In which Fr Dwight Longenecker discusses fideism as opposed to rationalism. The two tendencies which he discusses are really opposite extremes between which is balanced the Catholic version of epistemology. We know that faith and reason are complementary, and thus that they do not contradict each other.

Of particular interest is this bit:

Scientism teaches that there is no other knowledge than that which can be discovered by the scientific method. This is an extension of empiricism which teaches that only that which can be experienced by the physical senses is reliable and sure knowledge.

There is a bit of irony to this, for scientism and empiricism are the types of argument most often used by the atheists--especially those in the scientific community--to dismiss supernaturalism in general and Christianity in particular. "I can't see, smell, taste, hear, or feel God, therefore He does not exist." This is ironic because whenever people pop up who do claim to have seen or heard God (or otherwise experienced Him with the five senses), the atheists must dismiss them some how: "The hundred of witnesses who saw the risen Christ were only hallucinating together."

Isn't it odd that the five senses become so suddenly unreliable when miracles of any type might enter the equation through them.