What is Science?

If you're a skeptic, then you already know what science is and how it operates. You understand science to be a methodological system for learning about our reality. However, I find over and over again that most people do not understand what the concept of science even is. For some reason a large majority of our population, at least here in the United States, is scientifically illiterate. I don't think there is any one cause for this illiteracy, but it is mind boggling to think that so many people are not only scientifically illiterate, but they don't even understand what science is in the first place.

If you look to my last blog you will find a video mockery I put together to make fun of a video created by a theist for the sole purpose of making Atheist's look evil. Already there have been a string of comments underneath my video attacking me for it. This is no surprise and fully expected, but I am quickly realizing as I venture toward the front lines of skepticism that many, if not most, theists believe science is just another belief system. It actually surprised me to find people telling me not to have blind faith in my "science". Either the person that posted that comment was a skeptic cracking a joke, or the public understanding of science is worse off than I originally thought.

I decided with this blog to explain in layman's terms (easy, since I'm pretty much a layman anyway, albeit a skeptical one) what science is. First and foremost you must understand one fundamental concept if you do not already; science is NOT (NOT NOT NOT) a faith based system. Science does not require you to believe anything on faith, nor does it require you to take any claims it makes at face value. If this is news to you then pay close attention because your world view is about to go for a spin. Science has little to no relation to religion or other belief systems. In the simplest of terms, science is nothing more than a method for analyzing the world around us. You have probably heard the term "scientific method" before. This method is an evidence-based way of learning. It does not require you to make any assumptions or believe anything out of hand.

The scientific method consists of several steps, all of which are derived from simple logic.

* Ask a Question
* Do Background Research
* Construct a Hypothesis
* Test Your Hypothesis by Doing an Experiment
* Analyze Your Data and Draw a Conclusion
* Communicate Your Results

It is a very simple concept to understand and you can probably already see why it does not require you to make any mental leaps. First you must ask a question. Simple enough right? It is important to remember that this is a logical system and you must ask logical questions. Questions cannot be unfalsifiable, such as "Do invisible flying unicorns exist?" First of all this question has no compelling reason to be asked. Most questions are based on something we already know to be true and have compelling reasons for why we should develop theories for how it works and then test them. You cannot test if there are invisible flying unicorns because you have no observable effect that would lead you to that hypothesis. Also, the question is unfalsifiable because it is making too many assumptions. The first assumption is that unicorns exist. The second assumption is that the unicorns are invisible. The last assumption is that the unicorns can fly. None of those things have any observable effect on our reality and so we cannot test for the existence of them.

An example of a perfectly logical question to ask is the famous question asked by Sir Isaac Newton. "Why does this apple fall to the ground?" It does not require you to assume that the apple exists, nor does it require you to assume the apple falls to the ground. Those are both things that you can observe and are concrete facts. The apple does exist and it does fall to the ground. But why? Well, that is where the beauty of the scientific method comes into play. Indeed the next step is to see if your question has already been answered. Do your research. If you find that your question has not been asked before or that it has not been properly answered before then it is time to get creative.

Many people think science is boring and is not creative. This is a completely false assertion. Science is one of the most creative endeavors of humanity and coming up with a theory to answer a question is the largest and most creative part of the scientific method. Newton posited that some force that is not immediately visible must exist that pulls the apple to the ground. He called this force gravity, obviously. While for his time he wasn't able to explain why or how gravity existed and operated, he was able to describe gravity and its effects very precisely. He needn't test for the existence of this gravity since its existence was obvious. Something did indeed pull the apple down to the ground. What he was able to do however, was to test different properties of this gravity to more accurately describe it. He conducted many tests, not the least of which was the test wherein he dropped two objects at the same time. Both objects where vastly different in their sizes and masses. Granted they were heavy enough to be affected very little by the air, both objects would hit the ground at the same time, despite weighing different amounts. Newton was able to describe this force of gravity very accurately, despite not being able to explain how or why it existed.

After pulling in all the data from his tests he was able to come up with several laws of physics that would describe gravity and its affects on physical matter. Isaac Newton gave us principles of physics that still hold true to today. Only later, when Albert Einstein came along with his famous theory of relativity, did we finally have a working theory for what gravity is and why it exists. I've taken this example too far so I won't go into anymore detail about gravity, but you can see how the scientific method has helped us to learn much about the world around us and continues to do so in every field of science.

The final step of the scientific method is to communicate your results. Only when your tests can be duplicated by other scientists can there be a consensus among the scientific community. This is very important because it eliminates any bias from the individual that originated the theory and the tests. Everything must be able to be duplicated in order for the theory to hold true.

That's it! That is how science works! Everything we know today within the scientific community has a vast library of empirical evidence supporting it. The beautiful thing about all of this is that as more evidence comes in, theories change. Science is always changing and adapting to new ideas and theories. Everything that is accepted as a scientific fact has been proven over and over again to the best of our ability as the observers. Sometimes we make only subtle changes to theories as we go forward. Other times entire theories go by the wayside to make room for new theories that better describe the mystery for which the scientist is attempting to solve.

As you can see, science does not need you to believe anything. If you hear a scientific claim and that claim is true then you would be able to research it and see for yourself how the community arrived at that conclusion. The thing many lay persons have a hard time accepting is that they cannot possibly specialize in every field of science. So sometimes you have to accept the consensus among the community that specializes in that field. That is, if you don't want to learn everything you can about that field, then run tests of your own to verify the results. I often hear people arguing that science gets lots of stuff wrong. Nothing could be farther from the truth. MANY MANY MANY theories that are postulated end up being wrong, but the very nature of science and the scientific method means that those theories will get weeded out over time. Sure, a theory that gets some things wrong can exist for a long time, but with more time and more testing theories only get stronger or are replaced by stronger ones. On the whole, science is the only way to truly "know" about our reality. It builds upon things we already know and is constantly changing as our understanding evolves. That is partly why it comes head to head with religious factions at times. Religious beliefs often answered many questions that used to be unknown to us, such as the age of the Earth. However, now that we have developed methods of actually measuring the age of the Earth to a fairly precise degree, it directly contradicts how old many creationists think the Earth to be. Science is based on change, it adapts to change. Science couldn't exist without it's ability to change and improve itself. Religion does not change so easily.

There you have it. That is science in a nutshell. Do you see now why science does not contradict a belief system like your religion? The only time your religious beliefs are at stake is when they make claims that are testable using the logical methods of science. The thing that I don't understand is why many religious people think that every detail of the bible must be true. How does the bible getting the age of the Earth wrong contradict your belief in God? Supposedly mortals wrote the text that later became the bible, is it so sacrilegious to think that maybe they just got some minor points wrong? As most of you well know, I am an Atheist, so such questions don't particularly intrigue me. I simply don't understand why so many theists cannot change as science does, learning new things and adapting to new discoveries. I suppose that there isn't much to understand. It is not too different from someone getting ripped off on a purchase and then defending themselves and what they purchased simply out of pride.

I hope this helps some of you to understand better what science is and why it doesn't have to be in direct conflict with your beliefs. Anything that you have "faith" in is inherently NOT science which means you are free to believe in it because science essentially cannot prove or disprove such unfalsifiable claims like God.

I wish you all a good day!

- Alex