Editorial: Scientists Have Been Wrong Before, So I Can Say Whatever I Want.
By Jim Makell
No one can doubt the enormous power and benefits of science. This article is being published on the Internet and you may be reading it on you smart phone; developments which would have seemed like science fiction a short time ago. If I completely rejected science, I guess I would have to communicate that sentiment with smoke signals.
Yet for all the achievements of science, there have been some serious shortcomings as well. When my parents were children, doctors and scientists were used to sell cigarettes, something known as “tobacco science”. Science has also gotten it wrong with Vioxx, thalidomide, and several other notable failures.
It is these failures that make me feel comfortable saying whatever the hell I want about anything, even when it contradicts the global scientific community – people who have devoted their entire lives to studying a subject that has occupied me for several hours on Google. If I say, “vaccines are dangerous and unproven,” it is no use replying with, “every single reputable scientist in the world would disagree with this.” Because I will simply say, “Oh yeah, scientists used to say it was safe to smoke.”
Do you see what I did there? Do you see how clever I have been? You can post scientific articles galore on the safety of GMOs, vaccines, or whatever. But unless your science can build a time machine and reverse the errors scientists have made in the past, my beliefs about what is true will continue to be guided solely by what I wish to be true.
