this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2023
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Hmm. On the one hand very much no, in the sense that I am a scientist, and I believe in the scientific method, and I think society should deal with facts and evidence when agreeing how to manage itself.
But on the other hand, individually, I am a creature of emotion and I feel connected to the universe, and I believe everything ebbs and flows in connection with everything else.
I don't feel the need for my scientist brain to hold that emotional part of myself to account or ransom, though. I don't need to know how it works or why it might be because it just is what it is.
But don’t you think that not everything can be proven and tested? And that science most likely doesn’t have it all figured out?
Yes Karl Popper says that science must limit itself to working on ideas that are falsifiable.
But that doesn't mean that we can just go about making life-changing decisions for ourselves or for others based on any beliefs we want and claim science has no say because those beliefs are unfalsifiable. Its the other way around: public policy must be constrained by fact and evidence even if our individual beliefs are influenced by more than that.
When Hugo Grotius was working on the law of the sea, which became one of the bases of modern international law, he imagined laws that would hold fast even in the absence of God. If we cannot do the same then we are doing no better than throwing rocks at each other for our individual betterment.
That does make perfect sense,👌for public policy at least. But as an individual I feel like I can experiment a little and decide for myself if I believe in something. I don’t have to wait for science’s approval to tell me that something actually works. And I appreciate having the freedom to do so.
To give you an example, I started practicing yoga and meditation about 20 years ago, back then it was still seen as something strange... some weird spiritual practice. Telling people about my yoga practice was more likely to make me seem like a weirdo or be labeled as New Age, which I’m not. During this time it became more and more popular and now even therapists recommend it, everyone is talking about its benefits and now science approves it. If I had waited for science to tell me that it’s a valid method, I wouldn’t have benefited from those practices as I did. When I practiced I could just tell that it was doing something ‘good’, it was helping. I trusted my experience of it.
Now I recently started using energy healing, and even though it seems a little crazy, even to me, I can’t deny that it works and it’s not just a placebo effect. So again, I don’t feel like waiting for science’s approval. If it works I will use it. If people think I’m crazy for believing in it I don’t care because I know that people are very judgmental and often wrong.
What is the law of the sea?
Very well said though… food for thought! ;)
Oh yes definitely do what makes you happy and heals you!
The law of the sea was an early attempt to codify and organise the customs and rules of conduct that applied in international waters. We kind of take it for granted that there is a thing called "International law" but its actually a relatively recent development and not as obvious as we might think. I mean historically most legal jurisdiction springs from some claim of right that one family has because they were once powerful enough to assert that they were destined to rule by God, for some definition of God. But no such claim exists for international waters. The national territorial claims just kind of fizzle out and become less believable the farther away from land you get. Er that was a bit of a tangent I know.
I guess that’s why we need science, people will believe anything and make up their own convenient rules… Thanks for sharing! :)