Faith is not a very popular concept in the world that we live in now. After all, why believe in something when you can be absolutely sure about it? As scientific knowledge advanced exponentially in the last couple decades, many people believe that institutions that require faith such as religion is an outdated method of explaining the world and atheism is becoming more and more popular. Rather controversial, but there is a glimmer of truth in this statement. In the past, people believed that lightning struck because the gods were angry, a headache meant that you were possessed by a demon, and a sneeze relinquished your soul which required a benediction to counteract. Now we found out that lightning is caused by the discharge of static caused by friction between clouds, a headache is caused by muscle pains in the face or neck or possibly a migraine, and a sneeze is simply a response when the nose is being tickled in order to clear it. To say otherwise is to be ignorant of the facts. Faith is not a requirement for understanding the world, or so they claim.
In reality, there is a dirty little secret among scientists: the laws that supposedly govern the universe are based on fundamentals which cannot be proven. In other words, even the most diehard atheists have to have faith in something; rather contradictory as they are “without belief”. One such example is gravity; it is common knowledge that objects of great mass has a strong gravitational force between them but there really is not rhyme or reason why this force is there. When confronted a scientist will give one of three responses: come up with a complex conjecture in order to avoid the question, claim that “it is because it is”, or simply admit that they don’t know. None of these responses are very scientific. This shows that faith becomes a major, albeit hidden, component of science.
In fact, it can be said that faith is a necessity of life itself. Of course, people can reject the reality around them (after all, the basis of reality is pretty shaky once you really think about it) but these people are deemed as psychopaths. While it is easy to be skeptical things must be believed in on a fundamental level in order to retain sanity and have a sense of consistency. Overall, faith plays an essential albeit covert role in the world we live in.
I completely agree with the 'dirty little secret' that science possesses. Science is made out to be the only one with true answers but instead many of the Scientific theories require a leap of faith. Another one of these leaps is probably the belief in a 'singularity' within the black hole. The core of the black hole is called a singularity because no ones know anything about it and labeling it with a fancy word makes it sound like they do know something.
ReplyDeleteStar Trek reference, huh, Martin?
ReplyDelete