Long live ignorance

Science is driven by ignorance. If we were to think that we already know everything, we would stop searching. It is precisely because a scientist knows that he does not yet know something that he formulates hypotheses and develops theories, hoping that he will primarily find a lot peers who believe his assumptions are correct. Once the scientist finds answers, others must validate that the answer is correct. Science is therefore not just knowing-science, but also not-knowing-science.

It is mostly people who follow science from the outside who presume to possess omniscience. They find it difficult or barely experience that science does not have an answer for everything. These are the people who have difficulty accepting that a scientist, while building a scientific hypothesis as the most probable, has to correct himself after some attempts.

This is not an assumption, but a fact. We only have to look at how scientists who have to correct themselves gradually in the corona debate are now looked down upon (face masks are useless changes in weeks to face masks for everyone). It is not remarkable that non-scientists have difficulty with this, but it is all the more remarkable that scientists attack each other over that non-knowing-science and progressive insight, although it is an intrinsic part of science.

People, and certainly scientists, who cling to their science as dogma, get themselves and science stuck. After all, it is just as scientific to work with progressive insight. There are plenty of examples of scientists who once had a Scientific statement posited and which were later (for a long time) corrected by new science. Nobody therefore despises today's science because yesterday's science was once wrong.

Faith also seeks answers

I don't make these observations just like that. As a believing Christian, I recognize this pattern. Faith is generally attacked for its dogmas and especially for the pretense of having an answer to everything. Frankly, these attacks are justified. I believe that the scientific method for seeking more truth should be the same method within a faith.

Many religions have in the past and still get stuck on their own un-knowledge. The things that are not known are best filled with the most probable hypotheses and not with platitudes like 'it belongs to the mystery of faith'. Mysteries certainly exist, but a mystery, just like in science, is a question to which the answer has not (yet) been found.

A faith that gets stuck on a dogma that no questions may be asked is a blind faith. Without wishing to offend anyone with poor or missing eyesight, I state that blindness in faith (and science) is a true handicap. If a religion knows no evolution, it is as equally doomed as nature that would know no law of Darwin. Evolution is a quest for more and better that, just like in science, must be an intrinsic part of faith.

The worst attacks on faith come from outside, but also from within in this case, but mostly from people who do not accept that faith also does not have an answer to everything. Whoever does not accept that God actually created a quest, disregards creation and consequently also the brilliance of science and the possibility for humans to engage in science.

An eternal quest

For me, the search for more knowledge is central to my hunger to know more. I love documentaries, I read as much as I can, and I enjoy the monthly Nerdland by Lieven Scheire. In the same way, I enjoy studying the Scriptures and listening to talks from spiritual leaders who embrace the scientific principle of seeking more truth on a spiritual level.

As Christians, we often hear that we must be humble. We should certainly apply that in our faith. A simple logical deduction, in my opinion, goes as follows. If you believe there is an omniscient supreme being who possesses true science in the sense that he understands everything, then you can't help but conclude that it's only normal that we don't understand everything. Belief automatically means accepting that we still need to search for answers.

Many scientists, based on their scientific principle, recognize that there can be more. In principle, we are all somewhat agnostic. We don't know for sure, not in science and not in faith. We unravel the coding of a protein, but only since last month has Google's artificial intelligence given an answer to the protein folding problem with a probability score of 90 percent. A 90% assumption by a machine is science. Should we then deny ourselves faith because it's not always 100%?

Scientists who believed they could purposefully code mRNA to program our immune system have, based on that belief, ensured that we now have vaccines against COVID-19. Now, the success of herd immunity mainly revolves around the fact that enough trust and belief will be placed in the vaccine's efficacy.

Hand in hand

Science and faith go much more hand in hand than many are willing to admit. Unfortunately, that is often the fault of religions that have overestimated their own capabilities and still do so.

Where a religion today is not open to a quest for more truth and more insights, where it pretends to already have all the answers in any scriptures, there it is on a dead-end track and, in the hands of some, is as dangerous as science that has fallen into the wrong hands.

If some then claim that religion is dead due to the lack of poverty, they are partly right. Worldly prosperity is often the result of scientific progress. That has given many the pretension to believe (sic) in an all-science that does not exist. That belief proves today to be just as dangerous as a non-learning belief. The poverty that has extinguished faith in many is the poverty of intellectual hunger for more knowledge. The same poverty in the urge for truth proves today to be just as dangerous for science andsociety in all its forms.

I am glad to be a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints which states in the Scriptures that man exists to gain more knowledge and that it is God's plan to learn line upon line, precept upon precept. Science and faith are only dead when everyone says that no more truth should be sought.