I'm an astrophysicist at a major university. Science is my life. But when I hear somebody somberly intone, "science says" or "follow the science," I get very nervous.
Science doesn't belong to any ideology. Science is the never-ending search for new knowledge.
That's what science means in Latin, by the way—knowledge. Not wisdom. Not morality. Not social policy.
Knowledge. What we do with that knowledge is where wisdom, morality, and social policy enter the picture.
Knowledge, it turns out, isn't so easy to come by. And sometimes what we think we know for certain (the earth sure does look flat when we're standing on it) turns out not to be so certain.
Of course, I trust in basic scientific truths—those things for which there is overwhelming evidence like, say, gravity; even that humans play a role in the warming of the planet.
But scientists—even the best ones—can get things wrong.…..
……..
the 20th century, some of the most respected scientists in the world, including Nobel Prize winners, believed in eugenics—the reprehensible idea that the human race could be improved by selective breeding. The National Academy of Sciences, the American Medical Association, and the Rockefeller Foundation supported it. By the middle of the century, it had been thoroughly rejected as quackery. No reputable scientist would have anything to do with this idea.
So, we all need to get over this notion that just because someone—be it a politician, a bureaucrat, or even a scientist—employs the phrase "science says" means whatever they're saying is right.
It
might be right. But it might also be wrong. And if it's wrong, it won't necessarily be a bunch of scientists who say it's wrong. It might be one guy…….
…….Science is
never closed. If it was closed after Newton, you'd never have Einstein. Science has to be, first and always, about pursuing knowledge—not about advancing a social agenda, no matter how noble it might be. Science has no political party.……
……So let's continue to look to science for knowledge—knowledge we can use to improve the world. But let's not fool ourselves that science has all the answers to all our problems.
It doesn't.
If You Can't Question It, Don't Call It Science | PragerU