Everything, including science, requires faith

Dear editor,

Is there such a thing as absolute? The dictionary states that good and evil are absolutes when using the word as a noun.

Mathematics is absolute because it historically has only offered true answers to correct equations (relating to) many of society's and science's questions.

Religion and mythology are not absolutes because they require faith for their existence. Mythology is aligned to a period of time when humans worshiped gods of the land, sea and air. The Bible is a mixed book of religion, history and moral teachings but both are associated with the history of the advancement of man.

Science is also not absolute because its answers are not always correct, yet they are mostly seen as correct for that period of time. Science once deemed the atom the smallest object in the universe. This was incorrect with the later discovery of the proton and neutron, which make up atoms. Are atoms with protons and neutrons made up of something else even smaller, with the smallest now known as the "God particle"?

Throughout history, coffee was deemed good, then bad, and multiple cups are now seen as cancer-preventing. So science is only as good as what it can prove at that time or when its results can be verified over time and in reality.

A nuclear bomb was a theory until it exploded, as intended, allowing the theory to become a reality. Did the use of science, mathematics or both create the bomb? So science itself requires a certain amount of faith until reality can prove it correct or not.

Creationism and evolution, in regard to man, are not absolutes because both require some amount of faith for their existence. In today's society, some scientists, with the help of some parts of society, have tried to give the impression that science is always true, truthful, honest and correct. But the reality of history has proven the exact opposite.

So has science now become the new religion of faith, and it not being absolute now means nothing? Science's own Big Bang Theory is a theory of creationism. Evolution is what may have happened afterward.

With mythology's winged horse, the Bible's talking snake and science's climate-changing farting cows, which one is now the stupidest perception of faith?

If a butterfly can cause hurricanes, a tree falling in the woods makes no sound, or you not dying from a sniper's bullet because you never heard the crack of the gunshot, are all philosophical nonsense because common-sense knowledge can disprove all of them.

The one thing in society that is a reality is some people no longer respect the beliefs of others. Limiting free speech of beliefs and thoughts may limit not just religion, politics and government but also philosophy, science, love, investing, your own abilities, etc.

Because everything requires a certain amount of faith to overcome man's own cynical doubts.

STEVEN KING

Milton

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This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: Everything, including science, requires faith