What is science?

[robvalue]

(This is meant as a brief introduction and summary, not a detailed description. For more detail, please see: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_method )

I have noticed that the word "science" is nearly as misunderstood as "atheist". And some people even think they mean the same thing, or that to accept one you must also accept the other.

This is my interpretation of science, put in a very simple way.

Science is really straightforward. It's a method. At its most basic, it's a method for distinguishing what is true from what is false. It is essential to have such a method, or else you can never make any meaningful decisions about anything, and must accept as true everything you are told.

The one and only method that has been demonstrated to work, time and time again, is the scientific method. It begins with this: applying reason and evidence. That's it. If you think it is anything more than this, on a fundamental level at least, you have misunderstood it.

Everyone uses this method all the time, they just don't even consciously realize it. Simple example:

I come to an elevator. I want to go to floor 3. There are 5 buttons, marked floor 1 to floor 5. I need to make a decisions about which button to press. How do I decide?

I look at what evidence I have. Say I have used this elevator hundreds of times before, and every time the button I pressed corresponded to the floor indicated. This is very strong evidence that this time, if I press button 3, it will take me to floor 3. I have no good reason to think it won't.

I could consider pressing another button. What if someone changed the wiring around? What if the buttons now stop the lift instead of getting it to move? What if the building collapses when I press button 3? What if 3 is now an unlucky number, so I should press another and hope I get to floor 3 anyhow?

These are all alternative claims. To each, I think what evidence there is. There is no evidence for any of them. So I reject them as useless.

It's that simple. If you didn't use science, you wouldn't be able to do anything at all. You'd be rooted to the spot, unable to make any decisions, because you have no way of choosing the best decision.

Exactly the same with religion. Someone brings me a book, any book, and tells me that it describes accurately real events. This book is a claim. It is not evidence. Nothing can be evidence for the truth of itself, or else you'd have to believe any claim which said it was true, which every claim does. I'd have to accept a piece of paper saying, "1+2=4. This is true. It's really true." Of course the author will say it's true, because that is his claim.

So I check the book against reality. I see if there are other sources of evidence which can either back up, or cast doubt on, the claims made in the book. If I find some, and the evidence is convincing, I can conclude the book is probably real. If there is poor or no evidence, I reject that the claim it is true. I'm not claiming that it is not true, it might be, just that it hasn't been demonstrated to be true. The scientist has no interest in or need to disprove claims that are made without evidence. There is an infinity of possible claims, and we only have a limited amount of time, so it makes sense only to focus on claims that have evidence.

You use this method all the time, regarding virtually anything. But you treat religion as a special case, and you'll accept either very poor evidence or indeed no evidence at all, a useless technique which has been marketed as "faith".

Faith is the very opposite of science. It's believing something even though you have no good reason to. And it's a method not used in any other area than religion. I think that tells you all you need to know.

Theists will often try to muddy the waters by saying that faith in the bible is the same as faith in me pressing button 3 to take me to floor 3. That's a totally dishonest tactic. Faith in casual terms, just means confidence. You have a good reason to believe something. In this case, the past has confirmed it every time. But religious faith is totally different. You believe something that you have no reason to think is true, other than someone says so.

Which is a problem. If you'd have bumped into another religion before your one, and if faith is a good way to learn truth, most likely you'd have developed faith in that religion. Then suddenly all the other religions are wrong, because you already have faith in one.