(Under Construction)
This page will explain what science is, the methodology, the importance, and the breath taking wonder of science.
So what is science? This question is not as easy to answer as one might expect. Philosophers of science have been quibbling over how exactly to pin down what separates science from other schools of thought and pseudoscience. This page wont be a discussion of the history of various definitions. I’m going to skip to the end of this ancient conversation and just toss out and explain a few modern working definitions and contrast them with what science isn’t. After that I’ll get into what the scientific method is and why science is important to everyone, whether you think so or not.
One of my favorite basic explanations of what science is comes from Carl Sagan. He said that whenever we check our beliefs against nature in a systematic way, we are doing science. There is obviously a lot more to be said, such as what it means to check your beliefs against the world (see rationality) and what it means to do it systematically. I would also add (and I don’t remember if Sagan’s definition included this or not) that one has to honestly and fairly do this. Checking to see if your beliefs are true doesn’t count for much if you lie to yourself or cherry pick which beliefs you’re going to investigate.
