Science vs. Fantasy: A False Dichotomy

April 30th, 2008

There have been a number of books/movies/tv shows presenting conflicts between rationial vs. scientific world views on the science vs. fantasy spectrum.

I submit that they’ve all been unfair.

I recall watching Northern Exposure on TV some 15 years ago, more or less. It was an interesting show about a doctor with a fellowship compelled to serve in Alaska for several years to pay off the debt. What was stupid was that he represented a scientific point of view, while the locals provided a faith-based point of view, and he never took into account the data of his experiences there in adjusting his worldview. The show didn’t play fair. They cheated. Science takes into account information from the environment in reaching conclusions. For the majority of the show, Joel just looked like an ass denying the events that occurred based on nothing. It wasn’t science. It was the suck.

This is happening on Battlestar Galactica to a certain extent. Baltar is our scientist there. He’s making the rationalist argument, but he’s also being swayed. I’m okay with that, because on the show the faith-based perspective has facts in support.

I’m very sympathetic toward Baltar. He’s a smart guy, like me. He likes women, like me. He just wants to survive, like me, and pretty much anyone reading this. He’s too often made to be the bad guy. I hope he’s redeemed in the end. He hasn’t been immoral as I’ve seen it. He’s been rationally human. The show, on the other hand, has played into irrationality. Drugs give true visions, for instance. Not in my experience, please.

Look. In a piece of fiction I’ll buy into the realities of that fiction. Just make them clear and honest. Too often we have idiocy. Characters like Joel Fleishmann who keep on with a modern, scientific worldview despite events that he sees and experiences. Change the rules, and science will figure it out. Stories that fail in this respect represent writers who don’t understand science.

Science works. We have a world of technology that demonstrates this in no uncertain terms. If you disagree, you’re wrong. Live up to it.

This is not to say that science is the be all and end all. Life is about more than that. But if you want facts to cling to, rules to understand, stick with science.

Where science conflicts with other paradigms, the other paradigms are probably wrong. This is just based on how science works. Science doesn’t work everywhere, but where it works, pay attention.

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