Opinion: Can We Trust Science?

An article in a Newspaper asked; "Can we trust forensic science?"

The BBC reported the same story as, "The troubling flaws in forensic science."

It seems like the world is asking if we can trust science at all (let alone forensic science)! Apparently there are a lot of "false-facts" and "fake-news" out there.

Its true because it is in the paper!
Photo Credit: Smoking Gun

Photo Credit: Nation One News Foundation

When I was younger my hope was to come to understand the universe in order to know the truth. I studied science at university because I believed that it would give me a deeper understanding of facts. I perceived that facts were truths. If I had enough facts then I should be able to understand what is THE truth. It did not take long before I started to realise that many scientific facts were full of subjectivity. They have to be. A scientist can only understand something through the knowledge that they already have. That knowledge is laced with their culture, language, religion, social status, generation and more. In other words, they understand something through their beliefs.  Human beings cannot remove those inputs. On this basis, which really is the basis of Kuhn's Paradigm theory, a scientist cannot be completely objective. Polyani argued that scientific method is not a flawless system of producing truths. Both Kuhn and Polyani affirmed that a scientists' subjective experiences influence the interpretation of experimental outcomes. In short, they argued that Science is not always trustworthy. It does not product facts that are unchangeable truths.  My hope was crushed in the first year science lab where I realised that every experiment had results that had to be interpreted.

The question is extended beyond just forensic science to include all sciences including the social sciences. In fact, social science is particularly troublesome as it often relies on qualitative research methods that are less structured in their data collection than quantitative methods. It is for good reason that so much of modern social science literature is a buzz with the phrase 'social construct'.  A social construct is when meaning is assigned to an object or event by a particular society who perceive that meaning to be universal.  A well illustrated example of a social construct is the notion of money.  A US dollar bill is worthless in itself but to most people around the world the piece of paper carries the value of the number that is printed on it.  Can you imagine the faces of an ancient culture being asked to accept a $100 US note as payment for a horse?  The idea that the note contains value is a social construct.  The idea that a family should have a father, mother, son and daughter who live alone together in their own house is another social construct; an African might disagree. The symbol '2' is a social construct. Social constructionism has permeated our thinking.  It appears that part of the reason for this is the revelation that so-called facts are often actually social constructs.  A lot of the world today live in the social construct that science produces facts.  That is, science produces truth.  The below picture refers to this as the 'CSI effect'.  Our TV programmes have reinforced our constructed belief that science produce hard facts.   Should we REALLY believe what is on TV?  Certainly my experience in a lab doing a forensic study was very different to what I have seen on CSI.

Photo Credit: www.slate.com

The newspaper article asked if we can trust science? It is interesting to me that we have to 'trust' science or 'trust' facts since trust is having a firm 'belief' in someone or something. Belief again! It appears belief is a strong component of science. How can we KNOW what we believe is true? From what I read, truth can be a conspiracy.... I wonder if what we call truth is actually more often propaganda to support our ongoing need to be right.  That is, we look for the facts that support what we want to believe. This stems out of the dualistic thinking behaviours prominent in human beings.

While I realise that definition of truth is a discussion that forms a base for philosophy and I cannot give due diligence to here.  So, let us be overly simplistic and continue with idea that truths are facts.  They are things that we trust or believe in.   Right now, I think we can feel the flimsiness of our notion of truth.  This is what I want people to realise.  Many of our truths are that flimsy.  Science, religion, culture or whatever it is we choose to trust or believe in heavily influences our truths.  That said,  it really is anything goes out there.  Hence why this generation is noted for its belief that truth is NOT absolute.  They are reflecting this flimsy notion of truth.

As I got a few more grey hairs, or less hair might be more truthful, I realise that truth is probably less about a factual statement or an axiom.  Truth is not dualistic, it is not about right and wrong.  Truth is something that is journey.  It involves us being changeable.  It involves inner contemplation. It is a journey that takes is toward what most of the world call the spiritual self (you may call it something different but the idea probably is the same).  For me, my truth is in Jesus.  Not the name,  not the bible, not a set of beliefs associated to the church or western culture but a inner voice encouraging me to love others.  Truth is found in service to others (ask most religions they say the same and I have found most atheists agree).  It is found in the type of love that puts others first always.  In this way it is self sacrificing.  Truth is found when Ego is (somehow) removed.  In our pursuit of truth, here is a trustworthy saying, to understand a thing we should observe it in its habitat.  If truth is found in selfless love then what does that say about what truth is and how we can learn to understand it.

Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." (John 14:6)  If you believe it, he loved his world so much He died for it.  If nothing else Jesus was a leader of a truth finding movement.  As a person who has always been a searcher of truth; this impressed me greatly.  I started this post by saying that in my youth my hope was to come to understand the universe in order to know the truth.  Now, I am hoping to know the truth in order to understand the universe.