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There is also a sense in which some people have a strong belief in some ephemeral "the Science" and only want to make decisions based on that. For example, as y

There is also a sense in which some people have a strong belief in some ephemeral "the Science" and only want to make decisions based on that. For example, as you say something might make you feel better, but they entirely reject it and want nothing to do with it because it hasn't been "scientifically proven" yet. Obviously science is a very powerful tool (I'm a physicist myself), but we shouldn't expect every corner of our life to need to be accounted for by it to live properly. It has become a new kind of religion for some people, and they don't even realise it.

Taywee 4y ago
Just a little bit ago, there was this submission on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31560298 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31560298 The article in question (quite short), has this passage, which reminded me of your comment here: >> Positivist dispositions can lead to the acceptance of claims because they have a scientific form, not because they are grounded in robust evidence and sound argument. > I think what they are saying is that empiricism is not robust. Yeah, sure, facts are great, and all. But it’s easy to cherry-pick facts and find whatever conclusion you want. I guess if you only follow the branches that you like, you can convince yourself that reality is whatever you want it to be. > I think that’s a fair point. In my opinion, the majority of non-fiction books are an exercise in finding some exciting-sounding thesis and then cobbling together random scraps of evidence to support it.