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>It's troubling that otherwise well-educated, logical people have come to elevate science as this god-like authority, and scientific consensus as the source of

>It's troubling that otherwise well-educated, logical people have come to elevate science as this god-like authority, and scientific consensus as the source of all truths. Who or where precisely have you ever seen that actually done? Are you perhaps confusing people who are asserting/suggesting that science is our best tool to understand truth, and assuming they believe it is always true, or that it can/has uncovered all truths? From my point of view science isn't fetishized nearly enough. People reject vaccines for crazy reasons, think the Earth is flat, think the moon landing never happened, basically have no idea how anything works at all.

ironmagma 6y ago
Anywhere people say, "trust the science." Science isn't one thing, so you can't trust it per sé. For a simple discombobulating example, we have the question, "which science?" There is economics and epidemiology, and those often conflict. Who do we listen to? The only answer is that you have to form an understanding of both sciences in order to synthesize a way that they form a single coherent picture.
- ianmcgowan 6y ago
  Science is like violence? If it's not working, the answer is more of it? Sounds like a plan to me..
- creaturemachine 6y ago
  The sea of sciences is vast, and the ones vying for our attention on a daily basis is overwhelming. What you're saying sounds easy for the well-read individuals on HN, but the masses need a trustworthy authority to do the work for them, and knowing what we do of Governments I wouldn't trust them either.
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    An authority telling people what to think? That sounds an awful lot like religion. I think we need to make up our mind which we want: education to make actually sure people understand science, or to go back to the ways of religion. It’s clear that the middle ground is not working.
- neonological 6y ago
  It can be paired down to one thing: the scientific method. When you exclude all human variables, including politics and errors and mistakes, the question is do you trust the scientific method? Most people don’t understand that even with all these variables removed there is a flaw in the scientific method that is the origin of most of these misunderstandings in science. In science and therefore in reality as we know it, we cannot prove anything to be true. No claim made by any scientist has actually been proven. Scientists can only attempt to falsify things. At best, after many attempts at falsifying something we can say that a theory might be true, we can never prove it to be true.
  - ironmagma 6y ago
    Yes, and add on to that the complication that not all science derives from the scientific method. You have evolutionary biology and theoretical physics, which are essentially retrofitting theories to existing data.

ironmagma 6y ago

Anywhere people say, "trust the science." Science isn't one thing, so you can't trust it per sé. For a simple discombobulating example, we have the question, "which science?" There is economics and epidemiology, and those often conflict. Who do we listen to? The only answer is that you have to form an understanding of both sciences in order to synthesize a way that they form a single coherent picture.

ianmcgowan 6y ago
Science is like violence? If it's not working, the answer is more of it? Sounds like a plan to me..
creaturemachine 6y ago
The sea of sciences is vast, and the ones vying for our attention on a daily basis is overwhelming. What you're saying sounds easy for the well-read individuals on HN, but the masses need a trustworthy authority to do the work for them, and knowing what we do of Governments I wouldn't trust them either.
- ironmagma 6y ago
  An authority telling people what to think? That sounds an awful lot like religion. I think we need to make up our mind which we want: education to make actually sure people understand science, or to go back to the ways of religion. It’s clear that the middle ground is not working.
neonological 6y ago
It can be paired down to one thing: the scientific method. When you exclude all human variables, including politics and errors and mistakes, the question is do you trust the scientific method? Most people don’t understand that even with all these variables removed there is a flaw in the scientific method that is the origin of most of these misunderstandings in science. In science and therefore in reality as we know it, we cannot prove anything to be true. No claim made by any scientist has actually been proven. Scientists can only attempt to falsify things. At best, after many attempts at falsifying something we can say that a theory might be true, we can never prove it to be true.
- ironmagma 6y ago
  Yes, and add on to that the complication that not all science derives from the scientific method. You have evolutionary biology and theoretical physics, which are essentially retrofitting theories to existing data.