You Can't Argue With Science

So on Saturday, I am sitting at a popular family restaurant for lunch really enjoying time with my wife and little guys. These are those rare occasions when I am not thinking, but rather just living in the moment. (For all of us out there who spend our lives contemplating, allow me to add that we should have more “just living”, and “enjoying” moments.) Anyways, I was suddenly snatched from my solace when I heard one of those phrases. You know what I am talking about, one of those phrases that sounds like someone taking their fingernails and scratching them across a chalkboard. A waiter was passing our table talking to another waiter and I heard him say, “You can’t argue with science.”

Really? Science is the absolute that can never be questioned?

I’ll bet there are many astronauts that are very glad Galileo went against the “science” of his day, established by Aristotle, and decided that the earth does in fact revolve around the sun and not vice versa. Otherwise, wouldn't they be floating around in space somewhere right now?

There are people all over the world who are enjoying a warm room to sleep in because of a nuclear power plant providing their abode with the energy necessary to create warmth. This is no thanks to engineer Paul Weyland who called Einstein’s theory of relativity nothing more than “scientific dada”.* How dare Einstein go out on a limb and argue with established science!

Isn’t the fundamental nature of science the fact that it begs the question, “How does it work?” and then doesn’t rely on preconceived theories, scientific or otherwise to answer that question? Science asks a legitimate question, and then sets about in an empirical way to answer that question. The question is always allowed to be asked and tested again, and again, and again, until it becomes a law, and even then it can be tested again it’s just that once it's a law you will know the outcome.

If great science is to continue and even greater discoveries and advances are to be made, then we must end the popular notion that science cannot be questioned. This notion is dangerous, because it will cause scientific stagnation.

One way to end this notion would be for non-scientist like Al Gore (for whom I do actually appreciate his work on a few environmental fronts) to quit saying there is no longer any scientific debate on global warming. Well, obviously there is still debate or we wouldn’t be having the discussion.

Science can and should be questioned. Questioning it will produce better and more accurate science.


*Bolles, Edmund Blaire. Einstein Defiant. Washington: Joseph Henry Press , 2004. 70.