2.0.1 How We Do Science - Overview

Version 1.3 March 2015                                               (Previous Version)

How we come to our conclusions is a major part of this Reasonable Global Way. 

We use the scientific method because it leads us to understand how some parts of the universe work.  It is accepted by people from all backgrounds, religious faiths and political ideologies.

The scientific method is based on some of our core values, or values derived from them.  Science depends on valuing the Truth, acknowledging uncertainty, showing respect for others, their histories, perspectives and opinions; using our human ingenuity, struggling to understand what is behind what we see, being open to the majesty, elegance, beauty and awe that is our reality.

Science requires precise observations and often detailed measurements.  Experimental scientists work out ways to test various hypotheses, often using complex statistical analyses.  Some say science is based on peer reviewed, published research.  Mathematics is the queen of sciences.

Scientists accept that their models, their explanations of how things work, are only approximations of reality.  The history of science has shown that as new evidence comes to light old theories have to be reworked.  We might demonstrate that a scientific theory is false in a single experiment, but we can never demonstrate that a theory is universally true.  So we can’t hold the current theories of science to be the ultimate truth. 

But science is what works.  There is some circularity in how we define the scientific method, which some scientists find difficult to acknowledge.  It is worthwhile stating, and debating, the various ways science works and the assumptions underlying it.

There is a lot of bogus, pseudo science.  Some is innocent, due to mistakes, laziness, ambition, or ignorance.  A lot is due to individuals or companies trying to make money, being deliberately misleading, lying, hiding the real data, fudging the analysis, only pretending to follow the scientific method.  Bogus science occurs when the process and the evidence is hidden, the explanations are accepted uncritically, the reasoning is false, or the results are said to be irrefutable.

Some might say that the scientific method isn’t a conclusion but a method for arriving at scientific conclusions.  But our experience leads us to the conclusion that the scientific method works.

Our scientific explanations will be revised as scientists learn more.  But they are the best we have, so when we have to make a decision, we should base it on the best science we have, as well as what we learn from philosophy and history, and what we choose to be our core values.  Science provides us with a very good story, which will only be replaced by an even better story.

We work through the next level of detail on each of the above issues (more).  After considering this evidence, we’ve looked for a way to state our conclusions briefly, and we come to the following summary.

Is this the best way to state our conclusions in this area?  Click on feedback, or add a comment below, if you can improve the substance or the phrasing.

  more                                                              Statement 7

Science tells us what is not what ought to be.  But the scientific method is consistent with, and relies on, core values such as truth and diversity.  We state our core values in the scientific arena differently, which we call derived values, such as:

            Openness, transparency, honesty, uncertainty, respect, reason, evidence.