You Believe That?

First I’d like to say that the Science News Brief assignment was much less intimidating than I expected.  As a dominantly creative brained person, there is always a fear of writing something that I would hate to read, but writing it anyway because…well…it’s due pretty soon.  This assignment was a good reminder that creativity and factual elements can be blended together to make an enjoyable read.  It also helps to be an inadvertent subject of your own study, because it makes it easier to give real life metaphors that can speak to more than just the scientist.  And maybe that’s part of the beauty that Heisenberg is talking about, “the proper conformity of the parts to one another and to the whole.”  Scientists conforming to scientists and writers conforming to readers simultaneously.

I can relate to Sagan’s approach in The Demon Haunted World.  This isn’t so much science writing as it is social commentary, which I am guilty of when I don’t understand what the hell I’m supposed to write about.  It’s pretty easy to twist any prompt into a “and this is why the world sucks, because facebook” or “this is why religion sucks, because science.”  But I must admit, I’m a sucker for negativity and one hit KO’s to the hopeful and optimistic.  I’m not saying that Sagan’s essay was a bratty rant like my writing sometimes is, but I do think that he intended to be patronizing to the self indulgent.   I eat that shit up, because I self indulge and like to be put in my place as a reader.

“Every time we test our ideas against the outside world, we are doing science.  When we are self indulgent and uncritical, when we confuse hopes and facts, we slide into pseudoscience and superstition.” (241)  If only Sagan could have been present for one dinner with a particular nutjob stepmother, I might have been sent to my room to study, not repent.  It’s such a simple line, but so critical for separating how we wish the world was, and how it actually is.  This quote fires on a different level too, breaking down the intimidation factor in the word “science.”  Science isn’t strictly lab coat rigor, it’s observing and testing the universe against itself.  It’s a relief to know that if we are thinking people (as opposed to herded sheeple) then we are already in the beginning stages of scientific discovery.

To finish this post, I want to comment on an even simpler line than my previous paragraph discussed.  The commandment of science that says, “Mistrust arguments from authority.”  This commandment should be applied to every field, in every situation.  Some days I only come to class in hopes of getting to call bullshit on a professor.  I don’t get the opportunity as much as I’d like these days, probably because the further along in education you go, the more careful instructors are to never claim anything as completely true.  Still, I come into each class knowing that something ridiculous will be said and unquestioned, and it keeps me on the edge of my seat trying to catch that moment.  Similarly, I come into class knowing that there is someone smarter and more patient than myself, and they will call bullshit on me.  In this regard, everyone doubting everyone is not a negative situation.  For me, it brings me to class, makes me listen twice as hard, and reminds me to calculate each word before I open my mouth.  My doubt is my education.