Science is not in the business of establishing truth

 Science is not in the business of establishing truth. Science is in the business of establishing the believability of theories. If a theory satisfies the criteria of the scientific method it does not mean it is true but it can be incorporated in the body of science as being sound and believable.

 

No matter how successful a theory may be it will always be a theory; a story that we humans share to help us come to terms with the world in which we live. As Harari points out in his masterpiece, Sapiens our success as a species is due, in large part, to the myths and stories we share. I believe this is especially true in the sphere of science.

 

Science is evidence based. But science is also based on a story; the story of materialism. Science can only improve on religion if there is a willingness amongst scientists to drop the philosophy of materialism in the face of incontrovertible evidence that it is unsound. Science is only credible if scientists treat all evidence with the same degree of impeccable impartiality. If evidence is rejected, because it doesn’t fit the myth of materialism that most scientists happen to believe, that is stark prejudice and prejudice has no place in science. In science all systems of belief are hypotheses and theories which should be dropped immediately in the face of irrefutable contradictory evidence. If we lose sight of that fundamental rule in science we are liable to become lost and deluded. The time has come for this rule to be applied to the 19th Century theory of evolution. -_from Vortex cosmology