If I am going to put a title for 2020 it would be “The Year of Ignorance”. We encountered an unprecedented rise of conspiracy theories and pseudoscience. The scientific community was severely undermined by defending its integrity against unfounded doubts! I have always had so much respect for science, and despite my spiritual and rebellious nature, I would not allow myself to doubt the scientific community without a reasonable cause. It bothers me to see the world reaching this stage of servility to please the fools and provide them with the platforms to spread ignorance. Luckily, ignorance can never defeat the truth or change the facts. And opinion will remain a mere point of view and scientific facts will remain the only truths we know until it is proved otherwise.
According
to Cambridge dictionary; “Science is the careful study of the structure and behavior
of the physical world, by watching, measuring, experimenting, and the
development of theories to describe the results of these activities” in a process
called “the scientific method”. While Science aims to falsification; opinions
on the other hand aim to confirmation. This means that a test can show a
scientific claim to be false, but no conceivable test could show an opinion to
be false. Science is testable, opinions not really. Another important
difference is that scientific claims are regularly evaluated by the scientific community
which is a process designed to assess the validity, quality, and originality
of the scientific work. Its ultimate purpose is to maintain the integrity of
science by filtering out invalid or poor quality work. However, opinions are a
personal judgment formed not necessarily based on facts nor evidence.
Understanding
the difference between those two is crucial to elevate the discussion in a
modern world where everyone is “entitled to their opinion”. Many discussions
around conspiracy theories and pseudoscience these days cannot differentiate
between scientific facts, scientific hypotheses, and opinions. Since the whole scientific
process is built on trial and failure, and usually the scientific method made
up of mistakes because that’s the only way to truth. These trial, failures, and
mistakes are used by the simple minds to refute science, not understanding how
actually science work. It is fair to say
that science is a very complicated topic and trying to simplify it does more
harm than good. Scientists many times cannot comprehend science from different
fields which completely rational and understandable. We don’t expect a neurosurgeon
to be able to perform a cardiovascular surgery, and certainly, we do not accept
the opinion of a regular Joe on a medical procedure. The same goes with all
other fields of science; reading scientific papers and news does not give
anyone enough knowledge to unfoundedly doubt the scientific community no matter
how intelligent the person might be.
Usually I
am a strong supporter of the individual liberty to debate and question
everything, however, we should have a common understanding of what is reasonable
to debate and what is not. I have always encouraged polymathic abilities but
that doesn’t go against our need as a civilization for specialization.
Specialization gives us an in-depth understanding of the world and allows us to advance
rapidly. We can always debate, question, and discuss our ideas and doubts but
the final opinion always belongs to the scientists/specialists no matter how we feel about it. Those specialists/scientists spent their whole lives cautiously
and carefully studying, researching, and conducting experiments which took a lot
of knowledge and experience. If a person finds themselves eager to debunk a fact
they should possess equivalent knowledge and experience otherwise it is just
foolishness. Sciences and the scientific method evolved during so many years
through a slow process, and still evolving as long as we live. The moment we comprehend that is the moment we can have an intelligent discussion about science and the world.
“The real purpose of the scientific method is to make sure Nature hasn't misled you into
thinking you know something you don't actually know. There's not a scientist alive
who hasn't suffered from that one so much that he's not instinctively on guard.
That's the main reason why so much scientific information sounds so dull and so
cautious. If you get careless or go romanticizing scientific information, give
it a flourish here and there, Nature will soon make a complete fool out of you.
It does it often enough anyway even when you don't give it opportunities. One
must be extremely careful and rigidly logical when dealing with Nature: one
logical slip and an entire scientific edifice comes tumbling down. One false
deduction about the science and you can get hung up indefinitely”. Robert M.
Pirsig
