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Scientific revelation still fails to convert the masses : Comments
By Brian Holden, published 5/10/2011Scientific advances haven't defeated superstition, just caused it to mutate into the New Age.
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>>How much more do the masses need to be witness to before finally appreciating that evidence-based knowledge is the only knowledge upon which decisions are to be based?<<
The "only" basis? Hardly.
That's a pretty harsh line to draw, Mr Holden. I know that you were simply separating the "scientific" from your example of "mind-body-spirit faith", but you have excluded the entire dimension of human emotion. Arguably, it is the critical difference between ourselves and plant life. At the very least it is a highly recognizable human characteristic, one that is present in both pure scientists and new-agers.
If "science" were the basis of every decision we make, why would we bother to get out of bed. Bacon and eggs must be one of the most profoundly non-scientific breakfasts possible, after all.
Some people need their religion, or new-age chants, or watching the footy on a Saturday afternoon. Sometimes it is even essential, in that it provides a necessary defence against evidence-based knowledge. Given that the latter tells us clearly not only that we are all going to die pretty soon, cosmically speaking, but also that the earth will perish, sometime before the heat-death of the universe.
What basis is that upon which to make rational decisions?