“Science is based on facts and figures and shows the absolute accurate results and not opinions and statements. The development of science over the years has been massive due to technological improvement and acceptance. Thus, it becomes a necessity to be aware of science and its work.” [1] says Podium School, Best Learning Resources for your Child, on their website. I highlight their use of “absolute” because, in these “truth” posts, I am asking what “truths” are actually “absolute.”
Back to my friends Merriam&Webster: “Definition of scientific method: principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.”[2] We want to have faith in a systematic pursuit of knowledge that will help us stumble through an uncertain world without damage to our way of living.
Does the Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary’s first “Definition of truth: a (1): the body of real things, events, and facts: ACTUALITY“, points primarily to science as the primary path to fact. And why wouldn’t they? If we use “principles and procedures for the systematic pursuit of knowledge,” they include “the formulation and testing of hypotheses” and lead us to “objective reality (not subjective)” which is basically a good start on the definition of “fact.”
For a Layman’s History of Science click here.
But how are “scientific facts” related to truth in a way that we can use? Science progresses toward making sense of our reality. The common non-scientific person can’t actually comprehend how wind blows raindrops, how a gentle breeze moves autumn leaves to drop to the ground, how electricity finds its way to my toaster, how my car can find the proper route to grandma’s for Thanksgiving or Christmas. Our world often baffles us but science does provide some answers. Not all answers, but many.
Imagine, if you will, our lives today without science. We would not have the advantage of GPS, space exploration within (and beyond) our solar system, the advent of safe medicines and foods, and the ability to harness energy for personal and public use. Science has been a great boon to humanity but, are all the truths already identified? Were all of the truths discovered before now “absolute” truths? It doesn’t seem so to me right now.
When I left High School Chemistry and Physics behind and entered Austin College in the Fall of 1961, there were 103 Elements in the Periodic Table. By the time I graduated in the Spring of 1965 with a Minor in Chemistry, there were 104 elements (1 new), all of the known (factual) elements on earth at that time. Today, there are 118. Who knows how many will be added in years to come? God’s creation will always reveal more.
I changed my major from Chemistry to Psychology (a Social Science [3]) in the Spring of 1964, I went from the science of Chemistry, Physics, and Biology to a Social Science, whatever that is. The definition of science, for me, expanded in new directions. On a class outing to a mental hospital in Dallas, TX to observe the workings of Psychology in assisting those with mental illnesses I encountered a horror show! People were in concrete rooms – some screaming, some unable to utter a sound, some wandering aimlessly in the halls. It didn’t appear that this Social Science had progressed beyond the imprisonment of those poor souls that society wasn’t prepared to understand.
Informationally, “The five major branches of social science are anthropology, economics, political science, psychology, and sociology. Some people also consider history, law, and geography to be core social sciences.” [4] What? This requires 8 more research topics and how they relate to “truth”. What have I gotten myself into?
In a recent conversation with one of my doctors (I help support many medical families which I cannot claim on income taxes), we were commiserating that medicine is, as they say, a “practice,” for many illnesses require educated guessing, not exactitude. I know you may find, as I do, that you wish the science of medicine was more exact so that you might have remedies that make you feel instantly better. We are, however, blessed that the science of Medicine never stops expanding. Our great grandchildren will benefit.
Recently I completed watching a two-part show on Amazon Firestick entitled “The Secrets of Quantum Physics.” I won’t try and duplicate for you here the development of Quantum Physics for two reasons. 1) Quantum Physics began as a topic of sub-atomic physics in 1900 and has grown in “quantum” leaps (see what I did there?) ever since. I could never be able to duplicate 122 years of science in a single paragraph. 2) I am no Einstein and even he was unable to understand aspects of Quantum Physics that are now considered settled truth. “Einstein’s words in the letters demonstrate his fraught relationship with quantum physics, or the theories that describe the world of the very small (atoms and the subatomic particles inside them). For decades, he famously clashed with physicist Niels Bohr, whose views on the workings of the quantum world stated that particles behave differently when they are observed.
“This introduced a fundamental element of uncertainty into the behavior of quantum particles; Einstein soundly rejected this perspective. Instead, Einstein argued that the rules for even tiny particles must be consistent whether the particles were observed or not.”[5]
I will share my very simplified summary of the last segment of the series “The Secrets of Quantum Physics.” Experiments are now proving that earlier understandings of things like, the migration patterns of birds, the transformation of a tadpole into a frog, how our sense of smell works, and photosynthesis, are being rethought because of significant, successful experimentation which how allows Biology and Quantum Physics to no longer be strangers but partners. The series concluded with the author Jameel Sadik “Jim” Al-Khalili, an Iraqi-British theoretical physicist, a professor of theoretical physics and chair in the public engagement in science at the University of Surrey, England, saying he was preparing to examine the idea that quantum mechanics is involved in the mutation of DNA, perhaps explaining how evolution works and solving problems that gene mutation causes.
Same day, different Amazon Firestick show, “The Norse: An Arctic Mystery.” Patricia D. Sutherland is a Canadian archaeologist, specializing in the Arctic. She is an Adjunct Professor at Carleton University, an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Aberdeen. Her review of old facts about a dig on Baffin Island in Canada led her to see anomalies that led a new theory regarding the original findings. She began looking for an updated answer. In the show, she utters these words. “Science is self-correcting.”
Science is designed to meet new, and old, issues head-on by “involving the recognition and formulation of a problem, the collection of data through observation and experiment, and the formulation and testing of hypotheses.” [2] By its process, science never stops adjusting.
Since science is not averse to acknowledging that its understanding of “facts,” or proven theories, is open to further developments, I believe that the truths (facts) provided by scientific methods are relative to time and what was true yesterday might not be good enough for making decisions next year, or even tomorrow. I think this is true in “belief” systems as well. Our beliefs must be open to modification if the “truth” behind them changes in any manner.
We cannot look to Paul’s vision of the third heaven (of seven thought to exist), 2 Corinthians 12:1-4, written over 2000 years ago, to guide us in 21st century cosmology or even in anticipation of what a spiritual heaven is really like. We must look to our personal growth in pursuit of knowledge (actual facts and beliefs) to help us discern today’s “truth” and to not rely only on yesterday’s facts.
Does science thus disprove faith/belief/religious systems? Fr. Bill Ashbaugh writes in Faith, The Magazine of The Catholic Diocese Of Lansing, “Science is not opposed to faith, nor faith to science. Science helps us to more clearly see the world as a macrosacrament of God. It helps us peer more clearly at ordinary realities and see the beauty, intelligence, complexity, and interconnectedness of all things. It can move us to deep awe and raise our minds beyond the created realities to that which is uncreated and eternal.”
Absolute truths may exist. I don’t yet know for sure. I am still willing to try and identify them by learning to listen, to search, and being willing to modify what I think are the “facts.”
[1] Yash Lakhan, “100 Amazing Science Facts”, February 5, 2022, Podium School: Best Learning Resources for your Child, (deleted) https://learn.podium.school/science/100_Amazing_Science_ Facts
[2] “Scientific Method”, Merriam Webster from 1823,
[3] Southern New Hampshire University, Is Psychology a Science?, Pete Davies, Aug 10, 2017
[5] LiveScience, ‘God Plays Dice with the Universe,’ Einstein Writes in Letter About His Qualms with Quantum Theory, Mindy Weisberger published June 12, 2019
Bro. Ken Explores . . . 