|
i'm basically storm, sans tramp stamp. 
and from the looks of it i probably have a lot in common with tim minchin 
cute video, but there is point to be made about it:
the big one re: comparison of science with religious belief - even though science adjusts its assumptions with evidence, the whole point is that there is unshakable faith in the act of observation, and in the shorter term, in the instruments du jour of observation.
And it's cool that science changes itself as new observations are made, but it poses a potential problem if the fickle changing observations become dogmatic, even for a temporary time.
Suppose that with human population skyrocketing, the scientific aristocracy decides to create standards of acceptable living that creates moral grounds for that establishment to run eugenics programs to eliminate or prevent the birth of new people who would be living in conditions that do not meet these standards. And even if new data came along in a year to suggest something different about human happiness, would there really be a moral difference between a year long scientific pogrom, and a hundred year long religious one?
So I think that the idea that science can mutate doesn't really make it any better from a moral standpoint. It's not that I have anything against science, I just don't think it ought to be privileged above other modes of thinking when it comes to things like morals.
Another point:
many scientists tends toward positivism.
So when that ultimate truth is finally known, where the whole universe from the quantum scale to the cosmic is no longer shrouded by a cloak of mystery, 'observation' will then result in unshakable, dogmatic truth, kind of a lot like a truth to a religious fundamentalist.
If the scientific idea of proof relies on observation of the exterior objective world, the religious fundamentalist's idea of proof relies on internal, subjective observation. I don't see how we can privilege either and then end up with truth. I think science can never know ultimate truth without coming to terms with subjectivity.
Last edited by nefardec on Apr-09-2011 at 20:08
|
