Science is not, and should not become, a "belief system". We say "believe in Santa Clause" and "believe in the power of love" to garner buy-in for things that are otherwise ineffable. It's a cop-out, typically used to "explain" an idea that is too difficult or impossible to otherwise explain. SCIENCE IS EXPLAINABLE. Using the word "belief" or "believe" with science falsely implies that science is a) not explainable, and b) possibly not true.
I propose we substitute "Believe the Science" with "Understand the Science" or similar*. It empowers all of us to teach and learn, rather than preach and follow.
TLDR; Please stop conflating science with spiritual rhetoric.
EDIT: Striving to "understand the science" rather than accepting it as truth allows for skepticism and contradictory findings, which is how we evolve. Scientific findings have been wrong before, and I'm sure that there are some that are wrong today. But at some point, i think the process will reveal these misconceptions.
*Edit 2: "I trust the scientist" is another alternative to consider propsed in some thoughtful comments below. Specifically for topics that require an immense amount of knowledge or background that would be too complicated laborious for common folk to wrap our heads around. I still think one should understand *why* they trust the scientists. Are they peer reviewed? who are they funded by? what are their backgrounds?
Edit 3: I don't mean to put down spirituality or imply that religion and science cannot coexist. To quote a comment below that summarizes my thoughts: "Science and Religion don't need to fight, they simply need to stay in their lanes."
[link] [comments]
No comments:
Post a Comment