Tag: Science

How does Science Work

“Okay… well, then why does science work?” This question was asked of me when I was explaining that science, in many ways, is simply another religion. It is another set of beliefs that makes us function a certain way, and put our faith in certain people. Whether that be done by a just or logical means is irrelevant. The fact of the matter simply states that science has the power to influence our perceptions of the world, our own morality and how things should be and are. 

With this awareness of science’s power in mind, we can begin to see the connection between this way of explaining the world compared to the many others. Whether that be Catholicism, Buddism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Spiritualism, Science, and/or a hundred other possibilities, these belief systems are means of understanding and creating everything that is. And like all ways of understanding the world, we must take certain assumptions and grow from them. We take certain beliefs as absolute and see how far we can run with them before deciding to sacrifice logic or the assumption in hand. Because I’m sorry to say, but every assumption will eventually have its back to a wall, it’s just a matter of how far you’re willing to go. 

So, whether your assumption is of a man in the sky, your senses as objective, you as the creator as opposed to the observer, and/or an infinite of other possibilities, they will all have their limits and restrictions. This is what led me to the very simple, yet extremely difficult to answer the question of, “Why does science work then?”. This obvious problem stumped me quite some time. Constantly second-guessing myself as the practicality of science overwhelmed me, I eventually found an answer once I realized a key element of humanity and life as a whole (assuming they are even separate). That realization is to not mistake the map for the territory and that we are the universe.

** I highly recommend that you read either or both of the hyperlinked posts. If you have the time, they will certainly help you to understand the idea that I am attempting to convey. **

In my post, The Implications of Our Lack of Free Will, I discuss what our world would look like when we assume we do not have free will.  For my third application, I discuss that we are the universe.  I came to this conclusion by assuming humanity is entirely made up of nature and nurture.  Although I find this conclusion accurate, it alone is incomplete. By assuming we are the sum of nature and nurture, we still need to find out what controls or dictates those two things, if not us.  This is where the universe comes in.  

The universe dictates everything.  It is what created our galaxy, our solar system, and our planet.  It then made an environment suitable for life, which slowly created cells and organisms.  This microscopic life eventually evolved, and evolved, and evolved. And over time we emerged.  We emerged as other life did, and the one thing different from a living thing and a nonliving thing is that living things want to make more of themselves.  With that need, we eventually began to organize ourselves and develop emotions like greed and empathy. The universe dictates everything, and therefore we are the universe.  

Before I proceed, I can see a possible issue with my last sentence in the paragraph above.  You may be thinking, “simply because something dictates us, should not mean we are it”. I suppose a quick explanation is that whether you know it or not, you have probably been doing that your whole life.  In my post, Do We Have Free Will?, I explain that we are controlled by ourselves rather than we control ourselves. 

** This thought theory does not give mindfulness a thorough consideration. This is personally where I feel my idea may be lacking and is possibly contacted in my later work. If this interests you at all, please feel free to follow the link to a phase in the blog that addresses this head-on **

With some variation, we mostly identify ourselves by how and who we act as.  We essentially say our personalities are who we are. And the issue with this is that there is nothing personal about our personalities.  

Personalities are created, as I explained in the previous paragraphs.  They are not created by you or me, or anyone for that matter. It is simply something that controls us and dictates us for who we are, yet we identify with it.  So rather than seeing it as its own thing, we identify with it and assume it is our own. This is why I believe I can safely safe we are the universe. I mean it in no different of a way that we mean when we say we are ourselves.

Now that we both assume science is a religion and that we are the universe, it becomes clear why science works (at least to me… let me know what you think).  It works because we think within this universe and therefore act within this universe. Our logic to create science, our adoption of mathematics, and our understanding of this reality, are all within the parameters of the universe.  Although we are not always accurate, we are always thinking within these parameters and therefore never totally clueless. This is also why I believe science will become more and more accurate, from within our universe, as we modernize and develop new ideas.  I believe science, although a non-absolute religion, is the best understanding of our universe today and will be for a long time.

This post began with a question that I hope I have answered.  Yet since language is a bit of a barrier and abstract thoughts are challenging to write about, I encourage you to comment below or email me any question you may have.  

Also, if you find an issue in anything I have said please feel free to discuss it is with me in the same two forms of communication.  I write about these topics because I believe I am correct, but just because I think I am correct, does not mean I am current. Therefore, I would love to talk about anything we disagree on.  I will try my hardest to consider your point, just as I hope you will do the same for me.

🙂 Have a nice day!

Power in Modern Society

Image result for martin luther 95

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.