There hasn’t been a single person in human history who understood everything.
All of science is a collaboration, where individuals specialise in fields, biology, physics, archeology, psychology, chemistry, etc.
The fields interact, proven things from one helping prove things from another. Scientists may occasionally re-confirm previously proven things, re-investigation consensus…
But no one person alone has ever run the gauntlet of putting reality through the scientific method, going from basic observation, all the way to advanced proofs out to the frontiers of what is known about all things.
Chemists don’t need to start at proving that atoms and molecules exist, they can simply hit the ground running believing something that was confirmed by past scientists.
If at some point the proven assumptions fail to predict reality, only then is there a need to re-examine what was made known by those who came before.
That you accept science, but do not understand it, is merely to stand at the starting point at which all science today is advanced from. You are not a scientist, you do not need to continue walking forwards from that line, nor examine the paths of generations past that took you there.
But regardless of your understanding, scientific consensus can show you where the line is right now, and you have a right to stand on it same as anyone else. Doing so is not faith, it is step one in exploring reality by standing upon the shoulders of generations past.
Wasn’t it Isaac Newton who said something along the lines of “If I have seen farther than anyone before me, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.
And that was nearly 400 years ago, when knowledge was so much more limited and narrow in scope than today.
Beautifully said! I was going to say something along the lines of science is the belief/ trust in man, while religion is the belief/ trust in a deity but I believe this is better.
There hasn’t been a single person in human history who understood everything.
All of science is a collaboration, where individuals specialise in fields, biology, physics, archeology, psychology, chemistry, etc.
The fields interact, proven things from one helping prove things from another. Scientists may occasionally re-confirm previously proven things, re-investigation consensus…
But no one person alone has ever run the gauntlet of putting reality through the scientific method, going from basic observation, all the way to advanced proofs out to the frontiers of what is known about all things.
Chemists don’t need to start at proving that atoms and molecules exist, they can simply hit the ground running believing something that was confirmed by past scientists.
If at some point the proven assumptions fail to predict reality, only then is there a need to re-examine what was made known by those who came before.
That you accept science, but do not understand it, is merely to stand at the starting point at which all science today is advanced from. You are not a scientist, you do not need to continue walking forwards from that line, nor examine the paths of generations past that took you there.
But regardless of your understanding, scientific consensus can show you where the line is right now, and you have a right to stand on it same as anyone else. Doing so is not faith, it is step one in exploring reality by standing upon the shoulders of generations past.
Wasn’t it Isaac Newton who said something along the lines of “If I have seen farther than anyone before me, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants”.
And that was nearly 400 years ago, when knowledge was so much more limited and narrow in scope than today.
Beautifully said! I was going to say something along the lines of science is the belief/ trust in man, while religion is the belief/ trust in a deity but I believe this is better.