“ Science at its best is an open-minded method of inquiry, not a belief system. ”
The beginning of wisdom, I believe, is our ability to accept an inherent messiness in our explanation of what's going on. Nowhere is it written that human minds should be able to give a full accounting of creation in all dimensions and on all levels. Ludwig Wittgenstein had the idea that philosophy should be what he called true enough. I think that's a great idea. True enough is as true as can be gotten. The imagination is chaos. New forms are fetched out of it. The creative act is to let down the net of human imagination into the ocean of chaos on which we are suspended and then to attempt to bring out of it ideas.
~ Rupert Sheldrake
I went through the standard scientific atheist phase when I was about 14. I bought into that package deal of science equals atheism.
Bad religion is arrogant, self-righteous, dogmatic and intolerant. And so is bad science. But unlike religious fundamentalists, scientific fundamentalists do not realize that their opinions are based on faith. They think they know the truth.
The simplest and cheapest of all reforms within institutional science is to switch from the passive to the active voice in writing about science.
