Chapter 1: Gift that Keeps on Giving

I wrote my response to the class discussion question before reading this article, so I feel as if a lot of what I said previously could be copy and pasted in response to Darksyde's essay. His argument is more scholarly than mine, but we both seem to be on the side of science as a "good" thing for the most part.

What I like about the essay is the fact that Darksyde doesn't come out as a blind cheerleader for science. He admits to the fact that science is not pure and objective. The part about peer reviews (and how they can be bought off) makes it easy to see why some feel a sort of anger or hatred to science. After all, if scientists can be paid to say that cigarettes aren't harmful, who knows what else they've lied about?

The point about using the scientific method in our everyday lives hits home. I know from personal experience that, whenever a problem presents itself around the house, the first thing I do is look for solutions or causes. Sometimes I'm right, sometimes I'm wrong, but either way I try to fix it using reasoning. Whatever else happens that I can't explain, I just attribute to invisible gnomes that live to make my life unpleasant (just kidding).

I'm not sure what else I can say about the essay that I didn't already cover in my class discussion post. I'll just end on the example that Darksyde cites of "intelligent design" advocates who pursue their own goals regardless of scientific evidence to the contrary. Coming from a Southern Baptist background, I know how easy it is to let religion influence your outlook in negative as well as positive ways (much like science and technology). Science forces you to confront the unknown and try to account for it in a way that religion simply does not. I can see why some people feel threatened by science and choose to put their stock in something as dubious as intelligent design. Science doesn't have all the answers, but at least it tries (note that I said "tries") to provide them via research and proof, not beliefs and wishes.