Scientific Animism is a term I invented a couple decades ago. I have since learned that in marketing, the phenomenon is well known and it is called 'transference'. But basically the idea is that people believe things because they believe they are being scientific when in fact they are depending on a rite of presentation which is 'scientific-istic'.
My classic example of scientific animism is a food nutritional label. People avoid calories or fat because they believe this is good for them. They read the food labels and trust them because they accept the bona fides of the packaging in that it is scientific. A scientific-istic sounding organization is behind it. If we didn't believe that scientists were working at the FDA, we wouldn't trust the label - even though we have no idea what the scientists do. If it were voodoo priestesses who told us how much LDL cholesterol were in our butter, we'd be skeptical. But none of us recognize cholesterol molecules under a magnifying glass. The science itself it totally opaque. We trust something because it is scientific on faith.
This is rather the crux of the global warming, er nuclear winter, er radical climate change, er mini ice age, debate today. Very few of us recognize what air pollution actually is. We take the weather reports on faith, and fewer and fewer homes have thermometers and fewer still have barometers. We don't know how to measure air pollution or water pollution.
Stewardship of the earth, or even of your front lawn, requires that you go out there and do it, not that you transfer faith in the packaging of the planet to the contents therein. We cannot change the environment nor be responsible to it through consumer choices. 'Eco-friendly' labeling on consumer products should be met with as much skepticism as 'low-tar' on cigarettes.
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