Science and Your Beliefs
October 8, 2015 3:30pm by Barry Ritholtz
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Bravo.
Was thinking about this just this morning. I’d learned enough science by age 13 to be an atheist. Continued with science and philosophy to add sufficient breadth to more accurately say I’m a philosophical materialist. Age 18.
No matter. Almost 60 years later nothing in science, technology, human progress offers even an atom of knowledge to change that understanding. And you’re right. My personal conviction means nothing to the course of science.
Nothing like a sunny day to warm the spaces between your molecules.
My kind of flask!
And narratives don’t really give a sh.. about science (or facts). If you think I am wrong then trek out Faux news or the latest right wing “think” tank report.
An updated version of the Huxley quote –
The great tragedy of Science — the slaying of a beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact. – Thomas Henry Huxley.
Just substitute belief for hypothesis, although not every belief makes a valid hypothesis, and you have the same idea with a more subtle finger.
.
Well, that’s blinding.
But there is no such oracle named “Science”, as its a method of analysis, not a source of knowledge.
Remember Max Planck’s observation: “A scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
You need to logically extend Planck’s observation: The limit of imagination is what we already know; science extends that limit over time.
Name another epistemology that can make a comparable claim w/ valid sociohistorical support and we can discuss it.
Science is most certainly an “oracle”. It is a set of methods and approaches that will give you facts and knowledge a lot more often that listening to Faux news. As with any “oracle” it is not 100% certain in 100% of its answers – but it has a batting average that has outdone all other kinds of “oracles”.
I always liked the saying, “… facts are true whether you believe them or not…”. And science gives us a lot of facts. The cool thing about science is that it self-corrects if a mistake is discovered due to new analysis, more information, previously unknown evidence, etc…
“Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts
is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.” — Henri Poincare
“Since its beginnings, science has been an assault on common sense.” – Bruce Gregory, Inventing Reality