(May 1, 2015 at 11:55 am)Hatshepsut Wrote:(May 1, 2015 at 11:28 am)FatAndFaithless Wrote: The thing is that neither the anemic mass media marketing of scientific data nor the sinister skewing of studies by powerful lobbies are actually science, and these sorts of incorrect ideas are corrected only by science.
Agreed. But institutionalized science won't step in to correct things until someone realizes something is wrong. And applies some pressure. And often, not until an "old guard" of proponents for an older paradigm retire from the university, clearing the way for younger minds to approach the problem with a fresh perspective. Thomas Kuhn's 1962 book The Nature of Scientific Revolutions may be relevant here.
So I'm still not sure what your complaint is here. I've already agreed that science can arrive at incorrect conclusions, and I agree that some of those conclusions can persist until someone takes it upon themselves to test them again.
Are you unsatisfied that it can get things wrong? No process is perfect, but the scientific process is the best thing we have.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson