Be wary of putting our total faith in science

ONE of the great achievements of the Enlightenment was the separation of Church and state, while one of the most disturbing developments in high-tech societies is the call for science and state to be as close as possible.

But scientists, by nature and training, must be doubters not dogmatists, and their failure to remain true to their roots has wrecked climate science and is now threatening epidemiology.

During the coronavirus pandemic any disastrous policy decision was excused by the Great Leader saying he was “following the science”.

This belief in “science” is playing the role of the dominant religion of our time, so it’s important to understand the ways in which science has successfully inherited religious beliefs and in which respects science should be careful not to take on the heritage of religion.

In contrast to religion, science owes its success to its openness to doubt, to criticism, to self-correction and to making sober and objectively verifiable statements.

But this power mustn’t lead to the mistaken belief that it has the miraculous gift of mastering the future.

Epidemiological models must not become crystal balls in which political leaders try to track their nation’s coronavirus travails in the years ahead.

REV DR JOHN CAMERON St Andrews, Fife