ABSTRACT
The philosophy of materialism or naturalism largely dominates the modern, scientific understanding of the natural world. This conceptual model has profoundly influenced the way we view ourselves as human beings within nature. Mankind, instead of occupying a unique place within the cosmos, is viewed increasingly as just one insignificant 'cog' within the vast cosmic mechanism. Scientific materialism views humanity as a mere artefact, a fluke biological by-product of the vast, impersonal flow of a wholly natural set of proceses. Scientists are also real people driven by motives that may not always be consistent with the selfless pursuit of truth. Passmore has coined the interesting word 'aristoscience' to describe the most prestige-earning scientific disciplines; science that might, for example, examine a particular set of phenomena separated from their wider and much more meaningful context in the actual world. In the secular industrialised world it is widely held that the knowledge gained from the activity of science is pure, unembellished truth.
