In American Thinker Randall Hoven writes Science for Stupid Idiots, 9/22/11.

Excerpts:

we get to why we must believe “science,” meaning taking whatever “scientists” say is incontrovertible truth.  If we start having doubts about any of it, we just might start thinking for ourselves.  We will no longer simply swallow what our betters feed us.

The irony is that so many “scientists” have become the enemy they once fought.  They now sit like the elders of the Church at the time of the Guttenberg press.  Imagine the chaos that would result if people could read the Bible themselves!  Better not teach them to read.

Real science is the scientific method.  It means skepticism.  It means publishing your data (as Samuel Morton did).  It means doubt.  It means humility.

HKO comments:

I may not know which end of the test tube the cork goes into, but I do realize that there are so many variables and unknowns in the world of climate that the debate is never over.   Scientists can fall into the same emotional and logical bias traps as any other.   Hoven’s article makes a grand tour of the fallibility of science.

When skepticism is demonized, truth suffers.  Ideologues  present us with a false choice; if we do not ‘believe’ then we are fools, deniers,  and idiots.  This not the logic of science; it is the logic of narrow minded fanaticism.  When ‘non-believers’ are demonized as Al Gore has done so often he is acting like a religious fanatic, not a scientist.

Evolution is a theory, but it is a pretty damn good one.  It does have gaps, which should simply invite further study.  This does not mean that the theory is thus proven false.  And the only alternative to evolution is not creationism.  Creationism can be a poetic metaphor, but as an explanation of our world it is not science and it is foolish to treat it as such.

There is always the unknown, the unfound and the unproven.  Perhaps evolution  will evolve into or be replaced by a better theory.

Philosophers have long debated the intersections of religion and science.  While religion and science may not mix well, they both mix poorly with politics.

print