I. Man, as the minister and interpreter of nature, does and understands as much as his observations on the order of nature, either with regard to things or the mind, permit him, and neither knows nor is capable of more.
Bacon, Novum Organum Book I
The Oxford English Dictionary defines “interpret” as follows:
To expound the meaning of (something abstruse or mysterious); to render (words, writings, an author, etc.) clear or explicit; to elucidate; to explain.
Where does Bacon get the idea that MAN, who is a part of the natural world himself, is the “interpreter” of that natural world?
How can a part of something explain the whole?
Here, we see the crucial flaw of modern science: It establishes man as the measure of all things.
Only the Creator can reveal the end of the natural world and, consequently, explain the subordinate ends of all things found in it.
The book of Wisdom–yes, Wisdom!–rejects Bacon’s very first principle:
“In God’s hand are both we, and our words, and all wisdom, and the knowledge and skill of works. For he hath given me the true knowledge of the things that are: to know the disposition of the whole world, and the virtues of the elements, The beginning, and ending, and midst of the times, the alterations of their courses, and the changes of seasons, The revolutions of the year, and the dispositions of the stars, the natures of living creatures, and rage of wild beasts, the force of winds, and reasonings of men, the diversities of plants, and the virtues of roots, and all such things as are hid and not foreseen, I have learned: for wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me.”
Wisdom 7