Can we trust modern science?

[anthson]

Spawned off from another thread where the discussion was getting off-topic.

Originally posted by Maelgrim
Look at all the scientists hired by phillip morris et al back when 'Is smoking bad for you' was actually a question. Their advertising and marketing campaigns produced findings from reputable establishments with titles as long as my leg saying that smoking was not harmful. My favorite was the chesterfield ad where they proudly announced 'our six month survey shows that people who smoked chesterfields showed no sign of disease or deterioration in the mouth, throat, nose, or associated organs.' when of course we know today that smoking damage is most frequently the result of years of accumulated damage.

That's modern science's biggest downfall, if you ask me. A biologist takes a look at small changes in bacteria, calls it evolution, and concludes the changes will keep happening until that bacteria turns into a kitten. Chesterfield scientists study smokers for six months and conclude smoking produces zero adverse health effects. Weather/climate analysts (and Al Gore) observe a very small change in average temperature and make long-term projections that ASSUME trends will continue. In all three cases there obviously are more things to accent those particular stances that were taken, but the point still remains.

If we're talking common sense and critical thinking here, why can't we teach our scientists to quit assuming trends will continue the way they are (or retrospectively, that trends have continued the same way throughout all of time in the same manner they are continuing today).

At 25 years of age, I don't have to look far back in history to understand how wrong science keeps getting it over and over. Health is one area no one appears to know much on. We've discovered modern miracles like heart surgery, I'll give the scientific medical community that. But for all their achievements in solving problems in order to keep people alive, medical science still can't get it right on some very basic points. Prepare for elaboration.

List of things I can remember off the top of my head:

• Eggs are good for you.
• Coffee is bad for you.
• Butter is terrible for you, so eat margarine.
• Eggs are bad for you.
• Alcohol is bad for you.
• Coffee actually can be good for you. Kind of.
• Look, eggs are GOOD for you. Okay? Eat them with some margarine.
• It turns out wine actually is good for your heart. Kind of.
• I know we said eggs were bad, but they're good. At least the white is good. The yellow? It'll kill you. Don't eat that. Also margarine may be kind of bad for you with all those hydrogenated oils and stuff.
• No, coffee really is just bad for you all around. Unless you're dying of thirst.
• Eat and drink whatever you want because really the Earth is going to fry and drown under melted ice caps soon, anyway.

Health is just one area I cared to mention. I know of several other branches of science that have continually throughout history gotten things wrong time and time again. Their story is always the same: "Well, we know why we had it wrong back then. We've fixed that now and we've got it all right today." The science of the day and age always assumes it is living in the pinnacle of understanding. Even in heart surgery, science used to tell doctors to never touch the heart unless they wanted to kill their patients. It took someone coming along with radical ideas to change things for the better.