How Good Is Science Today Really?

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What people do not understand is that science IS NOT AN AUTHORITY but A PROCESS OF CHALLENGING AUTHORITY.

A very primitive, immature and unscientific conception of science has captured the public mind — science as the repository of ultimate truth. The dignity and authority of good science — which is always fallible and hospitable to questioners — is being abused to make people believe in ultimate truths when the purview of genuine science is not final but incessantly evolving knowledge.

By debasing science to the status of "ultimate source of apodictic truth", the charlatanry is invited of those who are eager to impress the seal of unquestionable authority on their agendas, no matter what. Some will act this way because they are dishonest, even quite consciously so; others succumb to dazzlement and self-conceit. Both have lost touch with the scientific method. As science is moved away from its critical-corroborative capacity toward a role of validator of what is socially acceptable,  the type and attitude of those associated with it shift away from the profile of the soberly objective researcher toward the zealot — high priest or humble believer — of socially fashionable articles of faith.

At some point the latter type is so predominant in terms of power and numbers that "scientists" no longer understand the point of science, having lost the capacity for rational self-control. At this point, a modern society tilts back into an age of mythical thinking.

The source.