What I think Science is...........
What I would like to do is give you a little insight into what I think science is and what I think you should take away from this. I had one really good professor in college, and at the introduction of a very important class, he said this:
“Half of what I ’m about to teach you will turn out to be wrong. The problem is I don’t yet know which half, so you’re going to have to fucking pay attention to all of it,”
That is what science is in its purest form! Science, as I understand it, and as I believe it, is not collecting information, not about making a list of statistics or numbers; science is about finding new and better questions. I want you to leave here with a bunch of questions that you previously didn’t have, interesting and difficult questions for me, for the next guy, for the future generations.
“The purpose of science is to ask better questions. The purpose of religion is to answer your question and send you away with a false sense of understanding.”
My job (as I see it) is to bring out new questions even if it turns out I ’m balls-wrong along the way. I ’ll wear wrong if it helps to give you ONE new and better question. That ’s how this whole thing will move forward. So, as much as I love to be the smartest guy in a room, and I love to have answers at the end of the day, I don’t really think that the value in me is my answers, although there’s value there; the real value is sending you away with the idea of, “Well, now I’ve got to think about that,”
So I just want to lead with that, how I view science. It ’s not about me putting on a big hat and telling you the word of God; it ’s about me telling you where I think things are at right now, and then letting that stew in your minds.