In Defense of Science

I didn't think I'd be posting anything today until I saw this on a friend's Facebook page:

Link to Source

That simple observation shatters the unassailable underpinnings of every ideology, religion, -ism, and philosophy save for one.

The lone exception is science.

All of the former require people to bend their brains into pretzels to make reality fit a multiplicity of contradictory tenets cobbled together over time to preserve "the truth" as interpreted by leaders past and present of those belief systems.

Please note that I am not condemning religion or those whose lives are guided by a moral compass rooted in belief in a loving deity, entity, force, spirit, known by these or any other appellation. At their core, most, if not all, religions simply enjoin people to follow the golden rule.

Unfortunately and all too often, a host of "supposed to bes" obscure that simple rule and divide us from our common humanity.

pray to Mecca five times a day

genuflect and cross yourself with holy water
yarmulkes and prayer shawls 

temple garments
prayer wheels
saying "Praise the Lord" at every occasion
lapel flag pins (or the failure to wear one)
elephants and donkeys and cable TV "news" channels...Oh my!

Required of those who believe, these artifices ensure that one knows who is "one of us" and who is "one of them."

Not one of these emblems of tribal identity tells us anything about reality, but all make it easier for self-serving leaders to manipulate their followers into doing what they're told without question.

Science, in contrast, has but one requirement:

Using all the tools available to you, question what is believed to be true about the physical world, and record faithfully and accurately what you find.