All those who worship at the altar of Big Science, please tell me: how do you deal with Big Science’s huge, embarrassing inability to duplicate “scientific” study results?
The world is full of known unknowns and unknown unknowns. Humans’ understanding of the universe and even how human beings construct reality within their minds is very, very limited. Meanwhile, buoyed by Enlightenment-bred hubris, we’ve managed to destroy hundreds of indigenous cultures and the wisdom they had amassed through the millennia. I’m skeptical of New Age types because so many New Age leaders are hustlers just like their counterparts in more traditional religions. But I’m also skeptical towards those who worship science as a solution to all our problems when science itself is beset with hired hands who “demonstrate” the truth of whatever their employers hire them to do.
13 comments
All those who worship at the altar of Big Science… With a start like that…
Many of Einstein’s theories weren’t proven until long after his death. That’s why they’re called “theories”, not “laws”. If nobody ever hypothesized and experimented, the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria would still be in port.
I once heard a great definition of science: science is the discipline of keeping error up to date.
Yeah, because people WORSHIP science(granted, there are always real fucked up and crazed nuts out there but I refuse to define things by a bunch of nuts), that is how it works… Quit your projecting, I’m trying to watch cartoons here.
“All those who worship at the altar of Big Science, please tell me: how do you deal with Big Science’s huge, embarrassing inability to duplicate “scientific” study results?”
The altar of Big Science… I’m picturing a 30 ft. golden idol dressed in a lab coat, wearing safety goggles, holding a beaker of chemicals in one hand and a microscope in the other. All hail Big Science, the great falsifiable savior!
“The world is full of known unknowns and unknown unknowns.”
Don’t forget about the unknown knowns and the known unowns.
But I’m also skeptical towards those who worship science as a solution to all our problems ...the OP said, using a computer to solve a problem: being an Attention Whore with no audience.
Welp, if you think using that solution is such a bad thing, then I suggest you follow the advice of the venerable Quantum Mechanic: 'Stop Using Computers'.
(*Crickets chirp *)
...thought not: o worshipper of Alan Turing, Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Linus Torvalds...!
A good scientist knows best that science can’t possibly find out everything about our universe, but we can adjust our models of it to fit reality more and more, and that tells us more about it than any New Age pseudo-belief will ever tell us about it.
@checkmate :
Theories do not become laws, but they often incorporate them, as theories are explanations of all the evidence for a given conclusion. They must have sufficient evidence to be considered a theory & not merely a hypothesis.
The "worship at the altar of Big Science" is an argument from ignorance and a false equivalence. One from someone who works by narrative and belief and who projects the rest of society or science to only be the same. Then the tendency by fundamentalists to call "idolatry" anything that may contest their worldview. The argument can't make any sense except to their own anti-science audience.
Anyone who reads about the scientific method soon discovers that it's the best knowledge development and reality assessment system. It doesn't mean that science knows everything. But it means that it will keep improving its methods and knowledge, including better ways to deal with human limitations like confirmation bias. Because it's not in the business of starting from preconceived conclusions and attempting to validate them with apologetics, more concerned with finding out how the world works from observation and empirical testing...
And yes, let's not confuse theory and scientific theory, hypothesis, legal laws and scientific laws, they're all different things.
Big science gave us technology and higher quality of life. Religion gave us terrorism, 9/11, Dark Ages, Robert Dear, Eric Rudolph, Catholic church abuse scandal, Quiverfull
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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