CHRISTIAN TODAY/ David Robertson-
The new mantra for many in our society is ‘listen to the experts’. For example, the public health experts who for years told us that low fat was better than low sugar. This was challenged in 1972 by one UK scientist, John Yudkin, who argued that high intakes of sugar were much more dangerous. He was attacked, ridiculed and his career was ruined. No food expert now denies he was right.
This is a pattern repeated throughout history. In the 19th century the Hungarian physicist Ignaz Semmelweis was mocked by the ‘experts’ when he found that hand washing could radically cut the transmission of diseases.
In today’s society, there is a worrying trend to speak of ‘the science’ and to insist that politicians, media and educators should all listen to ‘the experts’. Those experts who disagree with the science are immediately labelled as conspiracy theorists who provide ‘misinformation’ and who need to be silenced because they are ‘harmful’. The result is that real science is damaged – because there is no such thing as ‘the science’.
Science is a methodology which works by people being able to challenge and question. The irony is that having unquestionable ‘experts’ is itself harmful to science and real experts, and that those who accuse everyone they disagree with as ‘conspiracy theorists’ end up giving support to the real conspiracy theorists. The policing of science by social media corporations, bureaucrats, politicians and even clergy is not healthy for science or society. Continue reading…
