What are some fallacies about science?
Because we now know so much about our world through science, it is necessary to study a great deal to become a scientist. I expect that this has always been true in a way. Years and years ago the scientists were the village elders and healers. Children studied with them from an early age to take over their jobs, and the average villager feared them. Today people who want to become scientists must study for many years, and people who lack this education fear not just the science but the scientist.
In this section I am going to mew about some fallacies, or mistaken beliefs, about science and scientists:
- Fallacy: Science is evil
- Truth: Science is neither evil nor good. Science is a method of learning about our universe. The ways the knowledge is used is not science but ethics.
- Fallacy: Some things are better off not learned
- Truth: All things can be used for good or for evil. Even your knowledge about butterflies could be turned to evil ends.
- Fallacy: All scientists are geniuses.
- Truth: Many scientists have average intelligence. What they have that the average person may not have is a strong desire to study the world about them.
- Fallacy: You cannot be a (Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, etc) and be a scientist
- Truth: Your god(s) made the world. If your god(s) is good how can knowledge of her creation be evil?
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