Pearcey and Thaxton on Scientists’ De Facto Realism
Nancy R. Pearcey and Charles B. Thaxton in The Soul of Science (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1994), p. 56.The majority [of scientists] continue to be naive realists, blithely assuming that science yields reliable facts. And given that the number of working scientists far exceeds the number of science historians, that makes realism the dominant view in science today. It is a view, moreover, that appears to be buttressed by the everyday experience of the bountiful practical benefits of science. When science works so well, it is difficult not to conclude that it bears at least some
relation to a world that really exists.