![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.riley.rackliffe.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/calvin.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI\u2019ve been thinking more about it though and there may be something in the comparison. To understand it I had to stop thinking about the true priesthood, the priesthood that was imagined by God and functions ideally under his direction to do his work. Instead I had to consider the human implementation of a priest class like that found in ancient Egypt, Babylon or medieval Europe. Where the priesthood was not access to God but rather a political class of people engaged in power struggles and politics at the very top of their societies. These priests claimed to be the intermediaries between the secrets of the universe and the common man. They had answers to mystical questions. Their advice was sought before planning a battle, building a structure, or forming a marriage. They fed themselves by tithing the people, or via taxation through government sponsorship. They dabbled in the politics of the day, pitting kings against kings, sending forth crusaders to conquer, and overthrowing regimes which displeased them. They built great temples of their craft to house their worship and further their craft. They could do a great deal of good. The worked to comfort the sick and dying, they stabilized society, and served a peasant class that lived in often very harsh conditions. The old priest caste was a powerful political power in the ancient world. <\/p>\n
Is it possible that science has become that sort of priesthood? Sure, it doesn\u2019t follow patriarchal lines anymore but how does science function in our world today?<\/p>\n
Scientists are the intermediaries between the common people and the great field of truth now called \u201cScience\u201d. Someone may ask their neighbor \u201cwhy do you believe that?\u201d only to be answered that \u201cscience tells us it is so\u201d. Thus science functions as a grand authority to be appealed to in moments of doubt. Scientists are the intellectual elite who often produce nothing but answers (engineers are notable exceptions). They feed themselves by the sponsorship of the government which gives them direct financial interest in the workings of the government. When someone seeks to build a factory, a shipyard, or destroy a building scientists are consulted first. They build great laboratories to further their craft and expand their influence. Science is used to justify genocide and spur exploration. It has also done a great deal of good, expanding our food supplies, shoring up our health, and providing so many of the wonders in our lives today.<\/p>\n
Scientists are bright yet intelligence is an easy road to pride with scientists being a remarkably arrogant group, constantly battling over grant funding and authorship. They battle over whatever novel idea may bring them the most money regardless of utility. Politics drives the scientist as surely as it does every other group. The high priests of the craft are the masterful doctors of science, the principal investigators, the tenured professor. Under these cardinals the pyramid of postdocs, Ph\u2019D candidates, and MS graduate students create the bishops, deacons, and priests of the lab with the science technicians filling in the body of the priesthood. Undergraduates are kind of like the church mice. This hierarchy is locked in the drum major drive to be number one. To reach the top sometimes even at the expense of the true practice of their craft. And have no doubt, scientists are just as human as the priesthoods of ancient Egypt. <\/p>\n