Response to “Saving Science”
“Technology keeps science honest. But for subjects that are incredibly complex, such as Alzheimer’s disease and criminal behavior, the connection between scientific knowledge and technology is tenuous and mediated by many assumptions….The assumptions become invisible parts of the way scientists design experiments, interpret data, and apply their findings.”
In the words of Daniel Sarewitz stated above, it has become apparent that there are unsaid assumptions between a given scientist’s capability of recognizing a problem and his subsequent action to relieve this problem. There is more than just a cause and effect, a give and a take. There is something in between. Something that shapes the outcome of scientific effort before it is even discovered and even before the depth of the conundrum is fully appreciated. This “something”, these “assumptions” are a person’s worldview.
Often, most believe that anything can be answered by science — the honest pursuit of Truth. Yet, as Sarewitz continuously shares, science is gradually losing its purpose. What once was thought to be somewhat attainable as well as simplified to “the scientific process” no longer produces the grandeur of discovery. Science is crumbling all around us, and there is a reason for its deterioration.
An example of science’s decay is the fact that scientists nowadays quantify and aggrandize their practice, instead of operating within the boundaries of logic, grace, and faith. Sarewitz explains in depth how modern scientists are plagued by the threat of failure (or worse) by their own peers. If a scientist cannot produce a positive finding worthy of praise, then he or she is deemed as unsuccessful and therefore unuseful — a waste of both time and money.
The reason for this deterioration, though often deterred by the greatest of minds, is the morphing of a God-honoring worldview. No longer do scientists long to bring glory to God through science. No longer do scientists take the reality of a benevolent and all-powerful deity for granted. In fact, such proposals are mocked, and the scientists who live by them are scorned. Science — the pursuit of Truth — has indeed lost sight of Truth.
So the question is can scientists truly be objective enough to conduct science at all? Or is all science (its research, its processes, and its findings) inhibited by the subconsciously applied assumptions created from each individual’s worldview? The answer to that question may determine the answer to the next: What is the Truth that science is actually pursuing?