Occasionally, when discussing science and faith, I have to admit that my belief in atoms, quantum mechanics, carbon dating, and lots of other stuff isn’t based on something that I know. It’s based on my belief, or faith, in science.
And occasionally, someone somewhere will try to convince me that my faith in science is no more or less a leap than someone else’s faith in the Bible. In neither case is there any kind of proof that I personally can see or understand.
But there’s a vast difference between the two kinds of faith.
To be clear: I’m not saying that people shouldn’t have faith in God, or the Bible, or whatever. I’m not saying a single thing about the validity of religious faith. I’m saying that it’s a different kind of thing from faith in the scientific method.
Faith in the the scientific method is faith that by asking and answering certain questions, you’re most likely to get to the truth. It’s not a leap. It’s a logical system.
Is the claim repeatable? Is it falsifiable? Does your theory make predictions? Have those predictions been borne out? Does your theory fit the facts? Is it the simplest explanation for the facts?
I have faith that if the answer to those questions is yes, then you’re on the right track. Scientists all over will continue to push and test. If your predictions keep coming true, then your theory gets more solid. If not, then science will discard your theory with no tears.
I can’t see atoms (even when I see them in pictures, I just have to trust that I’m really looking at an atom). But I know that the theory of an atomic structure has been through the fires of the scientific method.
The longer that theory survives with all the people testing against it, the more likely it is to be true. And if an experiment disproves it some day, then a lucky scientist gets a trip to Sweden while we all get a little closer to understanding our home.
So when I say that I believe in atoms, the earth going around the sun, quantum weirdness, survival of the fittest, or the second law of thermodynamics, I’m believing in a method that seems to work. It’s the best thing we’ve got to figuring stuff out.
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