Power in Modern Society

Not so long ago in our society the church was the state and religion reigned over almost every aspect of life. Government policies were centered around information that the church provided, that was the fact of the time. I have always thought that those times had passed, that governments are now operating outside of religion, but maybe they aren’t. Religion is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “ a cause, principle, or system of beliefs held to with ardor and faith”, I find this significant because it does not mention gods or the supernatural. What I’m proposing here is that we have a new religion, one in which we put all of our faith in, and that is science.

I live my life by the information that science provides me, the biggest aspects being health, social interactions, and what I fear. For instance I don’t smoke cigarettes, I don’t because science has told me that it is terrible for my health and that addiction is something to fear. The more I think about it the more I realize the extent to which we live under the influence of science. Major government policies are determined based on statistics provided by researchers, our food is deemed fit or unfit to eat by those who study it, and our conversations are guided by the latest things that we learn and hear from the scientific community.

I would not like to be mistaken however, I don’t think that this is a negative thing, quite the opposite actually. We once determined the way that we lived based on faith and instructions from the church, now we live based on information that can be fact checked and verified.

It is an interesting thing the way the power structure has shifted especially recently. For many thousands of years religion was the main determinant of what life in a society was like, it has only been in the last four hundred years or so that this change has happened. With all that being said I don’t think it is all good, as nothing really is. There is an innate problem with power structures and that is they can be used for selfish purposes.

Science has been used for foul things before, we’ve done some horrific things to one another using the excuse of scientific knowledge to justify it. A perfect example of such a thing were experiments on POWs in World War two. Another major problem is the ability to fabricate science. With society having such a faith in science a fabrication of information can lead to a major disruption of progress. One instance of this was the study indicating that vaccinations can lead to the development of autism. Because of this study there are now thousands of people not vaccinating their children, causing some to die.

I think it’s very important to think about science this way, to look at it as a power structure and not just a subject or a method. It’s important because we must always be questioning power structures, making certain that we are minimising their abuse. When I say this I do not mean you should question gravity, or whether or not the Earth is flat. I mean to say that we should question those who use the institution of science as an excuse to continue malicious behaviors, or those who fabricate facts to push their own agenda. Once we do this, then we will be on the road to progressing as quickly as we can with the power and utility of science.