...For Areo Magazine, Heather Heying appropriately writes that "[t]oo many would make themselves judge, jury and executioner of certain concepts and conversations, while claiming to be the sole proprietors of truth. They are engaging in a grand narcissism: they imagine themselves as, for the first time in history, able to see everything. It is akin to declaring themselves God."
...Thankfully, science and the way it is done has come far from the apostasy-chasing nutjobs that populate our political institutions and (social) science departments. We learned long ago that we can more easily tell what is wrong from what is correct – it often only takes a single instance of disconfirmation to denounce a grand hypothesis. That’s why we do science on a basis of rebutting hypotheses, of disproving our peers’ research, and constantly have our own subject to others’ critical review....
...What that implies for the world of today and tomorrow is uncomfortable to those who think we can mandate scientific truths from above: that vaccines are safe and effective, that masks and lockdowns worked well, that climate change is a terrible danger of cosmic proportions, that energy for the 21st century can be supplied by low-density unreliable sources, that fat and salt are unhealthy but carbs are safe....
...John Tierney at City Journal recently advised us to “not expect those who follow ‘the science’ to know what they’re talking about. Science is a process of discovery and debate, not a faith to profess or a dogma to live by.” Doug Allen in The Australian explained that “as soon as people start talking about ‘the science’, that’s a sure sign they want to make a political point.” If it’s consensus, Michael Crichton explains, “it isn’t science; and if it’s science it isn’t consensus.”
...If you march for science, you’re probably not a scientist. If you think democracy is a safeguard for science, you haven’t been paying attention. If you think science is when people of authority agree, you’re not just naïve but heavily deluded....