Teaching materials frequently answer objections to evolution by demarcating science from religion. Because definitions of science shaped by demarcation tend to magnify its empirical features, they weaken students' understanding of science's theoretical dimension. Demarcation fails to answer creationism for the opposite reason; by insisting that…

Practical arguments or enthymemes are interactive. Speakers typically set out some premises of their own while asking listeners to supply others already known or believed. Such arguments are likely to fail if a speaker leaves out key premises that listeners cannot or will not covertly fill in, or if a speaker attributes premises to listeners that…

Argues that religious themes persist in the public rhetoric of science, but that they have been transposed into an evolutionary symbolism. Examines the discourse of two practitioners of scientism, Francis Bacon and Jacob Bronowski, to illustrate the religious features of scientism and to show the continuity of the ideological work that it has…

The culture of modern science continues to establish its public identity by appealing to values and historical conceptions that reflect its appropriation of various religious ideals during its formative period, most especially in the rhetoric of Francis Bacon. These elements have persisted because they continue to achieve similar goals, but the…

Examines the various ways in which the legend of Galileo's persecution by the Roman Catholic Church diverges from scholarly readings of the Galileo affair. Finds five distinct themes of scientific ideology in the 40 accounts examined. Assesses the part that folklore plays in building and sustaining a professional ideology for the modern scientific…