The mythos of science

We were having a discussion on Facebook the other day.  The discussion centered on a news article about how complicated the new view that western medicine now had concerning cholesterol.

The new view is that the science is not just a little but very inconclusive about cholesterol’s role in heart disease.  I’ve discussed previously how science has changed its position on sodium in a previous post.  Now here is another science “fact” that is seemingly disappearing right before our eyes.

The science doesn’t annoy me all that much.  Science is a search for knowledge using experimentation and hypotheses.  Science can and often does change all the time as new facts are uncovered and old theories have to be brushed up or even overturned with new evidence.

What annoys me however is what non-scientists do with science.

We’ve taken to making public policy using science as a reason for making drastic changes in lifestyles, in the way our economy works, in the way that we perceive the world.  Changes that are not always so benign.  We make these changes based on ideas that we only half understand or that we totally don’t understand and we do so with the assurance that what we’re doing is correct.

I find that troubling to say the least.  Not just for the fact that sometimes these ideas are wrong but also that we tend to imbue these ideas with an almost godlike certitude.  Science says that this idea is correct, therefore we will pass this law based on that and any who doubt this law, doubt science and are therefore wrong.

Of course if later on the science turns out to be wrong there is no recantation, no mea culpa.  In fact sometimes government will tenaciously hang on to outdated ideas even though now the science says it’s wrong.

I wish we could let science take its time and do the science properly rather than prodding it for results and jumping on the least little rumor and declaring it fact.

So far the consequences haven’t been too bad but I fear someday we will make public policy on a wrong assumption and we will pay dearly for it.