Belief vs. science - buyer beware

During most of recorded history, there was no science, no explanations for the many terrifying events that afflicted life, e.g., volcanic eruptions, floods, droughts, starvation, and epidemic diseases. 

People invented gods and eventually believed that those gods were the cause of both good events and bad events.  According to Michael Jordan, writing in his Encyclopedia of Gods, humans have invented more than 2,500 gods. 

Modern science has produced provable explanations for many of the things that once frightened people, and science has made the benefits of modern life possible. Science requires extensive learning, research, testing, and proof. Belief needs no proof, and we retain the impulse to believe.

There was an intermittent period of unusually cold and wet summers in Europe that lasted from about 1300 to 1850. It has been called the “little ice age,” although it was not an ice age. But those weather conditions caused crop failures, hunger and starvation. Several times, some of the suffering population believed that minority members of the community caused the bad weather. They burned people “at the stake” for causing the bad weather and crop failures. Belief is powerful. During the time that the bubonic plague swept Europe, the same thing happened. Minorities were blamed for causing the disease and were executed because of a false belief held by the majority. During the Spanish Inquisition, people who refused to change their religious faith to the “correct” religious faith were burned “at the stake.”

Our contemporary society is conflicted about belief in a different way. We hold that freedom of speech is an absolute necessity for a free society and a democratic government. The concept is written into our Constitution. Social media has produced a number of individuals who profess ideas that large numbers of people believe. People who have work experience or education that demands investigation and proof are not easily swayed by social media political commentators. But many of us don’t routinely exhibit professional doubt.

A classic example of belief without proof is the poor soul who believed an online conspiracy theory that a pizza shop in Washington, D.C. had a child trafficking operation in the basement. He conducted an unlawful armed inspection and was sentenced to four years in a federal prison. But the people who promote false information face no penalty. How do we assure freedom of speech and protect ourselves from false information?

Advancing artificial intelligence (AI) may make the problem more severe even for people who are accustomed to verifying information. Artificial intelligence can make documents and photographs so similar to real images that most of us cannot distinguish the difference. A NY Times article on April 8, 2023, expressed the issue this way: “Experts fear the technology could hasten an erosion of trust in media, in government and in society. If any image can be manufactured — and manipulated — how can we believe anything we see?”

Humans have been manipulated by false beliefs since the beginning of our recorded history. Very recently, science offered a better way to understand the world. Now, it appears that science may contribute to our vulnerability to adopt false beliefs. Buyer beware.

Jack Stevenson is a retired infantry officer, civil service and private corporation employee who now reads history, follows issues important to Americans, and writes commentary from his home in Pensacola, Florida.