A Brief, Nonprofessional Opinion About Discrediting Science

It occurred to me that the way I have heard science attacked lately takes one main form.  What I hear is folks saying that science is not factual, that all science has to offer is theories and "guesses".  In turn these people are arguing that since science does not claim to be absolute, it is just another belief system.  In short, the way religious individuals are criticising science is by claiming that it is not any better than their own religions.  Therefore, ironically, they are actually supporting and even proving that religions are less valid than science.


Just because scientists do not claim to have "The Truth" does not mean that science is flimsy or disreputable.  Certainly the inability of laypeople to understand hard science has no effect on the validity of it.  In reality, scientists get into some pretty far-out areas of the universe.  Places where our everyday thinking about things like "water is wet' no longer apply.  These are things we just can't say we understand completely.  We still have microwave ovens and P.E.T. scans, G.P.S. and cell phones, refrigerators and genetically-modified foods.  That's all science-based, not running on faith.


I will state this as simply as I can:

1.  Belief systems (read: religions) are not rigorous and objective but are only as valid as the people who believe them.
2.  Religion precludes your involvement and testing; there is no way to go about "knowing" anything.
3.  Science is a series of observations, conjecture about what happened, followed by testing, and re-evaluation to make sure.  Repeat ad infinitum.
4.  Anyone and everyone can participate in science: make observations, hypotheses, test them, and show your data to others and you are a scientist.