Science - What is it? Can it be trusted?

[ThankQ]

My first thought was to have a massive original post, but if this thread happens to catch on, I imagine several people will have many views to contribute, so I think it's best just to get the ball rolling and leave a little bit of thunder for everyone.

I just read, from first post to last, the Ancient Aliens thread, and that's what brought this to the front of my mind this morning.

The idea of not "trusting" science was voiced, as was the idea that scientists circle the wagons to protect prevailing theory.

Well, to me, those thougths, (this is not directed at or limited to the handful of posters from that thread--the number of people is in the millions, possibly billions) show a total lack of understand of what "science" is.

First, what it is NOT:
Science is NOT a body of knowledge.
Science is NOT a belief or set of beliefs.

Science is an algorithm. That is, science is a system of steps for solving a problem--or, if you'd rather, for answering a question.


I could go on for paragraph after paragraph, but I'll leave it there and start the discussion.
-----------------

The word "theory" is likely to appear in this thread. So we're all on the same page, let's start by standardizing some definitions so we all know what we're saying to each other:


Hypothesis: This is an educated guess based upon observation. It is a proposed explanation of a single event or phenomenon based upon what is observed, but which has not been proved. Most hypotheses can be supported or refuted by experimentation or continued observation.

Theory: A theory is what one or more hypotheses become once they have been verified and accepted to be true. A theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times by detached groups of researchers.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

It's poetry in motion. When she turned her eyes to me...
As deep as any ocean. Sweet as any harmony...

 

[ThankQ]

Thomas Dolby. He also invented surround sound

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I don't believe it! There she goes again! She's tidied up, and I CAN'T FIND ANYTHING!!!!

 

[Amaris]

My first thought was to have a massive original post, but if this thread happens to catch on, I imagine several people will have many views to contribute, so I think it's best just to get the ball rolling and leave a little bit of thunder for everyone.

I just read, from first post to last, the Ancient Aliens thread, and that's what brought this to the front of my mind this morning.

The idea of not "trusting" science was voiced, as was the idea that scientists circle the wagons to protect prevailing theory.

Well, to me, those thougths, (this is not directed at or limited to the handful of posters from that thread--the number of people is in the millions, possibly billions) show a total lack of understand of what "science" is.

First, what it is NOT:
Science is NOT a body of knowledge.
Science is NOT a belief or set of beliefs.

Science is an algorithm. That is, science is a system of steps for solving a problem--or, if you'd rather, for answering a question.


I could go on for paragraph after paragraph, but I'll leave it there and start the discussion.
-----------------

The word "theory" is likely to appear in this thread. So we're all on the same page, let's start by standardizing some definitions so we all know what we're saying to each other:


Hypothesis: This is an educated guess based upon observation. It is a proposed explanation of a single event or phenomenon based upon what is observed, but which has not been proved. Most hypotheses can be supported or refuted by experimentation or continued observation.

Theory: A theory is what one or more hypotheses become once they have been verified and accepted to be true. A theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times by detached groups of researchers.

Very well said. Science is often scoffed at and untrusted, mainly by practitioners of pseudoscience who realize that testable data cuts into multiple profits. This is particularly obvious in the field of "well being", where people accept just about any cockamamie idea that makes them think they're getting better. An overindulgence of the placebo effect and confirmation bias.

 

[RJDiogenes]

Science is a bunch of godless, four-eyed weirdos in lab coats who think they know everything but they don't.

 

[Amaris]

Science is a bunch of godless, four-eyed weirdos in lab coats who think they know everything but they don't.

Hey, I resent that! I'm not wearing a lab coat.

 

[maneth]

I trust science as a concept but that doesn't mean I automatically trust scientists. I have a hard time with dogma, though, of any description.

 

[Jadzia]

"Science" can be used as a legal barrier, which means it probably is used that way by some people. What do I mean by that?

I mean that questionable activities are able to be shielded behind the need for proof. Insufficient scientific investigation or contradictory results can easily be highlighted to keep things "inconclusive".

