.  Falsificationism died at the hands of Quine, Kuhn and Feyerabend, among other contemporary philosophers of science.  How do I falsify the statement "There is a unicorn" (a statement which is both meaningful and a hypothesis for explaining trace evidence) or, similarly, "There is a God"?  If falsificationism is the test for rationality then belief in God, like belief in any "scientific" (I put it in quotes because there is no longer any clear meaning to the word) theory,  must not be rational since it cannot be falsified.  Darwinism is hardly falsifiable, even though some call it science.  The same is true of Freudianism, and any causal theory in science that appeals to some hidden thing-in-itself.  This kind of rationalism is, fortunately, dead in our post-modern age.  

It is important for Christians in general, and Christian scientists in particular, to reject the scientific illiteracy of falsificationism because this just prolongs the life of rationalism in our culture -- including our Christian subculture.  The primary mission of the Christian academy is not the promulgation of any kind of rationalism or even intellectualism.  The idea that just because A is thought about more than B, A is more likely to be true than B, is a logical fallacy.  Or even if we adopt a more sophisticated view of intellectualism -- say Popper's "critical rationalism" which Dr. DeSoto considers literate, Christian intellectualism would mean integrating faith with any so far unfalsified nonsense, since everything, including the pretense of the social sciences (and its political representatives) to knowing what's best for everybody, is so far unfalsified.  Christian intellectualism becomes little more than the precious attempt to accomodate nonsense that violates ordinary language and common sense, let alone orthodox theology.  

The failure of intellectualism and rationalism to preserve an open society which does not relegate Christianity to the cultural ghetto is apparent when "falsificationism" (which Popper argued would preserve an open society) is applied by American courts to the question of whether or not intelligent design theory, or for that matter, creationism, should be taught in public schools.  Sure enough, the courts see Darwinism as "falsifiable" and intelligent design and creationism as not falsifiable.  They are correct about the latter; wrong about the former.   None of this is falsifable, or verifiable, and when professor DeSoto endorses this kind of rationalism he is helping to perpetuate the closed society -- the closed society of rationalism.

We have made no progress in making this culture more Christian as a result of succumbing to the vague requirements of intellectualism let alone rationalism, promoted by those who continually bemoan the lack of intellectualism in the evangelical subculture.  

The job of the Christian academy is to hold rationalism by the nose and kick it in the ass -- right in our own subculture, and then in the larger culture, precisely so the religious world view can be revived culturally.   

Secular relativists like Paul Feyerabend have done more in our age to liberate religion from the tyranny of rationalism than Christian intellectuals intent on impressing the world with their "literacy".

Tom Dahlberg '75