some thoughts on science and education
Apr. 29th, 2017 02:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mary_j_59So, I went to the local climate march today. Hundreds of people were there! (Pics will follow when I edit this post; I'm writing this quickly) As with the other protest marches I've attended, there was a very good feeling of community and peace. But-
I began conversing with a young woman next to me. She said her dad (I think it was her dad) was a Fox news watcher and basically believed all the propaganda; in particular, he believed science was no truer than religion. In other words, to him, science wasn't about facts. It was mere opinion.
I'm still tired from the bug I'm fighting and the words didn't come to me then. I did manage to say (what I truly believe) that it's shocking to me that so many of my fellow citizens are so poorly educated. But here's the thing:
This young woman's dad wasn't entirely wrong. It is true that many people who promote science also promote materialism. And materialism isn't a fact; it's a belief. But science is NOT the same as materialism. True science is a way of examining the natural world to discover facts about it. You may have a very active spiritual life and be a scientist (Our Pope is a good example), or you may be a die-hard materialist and have no idea of the scientific method. Of course, all scientists are focused only on the physical world while doing science. Naturally! That's what science is for; it's a means of discovery, a quest for truths about the physical world.
What Fox News, and other such "sources", have done is to confuse the scientific method with materialism. This is wrong and dangerous, and leads to confusions such as this young woman's father had. Such confusions are all too common in America today.
BTW, our local climate march was led by several groups of nuns. One young woman was carrying a poster illustrating "Laudato Si", the Pope's beautiful call for care of the earth. And there were pro-science signs EVERYWHERE! Catholic groups, Jewish groups, hard-left groups--everyone was carrying them.
Because, as I said above, science is true.
I began conversing with a young woman next to me. She said her dad (I think it was her dad) was a Fox news watcher and basically believed all the propaganda; in particular, he believed science was no truer than religion. In other words, to him, science wasn't about facts. It was mere opinion.
I'm still tired from the bug I'm fighting and the words didn't come to me then. I did manage to say (what I truly believe) that it's shocking to me that so many of my fellow citizens are so poorly educated. But here's the thing:
This young woman's dad wasn't entirely wrong. It is true that many people who promote science also promote materialism. And materialism isn't a fact; it's a belief. But science is NOT the same as materialism. True science is a way of examining the natural world to discover facts about it. You may have a very active spiritual life and be a scientist (Our Pope is a good example), or you may be a die-hard materialist and have no idea of the scientific method. Of course, all scientists are focused only on the physical world while doing science. Naturally! That's what science is for; it's a means of discovery, a quest for truths about the physical world.
What Fox News, and other such "sources", have done is to confuse the scientific method with materialism. This is wrong and dangerous, and leads to confusions such as this young woman's father had. Such confusions are all too common in America today.
BTW, our local climate march was led by several groups of nuns. One young woman was carrying a poster illustrating "Laudato Si", the Pope's beautiful call for care of the earth. And there were pro-science signs EVERYWHERE! Catholic groups, Jewish groups, hard-left groups--everyone was carrying them.
Because, as I said above, science is true.
