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0.3.2 Key Learnings From ScienceVersion 1.0 March 2013                               Previous Version Does science help us to determine what values to hold, or is it value free? Don’t scientists keep changing their minds? Is it worth listening to them? Despite what some New Atheists say, science is not the only source of knowledge. ●     Some things that we know are not scientific: we cannot conduct a scientific test to prove or disprove them. These require a broad definition of knowledge. ●     Science focuses on what is or what happens. It does not tell us how we should behave. Knowing how to behave is surely a form of knowledge. ●     Some scientists seem to define knowledge as what science can tell us, then call everything else speculation or rubbish: its circular logic. Some scientists seem to place their ultimate faith in the scientific method. ●     But we now believe that some of the things some scientists have said in the past were wrong. How can we have faith in what scientists tell us something different now? ●     Many scientists accept that the conclusions that science reaches will change. So some say they have no beliefs, only confidence in the scientific method. ●     Some say that science should be the fundamental basis of all public policy. But they are wrong. Leading scientists need to explain what they mean much better than this. ●     The scientific method is notoriously difficult to define. In these pages we look at various definitions of science. The basic one is simply: “science is what works”. ●     To conduct basic science we need to form hypotheses or models that we can test. We have to use words that imply complex scientific beliefs just to ask the question! Science doesn’t solve the mystery of the existence of the universe. Some scientists use a strange idea of nothing when they explain how we “got something from nothing”. it's still a mystery! Despite these confusions, science is still central to contemporary society. Modern technology emphasises that science works. We look at what science can tell us about the origin of the universe – after the big bang – how everything evolved, and how the world came to be as it is. Science provides a good narrative of our origins, and good strategies to act according to our core values, and these will only be replaced by better ones as we learn more. We end up coming to this summary of our conclusions. You may be able to phrase this better. In subsequent pages we expand out and justify each one of these points. 2. Scientific Conclusions                      Version 1.2 December 2016     Science has good explanations, some very detailed, some amazing, of how the universe evolved from the big bang, the nature of matter and energy, how the Earth came to be, how life evolved, where good and evil come from, how humans evolved, our sexuality, our drives, our humanity; and though these explanations will be replaced by even better ones as scientists learn more, they still form the basis for very good universal narrative that helps to provide meaning; and science identifies strategies that work to promote our core values, such as reason and openness, which we call effecting values. more
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