Paul Driessen
The multi-colored placard in front of a $2-million home in North
Center Chicago proudly proclaimed, “In this house we believe: No human
is illegal” – and “Science is real” (plus a few other liberal mantras).
I
knew right away where the owners stood on climate change, and other
hot-button political issues. They would likely tolerate no dissension or
debate on “settled” climate science or any of the other topics.
But
they have it exactly backward on the science issue. Real science is not
belief – or consensus, 97% or otherwise. Real science constantly asks
questions, expresses skepticism, reexamines hypotheses and evidence. If
debate, skepticism and empirical evidence are prohibited – it’s
pseudo-science, at best.
Real science – and real scientists – seek
to understand natural phenomena and processes. They pose hypotheses
that they think best explain what they have witnessed, then test them
against actual evidence, observations and experimental data. If the
hypotheses (and predictions based on them) are borne out by their
subsequent findings, the hypotheses become theories, rules, laws of
nature – at least until someone finds new evidence that pokes holes in
their assessments, or devises better explanations.
Real science
does not involve simply declaring that you “believe” something, It’s not
immutable doctrine. It doesn’t claim “science is real” – or demand that
a particular scientific explanation be carved in stone. Earth-centric
concepts gave way to a sun-centered solar system. Miasma disease beliefs
surrendered to the germ theory. The certainty that continents are
locked in place was replaced by plate tectonics (and the realization
that you can’t stop continental drift, any more than you stop climate
change).
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