How do you feel about Science today? It's definitely become the "end-all/be-all authority" about everything...Each day new scientifc health warnings come out through the media and they are presented as "infallible" because they are based on someone's research...I tend to view Science as the government sponsored religion. How do you feel about it? Thanks....

Science is about being able to prove and repeat things proven.

Religion is about blind faith in the unseen and unproven.


There is a saying that applies,


Crap in one hand and wish in the other and see which fills first.

Science can't prove yet there is no God but religion cannot prove he exists either. (At least the way they want us to see their ideal of God.)

Its all man trying to understand the world and universe around us...

I question all teachings and dogma from religions...science...politics and you name it.

the universe is bigger than all that you have both said ...get out of the boxes you have put yourselves in. Personal experiences are the truth but only from your own point of view , when a collective consiousness talks about reality being in the higher dimensions there is only one way to make that connection....would love your thoughts x

Science in no way compares to religion.

The testing and retesting and retesting to verify results to confirm something before they put it out as fact is a far cry from old stories being passed around as fact.

I believe in questioning everything.

So that is how I live.

But in the case of proven science that I can verify, after I verify it, it becomes fact for me.

There are a lot of things that we can't really verify on our own when it comes to science...We have to accept things "on faith" too...We have to accept that all of the research is on the up and up and we're not being "conned."....There may be ulterior motives for getting the public to believe one way or another....This happens when a president wants to start a war...Information is put out to gain favor for going to war...I don't trust information that is suddenly handed to the media to be put out...I wonder what might be behind it....Who has a vested interest in swaying public opinion in one way or another?....Science has a foot-hold over us from the time we start school and we are never encouraged to question scientific teachings.

Or when an International community wants to confiscate the resources of the United States in the interests of "global warming" or "climate change".

I have started to wonder about all of the daily scientific health warnings...I wonder if this lets medical science and corporate HMO's and "big pharma" off the hook for not finding cures for major illnesses by now...It would not be in their best interest to find cures because they would go broke fast...Right now they can blame everything on our "bad habits" and get away with not working hard on cures....A lot of scapegoating goes on and we all turn on each other and blame each other for rising medical costs...It all seems fishy and manipulative to me...And the HMO's and corporations laugh all the way to the bank. I remain skeptical about everything.

Sounds like you're on the right track there... everything, and I do mean everything, is guided by the almighty dollar or gaining more power now. Nothing is in your (or anyone else's) best interest.

Any scientific evidence can be made to look anyway they wish it too....with a little deviation and an incorrect process......you can study anything and make it look the way you want it to if data is tampered with or the scientific study parameters off......many things can influence scientific data.......

True... the real problem is identifying who "they" are and what are their purposes for doing so. Actually, I guess the reasons are pretty apparent.

It's just not safe to be gullible and trusting...Geez I even question my own deeper motives about everything I say or do...or don't do etc.

To the uneducated maybe, most of science is just guessing anyway, probable theories that are accepted as truth until proven otherwise. If the people don't know any better, than science can be a tool to the politicians. Global warming is a great example of what you are talking about. They tampered with the daily temperatures to make it seem the earth was getting warmer, when in fact the average temperature has remained stable since 98.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/02/a_tale_of_two_thermometers/

At some point in my life it dawned on me that math was simply a human invention...God didn't come down and hand us mathematical concepts and principles...Why were we taught how to count and measure etc.? Because we live in a Capitalistic society...Schools prep us to become workers and pay taxes and become consumers. Our worth and value is measured by what we produce and how much we earn throughout our lifetime.....I think about these type of things a lot. What was I taught and why was it important?

This is an interesting thread, but probably not for the reasons most of the contributors might think.

Firstly, science is not in the hands of any one government, state, country, religion, etc. Secondly, it is empirical. This basically means that it is tested. If you're a scientist and you have a theory you have to say how you got to make your conclusion to be taken seriously. You have to be willing to be thoroughly tested. Some scientific theories pass the test, but others are found to be wanting and are debunked.

So, science isn't a government scam, or whatever you want to call it, so why this thread?

You've got something you don't like. Something you disagree with, and you want a voice. You have access to a free internet where you can say what you feel and you don't have to 'prove' anything. When you've had a moan and a few people have agreed with you, you fEel better and you feel that your point of view had been vindicated; it's valid because someone else has agreed with you.

This isn't a serious forum for discussing science. There are places where that happens and you have to be pretty smart and very well qualified to be involved and taken seriously. (This isn't an invitation for some conspiracy theory, like "all the scientists are aliens and they just want to fool us so they can take over the world".)

So, what is this forum for? It's just a place for (some people) to winge and moan about all the people who have different oppinions and who they don't agree with and get their egos massaged by some other insular people who happen to agree with them.

