The Cult of Science

On the whole, I'm pretty big on Science.

But it's important to distinguish between the cult of science and the core scientific method.

Whenever someone says "scientifically proven" I wince. It demonstrates a fundamental misunderstanding of what science is.

Science can only disprove stuff.

It's just a method of thinking about things that allows you to falsify assumptions and build on other people's understanding. Science has never once proved anything, nor has it claimed to.

That's kind of the whole point.

Any middle school child that's learned about the scientific method will be able to back me up here.

Somewhere along the way, we got lost and now people just slap "scientifically proven" over all kinds of stuff as a way to disarm objections and neutralize critical thought.

If they're being honest, all they're allowed to claim is that science hasn't been able to disprove "whatever" yet.

Anything else is just another form of dogma.

Which is, ironically, what the scientific method was a reaction to in the first place.