Carl Sagan explains the scientific method in The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. What separates science from other systems of knowledge is that scientific theories are created, tested, and more often than not, proven wrong or incomplete; these failures a stepping stone to the next level of understanding. Nothing in science is sacred; the very process advances human knowledge.
The Naked Earth series on the National Geographic channel provides a great example of the scientific method at work. This documentary series focuses on the formation and evolution of our planet. While scientists have been able to piece together strong theories about how the planets formed, flaws in prevailing theories are common and time often finds new explanations replacing prior knowledge. What science teaches me is that there will always be unexplainable mysteries but the pursuit of answers - from primitive times to the slightly less primitive times of today - is a quintessentially human endeavor.
The mysteries of our existence, the planet, the sun, space itself, and our inability to know exactly how it all happened lead some to silence inquiry in favor of faith. Thankfully faith hasn't been enough for everybody.
This Henry David Thoreau poem featured in the MTA's Poetry in Motion series may have been intended as a rebuke of science (perhaps someone familiar with his work can inform us), but to me its no rebuke, just an affirmation of the mysteries of life. We'll never know the answers to everything but as long as we remember that, let's keep trying:
Men say they know many things;
But lo! They have taken wings,--
The arts and the sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that anybody knows.
The Naked Earth series on the National Geographic channel provides a great example of the scientific method at work. This documentary series focuses on the formation and evolution of our planet. While scientists have been able to piece together strong theories about how the planets formed, flaws in prevailing theories are common and time often finds new explanations replacing prior knowledge. What science teaches me is that there will always be unexplainable mysteries but the pursuit of answers - from primitive times to the slightly less primitive times of today - is a quintessentially human endeavor.
The mysteries of our existence, the planet, the sun, space itself, and our inability to know exactly how it all happened lead some to silence inquiry in favor of faith. Thankfully faith hasn't been enough for everybody.
This Henry David Thoreau poem featured in the MTA's Poetry in Motion series may have been intended as a rebuke of science (perhaps someone familiar with his work can inform us), but to me its no rebuke, just an affirmation of the mysteries of life. We'll never know the answers to everything but as long as we remember that, let's keep trying:
Men say they know many things;
But lo! They have taken wings,--
The arts and the sciences,
And a thousand appliances;
The wind that blows
Is all that anybody knows.
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