“Science. . .has proved itself an incredibly powerful revolutionary force. When we consider how recently it has risen to power, we find ourselves forced to believe that we are at the very beginning of its work in transforming human life.”
Bertrand Russell, The Impact of Science on Society
We live in an age where many distrust politicians, the mainstream media, and the crony capitalists of the corporate world. But where many of us do lay our trust, is with members of the scientific establishment.
“There is a widely held supposition that scientists are honest, well informed, not swayed by prejudices, and open to imaginative adventures into the unknown.”
Norman Geschwind, The Encyclopedia of Medical Ignorance
Scientists, however, are human, all too human. Like each of us, they are prone to self-deception, corruptible by power, and led astray by false ideologies, and so, as Geschwind continues:
“. . .although science has replaced religion in the minds of many educated people, the unquestioning belief in the virtues of scientists may be as misinformed as the older faith that the clergy were always the true repository of spiritual values.”
Norman Geschwind, The Encyclopedia of Medical Ignorance
In this video we are going to explore 3 warning signs that suggest that skepticism, not blind trust, is the best response to any call to ‘follow the science’. Or as Iain McGilchrist writes in The Matter with Things:
“. . .the scepticism that science officially espouses needs to be brought to bear on the ‘science industry’ itself, which is a no more infallible instrument of true science than any church establishment is of true spiritual wisdom.”
Iain McGilchrist, The Matter with Things
