It seems there’s hardly a week that goes by that “scientists” don’t make some breakthrough discovery or another. But we would see another side of the story if the media was as quick to point out the growing number (and the growing trend) of retractions. And it turns out 2017 was a record-breaking year — with a one-day retraction of 107 scientific papers/breakthroughs — from the same “reliable source”. (They faked some of their peer-review data for the sake of being the first to publish “breakthroughs”)
Science, properly done, is an invaluable tool. But we’ve fallen into this worshipful religion of science, where almost anything science says or “breaks through on” is placed on the highest of pedestals, deemed as utter Gospel. And the news media knows that we just love to slurp this stuff up like an Ensure milkshake after a 10-course buffet!
Let’s remember that though the scientific process is tried and true, it is run by humans who are prone to errors and cutting corners. Canadians in particular, have been handed a steaming plate of crow with the scandal and shut-down of the Sick Kids Hospital’s “Motherisk” lab amidst charges that they were careless in their testing of hair samples for substance abuse — ripping children away from their parents and even leading to criminal convictions simply because the mother had used a hair spray with alcohol as an ingredient.
Science is a tool. Not an object of worship by which we might feel more haughty about ourselves than we ought.
© 2026 – SoulSequel
20 responses to “Oops! Never mind.”
Good science booted the bad science, showing that these studies were not taken as gospel.
@luftballooneyegouge
This thread is less about good science vs bad science . . . as it is about our own human nature and how quickly we can be prone to “attach religiously” to things.
@griz
Our societies are based, more or less, on cult principles.
☺- We’re told we’re special and unique based on belonging to a group that is separated by make-believe lines.
☺- We’re told everyone outside of these lines is different & a potential threat.
☺- We’re sold that only a charismatic leader can save us from those from outside the imaginary lines, and from ourselves who are lost without a charismatic leader.
☺- We’re told that without certain ceremonial performances being practiced in accordance, the society will crumble.
Religious thinking is the problem, but there seems to be a preference towards that on here, & a hyperbolized notion that people just aren’t being religious about the correct things to be religious about.
….more or less… cult principles.
@luftballooneyegouge
It could also come down to a chicken-or-the-egg scenario. Did “the controllers” of society edict this and then we complied . . . or is it just the way we as a species tend to function?
Interestingly, the only thing Christians have permission to be “religious” about is to take care of widows and orphans, and keep oneself “unstained” from thinking that worldly processes are going to “save them”.
Nothing else.
@griz
You poor highly regulated Christians are allowed to keep your secret societies like the Young Men’s Christian Association,…..
….For Nowwwwwwwwww!!!!!!!!!
“And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.”- L. Ron Hubeeazlehub
@luftballooneyegouge
Lol!
I’ve neither identified with nor supported religious Christianity for a very long time. And the YMCA hasn’t been “Christian for a very long time now either. It’s just a name that used to mean something.
@griz
That’s one….
…. you have 2 denials left before KFC opens.
Skywalker 22:61
@luftballooneyegouge
We tend to project onto others the things that vex us the most
Obi-wan 3:23
@griz
Skywalker, Luke22:61
I can’t make the connection for 3:23,… is there one?
@luftballooneyegouge
It has at least the same significance as 22:61.
Perhaps a bit more.
@griz
Ok
So, does 3:23 have an actual Bible verse attached that you were thinking of or is it just randomly chosen numbers?
When I put up
“That’s one….
…. you have 2 denials left before KFC opens.
Skywalker 22:61”
It’s a bad translation of Luke 22:61 in response to your questionable statement
“I’ve neither identified with nor supported religious Christianity for a very long time.”
“61 And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice.”-Luke 22:61
@luftballooneyegouge
OK, I get it now. It was clever and I should have got it.
I would note though, the difference between denying Christ and denying the religion people built up around him.
Consider that Jesus appeared to blaspheme the religion people had built up around God.
I had Rom 3:23 in mind; noting that we all have spiritual issues that religion then tries to hypocrite away as per Matt 7:3-5
@griz
Messianic claims always raise the brows. What do you think about the New Jersey Messiah Menachem Mendel Schneerson? I think he’s the image-model for corporate Santa Claus!
@luftballooneyegouge
I’ve not heard of him. I’ll have to keep an ear open for him..
He sort of got lost in the pantheon of messiah come of late to save us from ourselves!
@griz
It’s some nutty stuff, & on top of that he was a White-house darling on both sides of the aisle.
@luftballooneyegouge
Well now that could indicate “divine intervention” if he unites both sides!
I’ll have to look him up, if he’s not soon-featured in one of my comedy feeds!
It’s funny how a “thing” like the category of science has come to mean more than a process. It’s a stretch to consider it personified, but it has taken on a deity like presence as many of us stand back and observe with awe and reverence this thing that seems to oversee an attitude of worship.
We see the God Complex illustrated by doctors who seems to think that they have the power of life and death. I’ve met too many that are fucking idiots that still display this sense of superiority.
Science has become like the false gods that many worship and illustrate their worship through the everyday lives that run counter to what their so called God is professed to teach. You can’t say thou shalt not kill and then kill anyone who doesn’t agree with that.
Science is supposed to be all about pure objectivity. To worship it specifically, versus the constructive knowledge that it delivers is just dumb.
Now, I’m going outside to experience a crisp winter day with an appreciation that science found a way to give me a heat reflective inner lining in my coat while God exposes me to the beauty of the Universe in all it’s currently frigid glory.
Happy New Year Griz!!
@spitfire3dc
Happy New Year to you and yours.
You are right that the base theme of this thread is “things we try to worship”. The pure objectivity of science butts heads with the often pure subjectivity that many try to say is “reality”.
But then alongside this comes the religious zeal to think that something has “all the answers” (or at least enough of them for us to venerate). Whether science and technology, doctors, a political tribe, a social movement, a man-made ideology, the internet, a career . . . an addiction?
A New Years wish for everyone, is that they would spot these processes-of-religion in their life and start to make sense of why we as a species seem so vulnerable to venerate and even worship these imperfect, in-process, ever-changing things.
It is very good to use the tools that are set before us; but not to abuse them for things they were never intended for. It’s like we have this addiction not so much to science . . . but to the excitement and other feelings it brings to us.
@griz our vulnerability is directly related to the science of endocrinology. We are the sum total of our chemistry and there is damn little we can do about it.
Think about it. Our creator thought about it All. Set up an ecosystem that allows a creature to evolve in so many ways and then ensure extreme variety by allowing that gradual evolution to create ever more variations by the slightest change in chemical compounds by individual.
Then, let each individual argue about what is at the foundation of it all. The Supreme Consciousness must love the Comedy genre.
@spitfire3dc
My observation is that the Creator gave us “something extra”. Our feelings, urges, foibles etc come without choice.
But unlike the rest of the animals we can exercise choice over top of them. Do it enough, and the person changes. What was once an uncontrollable urge or a “subscription pitfall”, ceases to be.
We see ourselves as mostly physical, so we tend to bandy these things around totally within this arena, rarely daring to stray even close to its containing walls. The teachings and sacrifice of Christ are said to give us access to a whole new spiritual arena. One where we have whatever sway over body chemicals and even complex outside agency, as our current level of fellowship with Life can safely handle.
It’s interesting that the Bible speaks of “faith that can move mountains”; and we think this extreme. But what about the faith to move the blocks within ourselves that keep us from accessing all of the power that is alleged to be our birth-right?
When we think of “power” we think firstly of controlling things outside ourselves.
But first comes the mountainous feat . . . of controlling ourselves!