As Carl Sagan said of Kepler: He accepted the uncomfortable facts; He preferred the hard truth to his dearest delusions. That is the heart of science.
Now, skip forward about 500 years. And think. When was the last time you heard a politician say "I've examined all the facts. Checked all the data. And I was wrong." Yeah right.
And therein lies the problem. A politician just won't do that. Instead, he'll make up his mind, and no matter what the facts show, he'll stick to it. He'll criticize a study. Or say the report is biased. Or say that the facts somehow don't apply here. Where is the integrity in that?
In his defense of course, if he actually does change his mind based on evidence, then he'll be branded a flip-flopper who can't stick to his ideals. Or something stupid like that.
Just for one minute think what it would be like if our representatives in government would actually listen to facts, and judge accordingly. First of all, we'd have a lot less bickering, and a lot more getting accomplished. And our laws would actually make sense, because they'd be based on facts, rather than whatever the congressman thinks will get him elected.
Of course there have been scientists who have stonewalled, argued, and lied to keep their ideas sounding good. But by far that is the minority. Most scientists do what they do because they want truth. If only our government leaders wanted that as well.
Can 2 truths be equally true and yet also conflict with each other?
ReplyDeleteI think it depends on the truth. For most scientific truths I don't think so. For instance, either the Big Bang happened, or it didn't. But for other kinds of truths, I think that could be. For instance, I think it is a truth that people making their own decisions is better than government making it for them. But it is also a truth that if it were more difficult to buy guns, less people would be shot. Both of those are true, I think, but they definitely conflict.
ReplyDeleteBN
ReplyDeleteTo generalize about politicians is probably unfair. Just like what we do to gov't workers, lawyers, teachers, unions, Catholics, Baptists, Mormons, etc. Senator Byrd is an example of someone who changed is view on racial discrimination.He was a member of the KKK but later regretted his involvment. Are there politicians who won't admit that they have changed their view. Yes. But no one is keeping score. Politicians versus scientists. Who is more humble.