This piece, recently published in PNAS, alludes to the fact that some scientists are either suspicious of or hostile toward philosophy. It's been my experience that many nonbelievers are similarly suspicious and, on some occasions, perhaps even believers too (it's my opinion that the Philosophy subforum was closed mostly due to such suspicions). So my question here is why?—why is philosophy so often cast as something we no longer need, as something pointless, as a distraction?
In case you are wondering why this topic would be relevant to the Christian Apologetics subforum, it's worth noting that apologetics has long drawn upon philosophy for its best source material and that many of the discussions that go on here are themselves philosophical in character. Yet even some apologists turn their nose up at philosophy, at least implicitly, when they insist that "science can prove" God exists. Not all apologists do this, obviously, but a significant minority seem to take science as the primary starting point for the apologetic endeavour, so it's not a moot point.
In case you are wondering why this topic would be relevant to the Christian Apologetics subforum, it's worth noting that apologetics has long drawn upon philosophy for its best source material and that many of the discussions that go on here are themselves philosophical in character. Yet even some apologists turn their nose up at philosophy, at least implicitly, when they insist that "science can prove" God exists. Not all apologists do this, obviously, but a significant minority seem to take science as the primary starting point for the apologetic endeavour, so it's not a moot point.