Identifying scientism as religion’s secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike.

1. Introduction: A Cultural Sociology of the Authority of Science.- 2. The Disenchantment of the World and the Authority of Sociology: How the Queen of the Sciences Lost Her Throne.- 3. Down the Rabbit Hole: Heterodox Science on the Internet.- 4. The Pluralization of Academia: Disentangling Artistic Research.- 5. Elective Affinities between Religion and Neuroscience: The Cases of Conservative Protestantism and Mindfulness Spirituality.- 6. Cultural Worldviews and Lay Interpretations of Research Findings: The Role of the Scientific Consensus.- 7. ‘Science without Scientists’: DIY Biology and the Renegotiation of the Life Sciences.- 8. Contesting Epistemic Authority: Conspiracy Theories on the Boundaries of Science.- 9. A Science Confidence Gap: Education, Trust in Scientific Methods, and Trust in Scientific Institutions in the United States, 2014.

Identifying scientism as religion’s secular counterpart, this collection studies contemporary contestations of the authority of science. These controversies suggest that what we are witnessing today is not an increase in the authority of science at the cost of religion, but a dual decline in the authorities of religion and science alike. This entails an erosion of the legitimacy of universally binding truth claims, be they religiously or scientifically informed. Approaching the issue from a cultural-sociological perspective and building on theories from the sociology of religion, the volume unearths the cultural mechanisms that account for the headwind faced by contemporary science. The empirical contributions highlight how the field of academic science has lost much of its former authority vis-à-vis competing social realms; how political and religious worldviews define particular research findings as favorites while dismissing others; and how much of today’s distrust of science is directed against scientific institutions and academic scientists rather than against science per se.Dick Houtman is Senior Professor of Sociology of Culture and Religion at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Leuven, Belgium, and Faculty Fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology, Yale University, USA. Stef Aupers is Senior Professor of Media Culture at the Institute for Media Studies at the University of Leuven, Belgium. Rudi Laermans is Senior Professor of Social Theory at the Center for Sociological Research at the University of Leuven, Belgium.

Creatively applies theories from the sociology of religion to the authority of science Presents a timely discussion of the erosion of confidence in the authority of science through a cultural-sociological frame Argues for the eradication of claims of the “neutrality” of science, opening the door to a science that is more critical of how its own biases impede the quest for truth