Michael Mitchell: Archive

"Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge."

Carl Sagan

It's neither. The "way of thinking" he's blatantly hijacking here is simply reason, one based on evidence, as opposed to faith, which is not based on evidence.

How do you know the scientific way of thinking -- the method, the experiments, the results -- leads to knowledge? It has to be grounded in something deeper, something more fundamental, and that's what he really means by "science", that it should be accepted without question, as if it were reality itself, not a perspective on it, no different than religious people accept the Bible without question -- while implying, of course, "science" is a more sophisticated, higher form of thinking, i.e., that religious people don't think.

What is knowledge, though? "Science" can't answer that. He doesn't know what thinking is.

For example, I know I have free will, that I'm constantly facing alternatives and choosing which ones to accept and then I act accordingly. I know I could stop writing this right now, or continue on. I'm kind of hungry, too, but I want to finish this before I eat. On the most fundamental level, I know I could not think at all, let my mind sort of drift away, or I can stay focused and alert and as aware of reality as possible. If some scientist did an experiment on me and "proved" I'm not actually in control of my mind, then do I believe his results or my own experience? Didn't he have to rely on his experience to devise the "science" he's using to deny mine? How does he even know his "science" is right? The fact that I can even ask these questions is proof his conclusions are false, which means the experiment itself was unnecessary, that free will is self-evident, and that there's a level of knowledge deeper than "science", i.e., whatever you can prove. That's philosophy.

Just like theists have to convince us to just accept the Bible as truth without facts and evidence, scientists can try to convince us to just accept their conclusions as truth based on facts and evidence, but not only can any part of their process be wrong, everything can't be proven, we still have to choose what we accept or deny, to make it fit with everything else we know, and that's what scares the hell out of us, and leads us to God, to find an authority higher than our own minds.

No one can think for you. You have to trust yourself, even if it's only to choose someone you trust more. You can't turn your mind off and put your faith in science any more than you can in religion. You may choose to try to evade the issue, but you know what you believe isn't determined by information you learned from some "body of knowledge", regardless of its source, that you're choosing to accept or deny it based on your own experiences and your ability to reason and use logic.

The results of religion and science can tell you what to think, but they can't teach you how. You're all alone in your mind and only philosophy can "save" you.