Scientism, Physicalism, Materialism
Some people, such as philosopher Bertrand Russell, have taken the view that not only is science a powerful way to model the Universe but that science is the only way in which we can obtain knowledge. This view is sometimes called physicalism, materialism or scientism
For instance:
“Whatever knowledge is attainable must be attained by scientific methods, and what science cannot discover, mankind cannot know”
Bertrand Russell.
In fact this is self-refuting because the statement is itself not a scientific statement.
A view which is commonly held goes even further than that by saying that anything which is not discoverable by science cannot exist.
Despite its wide acceptance, there is no justification for this and there is a whole array of arguments against.
It is a highly restrictive view because it consigns anything to which the scientific method cannot be applied to the category of the “supernatural” where it is considered meaningless or not real.
However such a distinction says more about science and about an over-inflated view of humanity than about the Cosmos or what is real.
It excludes many things which are our everyday experience even though they are not normally considered as “supernatural”.