“Wanting to believe only what they see, scientists condemn themselves to seeing only what they believe; logic for them is their desire not to see what they do not want to believe. Scientism in fact is less interested in the real as such- which necessarily goes beyond our limitations—than in what is non-contradictory, therefore in what is logical, or more precisely, in what is empirically logical; thus in what is logical de facto according to a given experience, and not in what is logical de jure in accordance with the nature of things” [Frithjof Schuon-From the Divine to the Human].
With respect to truth, scientific knowledge is in most cases, an “unintentional” imposture. There are two types of imposture, although the quality as such always contains a certain measure of each: conscious imposture which is dishonest, deliberate and intrinsically immoral, and unconscious imposture which is “involuntary”, ignorant and sincere[1]. In its ignorance, unconscious imposture is always convinced of the paramount worth of its mission and so is science because “error creates the stage setting it requires to feel comfortable”. Not infrequently we encounter in the contemporary Western personality a bizarre cohabitation between an encyclopedic accumulation of scientific knowledge and factual information combined with a complete lack of intelligence and common sense. Such a person “…may be capable of the most extraordinary calculations and achievements but may at the same time be incapable of understanding the ultimate causality of things; this amounts to an illegitimate and monstrous disproportion, for the man who is intelligent enough to grasp nature in its deepest physical aspects, ought also to know that nature has a metaphysical Cause which transcends it, and that this Cause does not confine itself to determining the laws of sensory existence, as Spinoza claimed.”[Stations of Wisdom]. A complexion like this is innocuous and tolerable when complemented by a certain amount of compassion and decency and a “naïve” Paganel or an Einstein could be granted extenuating circumstances in spite of the dangers that their irresponsible play may bring to the very existence of mankind—however, an imagination (and especially collective imagination) rooted in absurdity and irreality and inspired by a mediocre or base moral character could lead to inhumane and appalling monstrosities: “nothing is worse than the mind, cut off from its roots”[The Transfiguration of Man].
[1] One should remark that blind religious dogmatism offers another example of “unintentional imposture”, with all its consequences.