Science and Authority

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 Problem. Hypothesis. Materials. Methods. Data. Conclusion. The scientific method bombards everyday life. In the news, reporters constantly tell the public about new findings in the exciting world of science. As a student heavily interested in the life sciences, I myself have a great amount of faith in science. However, do you ever wonder when science draws the line?

In Freud’s Civilizations and Discontents, he suggests that religion needs to be completely replaced with science. He had the sense that by the end of the nineteenth century, more people will have total faith in science. Freud was at his height during this time period and truly believed that people could use science to explain everything and anything.  But if you truly think about it, can science really get into deeper depths of certain things?

Personally, even as a promoter of science, I believe that the scientific community has become an authoritative figure in our society, and this is quite alarming. Science cannot always provide us with evidence to answer certain questions. Previously, society used to solely rely on religion to answer the unanswered questions, but now most individuals look towards science to answer these questions.

The scientific community is relying on genes and technical terms to supposedly “answer” questions and the mysteries of the world. As a society, we should not let one particular community control the way we think. We need to take certain ideas from different academic fields and try to analyze and critically think about the mysteries of the world.
-Nidhi