Is there any faith involved in science?

Question

Ok sorry I DON'T mean: are scientists religous.

well I am scientist. I was wondering what other people think about it. To me the only faith involved is a faith in sense data. the rest follows logicaly although sometimes people confuse psedo-science with science and scientist non scientific opinions etc, and it was this I wanted some clarity on.

Answer 1

yes, but... Carl Sagan put it well when he talked about 'faith cheques'. When I am reading a scientific article, I do not question every point, I do not look up formulae or demand to see original research etc etc, in that sense, I am putting faith in the scientist. When, for example, Leaky or Dawkins make a statement that a fossil is Xmillion years old, I take their word for it, I do not demand to do a radio-carbon dating myself!
But the difference between this and the faith demanded by religion, as Sagan points out, is that you could cash those faith cheques in. A Scientist could provide evidence and arguments supporting their claims and statements. Religion can not.

Answer 2

Faith is usually defined as a belief held without, or contrary to, evidence. If this is how you define faith, then there is no faith in science. Of course there are other ways to define faith. If you think it is a matter of faith to assume that no Cartesian evil demon is putting these thoughts into your head, then science requires faith. In any case, science is very different from things that are usually called faith.

Science does not take anything for granted, its method is very rigorous. Scientists try to disprove their theories, and then ask others to disprove them. Only after a hypothesis has been put to the test many times, and the studies recorded so that anyone else who wants to can replicate them, does something become a theory (and when scientists use the word theory they mean something very different from the common meaning of the word, it is not just a random idea someone has after a few drinks!)

The way science is portrayed in the media often makes it seem to be a faith On TV you will hear that a scientist has come to a conclusion, but you are not told about the years of research that went into it. Understanding complex science requires a great deal of mathematical knowledge, e.g., to understand the big bang you need to know about relativity theory and Friedmann models, amongst other things. If you do not have an extremely good knowledge of science, it can sound like faith.

Or were you asking a rhetorical question?

Answer 3

only 6% of those completing a questionaiire amongst members of a british science organisation claimed to have faith in god, as 94% unbelievers it's definitely not in the scientists themselves.

is it therefore in the science itself? there's a certain amount of faith that the actual answer to any given scientific problem is somewhere amongst the hypothesis tested in order to discern the answer to that specific question (the truth is sometimes not amongst the hypothesis as what is accepted as scientifically true does in some instances change!) However this faith is nothing like the blind 'faith alone' ascribed to some deeply religious - they're totally winging it in comparison to scientists.



oops put science and faith in the same question and you effectively invite R&S'ers into the philosophy section and they're the cause of most edits
in 'Philosophy' - we instigate a valid search for the truth. ... thank god I didn't mention the proven inverse correalation between relgiousity and intelligence.

Answer 4

Stricrly speaking, NO. There is faith involved in scientific process of knowing in the true sense.

Sciene is the knowledge of cause and effect relationship. it is the knowledge of causation, or causality. It is rational, and has nothing to do wit faith.

But the scientists do have faith, and they procedd upon faith normally. One can find Christian Bernard prayinf sincerley prior to hhis forst heart transplantation, and he had written about how he had been praying. He had done all he could do, and the rest, he submitted to God. You will fid many scientists do this, at a point the human and rational part ends, they turn to God, and keep faith.

Answer 5

Surely if there is no faith in science then theres no science at all. Understand first of all that the opposite of faith is unbelief. So then you can see the logic of faith in formulating scientific principles. Faith is the basic requirements in every endeavor to achieve man's goal. A faithless person never amount to anything.

Answer 6

Christian faith... I've wrestled with this for a while. It seems the only reason Faith is valued is because the definition is, the belief in something for which one has no proof, and cannot ever have proof of. This definition is why Faith is supposedly so hard to come by.

So, fist to answer your question, no, there is no faith in science as all teh questions they ask are answerable, even if we cannot answer them at the moment.

Answer 7

In the end it doesn't matter - not for me. Science I understand. As for as I am concerned it makes sense. Never could grasp the concept of faith.

Answer 8

Obviously, since, to date, no scientist has been able to explain where the 'big bang' came from. 'Oh my God! Could it have come from God? Hang on a minute - if that's true, where did God come from?'
One should never ask questions which cannot be answered. Religious leaders and scientists get really peed of if you do.

Answer 9

I say no because science is about proof, experimentation and evidence. If things are proved by evidence then you don't have to place any faith in it, you have proof. Faith is applied to things you can't prove.

Answer 10

Every theory is an act of faith. Faith in the knowlege you have gained thus far, and your deductive reasoning abilities. The only difference is with most of our science we can test our "faith" to see how it measures up, where religious faith requires us to die to test it.