Science is the Only Objective Truth

[DirkGently]

92. Science doesn't observe "what's already there?"

You're talking in circles. Alchemy? That was considered science by many.

"Science" is just a method of trying to verify observations of the physical world. That's great -- we need that. But its main strength is simply that it ideally recognizes when it's wrong by rigorous application of whatever our best techniques of observation happen to be at the time.

That's no guarantee of objective truth of any kind. It's always a best guess.

And yes, democracy comes from philosophy. So does the law. So do the ideas of equality and fair play. Everything this board stands for comes from intellectual pursuits that do no occur in a lab or follow scientific methodology.

Even the principle that scientific methodology is a good approach to observing the world is a philosophy.

Science itself has made a lot of its major advances through imagination. Speculation. Even dreams.

And at the end of the day, science can't even claim to know anything. Science observes. Sciences tests. Science, at its very best, helps us manipulate our physical environment by showing how things work. But it's always a guess. It's very strength is in the fact that it will theoretically change completely when it's shown to be wrong.

But science does not prove that every other kind of thought is "woo-woo bullshit." Science didn't write the Constitution. Science didn't create the right to free speech. Science can't explain why slavery is a bad idea.

One thing science is supposed to understand is that it doesn't know much, least of all the nature of "objective truth."