Science is not so much about knowledge as doubt. Never in the field of human inquiry have so many known so little about so much.
If this all sounds rather rarefied, consider science at its most practical, scientific experiments don’t end with a holy grail so much as an estimate of probability.
For example, one might be able to accord a value to one’s conclusion not of “yes” or “no” but “P<0.05”, which means that the result has a less than one in 20 chance of being a fluke. That doesn’t mean it’s “right”. They cannot determine The Truth. And Truth, with a capital T, is forever just beyond one’s grasp.
But, the fiction of settled scientific truth is still dangled out there for the homage of the public.
Scientists are looked upon as wizards, men like gods, who either have more than the regular human complement of little grey cells, or access to occult arcana denied to us ordinary mortals.
They are our secular priests in vestments of white coats, tortoiseshell specs and pocket protectors. We don’t dare criticize them. We don’t engage with them – we bow down before them.
Science Has Its Own Code of Ethics
There are state laws, and there are moral laws. And now, according to science, there are “laws of scientific conduct”. All kinds of atrocities are committed in the name of science – take a doctor, for example, who has to give placebo pills to a number of his patients in a drug trial, knowing that they will suffer or die much sooner than if they had received proper treatment.
But scientific advancement almost always claims precedence over personal morality. And – unless you’re a zealot yourself – its ethics will clash with your personal code of conduct.
Science Has Its Own Priesthood
Newton, Darwin and Einstein serve as the holy trinity of western science. And below these are the elders: Watson, Crick, Dawkins, Hawking, Dennet, Chomsky, Penrose and Sagan. And then you have the High Priests: the Nobel Prize winners, the popular writers and the media celebrities… and recently we have Cardinal Fauci.
Their opinions are received as sermons, and their statements are quoted like sacred texts.
Ordinary people are ridiculed, if they doubt the interpretations of this priesthood. Even for scientists, questioning a member of a higher tier is done only at your own risk. After all, all scientific work (from papers to grant applications) is peer reviewed, remember?
Science is Based on Established Dogmas
Ever wonder how for centuries, the best doctors could insist on blood-letting as a cure – without ever noticing that their patients did worse? The answer: belief in blood-letting was part of the scientific dogma at the time.
Anything contradicting this dogma is simply rejected and ignored, or ridiculed for as long as possible. Currently the doctrine seems to be belief in the mystical power of a yet untested and unproven vaccine. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Science thus has the trappings of a full blown religion.
Once again, I have posited enough blasphemy to make your average adjunct professor’s head explode. So enough for today. Join us tomorrow for some final heresy’s regarding the secular scientific sacredotals.