Consider climate change for example. There are lots of studies on this, and we all know that our economies could be badly hurt if climate change if is proven to be caused by human activity, and we're forced to drastically change our lifestyles. Some people in big business may fear such proofs emerging and are willing to spend a little money to disrupt those studies somehow.

Also, official research into whether something is true or false can easily be corrupt/distorted if that research is carried out with an agenda.

Bad science carries an air of expert authority, can be used to influence people's opinions, and can be terribly pervasive: "the scientists say this..." is as powerful today as the words of priests were in the middle ages. Words of science are words of power.



So I think the most important thing to remember about science is this: Unless you did the research yourself, your trust in the findings of a scientific study is nothing more than your trust in the competence and sincerity of those who did/verified the research.

 

[Deckerd]

Science is a bunch of godless, four-eyed weirdos in lab coats who think they know everything but they don't.

Hey, I resent that! I'm not wearing a lab coat.

No pants, no lab coat. Just a flashlight.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

To paraphrase a quote normally applied to democracy, "Science is the single worst way to acquire knowledge--except for all the others we've tried."

It's hardly perfect but it's the best we've got, and I'd certainly trust the results of scientific investigation a lot more than I'd trust some bozo with a blog, or a priest of any religious persuasion.

 

[paudemge]

The word "theory" is likely to appear in this thread. So we're all on the same page, let's start by standardizing some definitions so we all know what we're saying to each other:

Hypothesis: This is an educated guess based upon observation. It is a proposed explanation of a single event or phenomenon based upon what is observed, but which has not been proved. Most hypotheses can be supported or refuted by experimentation or continued observation.

Theory: A theory is what one or more hypotheses become once they have been verified and accepted to be true. A theory is an explanation of a set of related observations or events based upon proven hypotheses and verified multiple times by detached groups of researchers.

Someone else can expand on this, but thought it might also be useful:
A scientific law is a description of an observed phenomenon.
A Theory does not become a law, they are two different things.
There may be laws describing parts of a theory, just as there a theories that explain why the laws do what they do.

 

[iguana_tonante]

"Science is a little tweeting bird, chirping in a meadow. Science is a wreath of pretty flowers which smell bad."

Being one of the godless four-eyed weirdos tampering with Things Man Was Not Meant to Know, I think my feeling on the matter are very well known (even if I usually wear snappy shirts and fitted jeans at work).

 

[Chaos Descending]

Science is a pretty flower, that smells BAD!

 

[Franklin]

Science is a bunch of godless, four-eyed weirdos in lab coats who think they know everything but they don't.

Hey, I resent that! I'm not wearing a lab coat.

I always thought social scientists would be taken more seriously if they wore lab coats (and goggles, and rubber gloves).

As I remember my reading of Thomas S. Kuhn years ago, science in its broadest sense about building on research that has gone on in the past. It is the creation of achievements that can provide a foundation for further achievements. It is about explaining things in ways that allow for falsifiability. It is about the creation of paradigms in an environment that allows legitimate challenges to those paradigms. When those challenges build up, a paradigm may fall. And, it can never by totally objective. It must recognize subjectivity and account for it.

 

[RandyS]

Science is one half of the argument.

 

[ThankQ]

Science is one half of the argument.

We're waiting....

 

[Deckerd]

Science is one half of the argument.

We're waiting....

Yep me too.

 

[TheGodBen]

Science is flawed, it is filled with human biases, it is obtuse, it is corrupt, it is corrupting, it can be used as justification of great evils and some of its advocates are blinded by their fanatic devotion to the process.

That being said, of all systems created by humankind it is the one I trust the most.

 

[iguana_tonante]

"From that fateful day when stinking bits of slime first crawled from the sea and shouted to the cold stars, "I am Man!", our greatest dread has always been the knowledge of our mortality. But tonight, we shall hurl the gauntlet of science into the frightful face of death itself. Tonight, we shall ascend into the heavens! We shall mock the earthquake! We shall command the thunders, and penetrate into the very womb of impervious! nature! herself!"