Scientistic materialism is a philosophical stance which posits a limited definition of consciousness to that which is observable and subject to the scientific method. The term is used as a pejorative by proponents of creationism and intelligent design.
History
The "Wedge Document" produced by the Discovery Institute, described "materialism" as denial of "the proposition that human beings are created in the image of God," and that humans are instead "animals or machines who inhabited a universe ruled by purely impersonal forces and whose behavior and very thoughts were dictated by the unbending forces of biology, chemistry and environment." The document states that materialism leads inevitably to "moral relativism" and denounce its "stifling dominance" in modern culture. By this definition, scientific materialism is linked to the more general version of materialism which declares that the physical world is the only thing that exists and that nothing supernatural exists.