Science Almighty
Just an interesting article on something I have been thinking about recently. I definately respect science- as I respect religion and while both have good intentions once you add the human element they both can be abused. "Science says..." or "studies show..." might be someday the "Almighty Science". But I hope to write more on the idea later. For now here is the link and some comments that I liked following.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/05/31/136817357/science-deniers-hand-over-your-cellphones
This article is a classic example of why the public rejects scientists and their message. Science is supremely arrogant, claiming territorial rights to the only version of truth, and pontificates from on high. Its attitude reminds the public of the clergy of the past. Science is one leaf on the tree of philosophy. It's a handy leaf and operates on rules of empirical proofs, yet it's not the only philosophy that offers truth. Science dodges other issuers of truth by either engulfing them or it dismisses other truths as "unscientific" as if science was the only truth. In some cases, such as environment, science teams with politics creating an instant hypocrisy and buying into non-truths even after rejecting so many other real truths. You criticise people for using technology whilst being skeptics of science. But technology is based on workability, and doesn't always follow from science. Much technology originated before science, and science follows technology as often as the reverse. Many inventions conceived the science that explained them. Science needs to gain perspective and relative meaning, and not be insular to other knowledge, otherwise there might one day be a renaisance where we awake from the shackles of rigid science.
http://www.npr.org/blogs/13.7/2011/05/31/136817357/science-deniers-hand-over-your-cellphones
This article is a classic example of why the public rejects scientists and their message. Science is supremely arrogant, claiming territorial rights to the only version of truth, and pontificates from on high. Its attitude reminds the public of the clergy of the past. Science is one leaf on the tree of philosophy. It's a handy leaf and operates on rules of empirical proofs, yet it's not the only philosophy that offers truth. Science dodges other issuers of truth by either engulfing them or it dismisses other truths as "unscientific" as if science was the only truth. In some cases, such as environment, science teams with politics creating an instant hypocrisy and buying into non-truths even after rejecting so many other real truths. You criticise people for using technology whilst being skeptics of science. But technology is based on workability, and doesn't always follow from science. Much technology originated before science, and science follows technology as often as the reverse. Many inventions conceived the science that explained them. Science needs to gain perspective and relative meaning, and not be insular to other knowledge, otherwise there might one day be a renaisance where we awake from the shackles of rigid science.