I actually find it frightening and sad that some (so many) people are so insular. Is this a rant? Maybe so. Is it a valid opinion based on good science such as psychology? I'll let you think about that one

Because it allows you to stand on the shoulders of the giants that came before you, to potentially achieve more and participate in the march of humankind towards a better world.

When you think about it, language is also a human invention. The Internet is a human invention that allows you to widely disperse your ability to use language to commnicate at great distances.

Math, in lots of ways, is the language of science. And like language, it's not a perfect tool.

But the conbination of both sure was instrumental in making the Super Monkeys the de facto lords of this world.


-Kerry O.

After many years of watching religious people confuse facts with opinions, I have hit upon a possible solution. The problem may be with the word 'science'. When someone talks about 'science', it's almost an abstract quality, like 'freedom' or 'values' or 'terrorism'. These are things people talk about all the time, but no one really understands what they mean, in the sense that they resist any attempts to define them. This means that religious people can say "science requires as much faith as religion" and it sounds like a sensible English sentence.

Instead, I propose we use the word 'reality' instead of 'science'. This will benefit us all in more ways than one.

Firstly, it would save scientists having to explain to ignorant people what science is. If you had to boil it down to one word, that word would be 'reality'. A longer form might be 'the process of discovering how reality works', but even that might confuse some: better to keep it simple.

Secondly, it would rob religious people of the ability to use sentences like the above, which now become "reality requires as much faith as religion", which, despite meaning EXACTLY the same thing, now makes no sense at all.

Thirdly, it will help scientists (or any citizens) who are essentially atheists, but who feel like they can't quite let go due to misguided ideas about intellectual honesty. Albert Einstein was one of these.

Who's with me?

Much different today than I felt three years ago, since I took the plunge to undertake a new experience “formal education”.



Science is about practice and research. Research applies a scientific method to observe, question, analyze and predict relevant outcomes which is tested in practice.

There is no such thing as a scientific health warning.

Legitimate health ‘warnings’ are based on scientific studies that have undergone independent peer review & research scrutiny which consistently show strong correlations between a behavior and a health factor. Those studies however, do not determine absolute cause and effect

Individuals who rely on sources of public media alone as a preferred method for changing behavior, end up being mass consumers of unnecessary commodities – including opinions.



That tendency is a result of questions and is not an adequate answer to why those questions have caused this opinion to surface.

When questions arise it’s because we don’t possess some knowledge to alleviate our curiosity. The fast and easy way to get around the effort of gaining new knowledge is often to form an opinion. The problem is that once we form opinions and adopt behaviors based on that opinion, we impose psychological self-inflicted barriers that limit both, our drive to seek and our ability to recognize & incorporate new knowledge.

So the ‘tendency’ of the OP makes me curious, so I have the following questions.

1. How does the government view the role of science in the public sector?
2. How does the government view the role of science within its administrative bureaucracy?
3. How does science actually differ from religion

A final questions that which can be answered through opinion alone:

How much should people depend on generalized media sources for their opinions?
When individuals question (are skeptical of) information from such a media source, how should they follow up on the information?



In my opinion, I think our education system is outdated.

The focus of our education system was designed to provide individuals, access to opportunities through which to meet their needs, plan for a future, and attain individual goals. It has always focused on the lowest form of literacy standards to meet those requirements.

It is no longer ‘enough’ for education to meet the lowest form of literacy standards so that no child is left behind – the fact is that such a system DOES leave behind the greatest portion of students by not preparing every student, in fundamental ways, according to ability, to meet their needs.

Among other things, the average high school graduate should be versed in the purpose and utility of everyday technology. Public broadcast media and the internet have purpose and utility that are not obvious to the public at large. Using either effectively seems to be a matter of education that encompasses broad areas of knowledge, particularly with regards to the sciences.

Understanding simple things like the effective use of everyday technology, how science advances through research and practice, how diversity enables society without detracting from the individual, how to be an effective sovereign voice in our political system, and how to conduct our own research efforts for acceptable forms of knowledge from which to draw our own conclusions, are ‘necessities’ that our public school systems should provide.

They do not, and those who are the victims of an inadequate education system are quickly becoming relegated to distinctively lower ends of our broadening class system.

Yeah, but lets be honest, one persons reality is totally different from another persons.

If I thought schools were actually teaching science it would be great. Unfortunately, I have yet to actually see it. Kids are given the basics, if that anymore, and everything is taught to the tests. I see very few science teachers actually allowed to take the kids outside and show them scientific and nature-related things, because of the risk of lawsuits. One of the schools up north of Dallas, has a small farm set-up, and the kids are allowed to gathe eggs, if they put gloves on. Parents have failed their kids and sterilized them to such a degree as to not allow any real teachings. I feel for teachers.