Week 7 - Jane Kwak

In Robert Lanza’s “A New Theory of the Universe,” he talks about how life cannot be fully understood by means of science.  Though the field of science is continually growing, we are far from fully understanding life, because science does not account for perception and experiences.  At a very young age, we begin learning science in order to explain different aspects of our world through observation and experimentation.  As we grow older, we are expected to continue our search to explain new ideas in our world through the use of multiple kinds of sciences.  We are encouraged to be curious and search for answers to any questions they may have.  Our education system teaches students that the only way to find answers to our questions is through science.  We do not like the unknown, so in order to explain certain phenomenon, we devised theories or ideas about the world based on our own perception.  The desire to provide an explanation for everything in this world relates for our need for control. 
Each generation of researchers builds their theories off of older researchers’ theories, instead of questioning them.  We trust that the explanations of researchers from previous generations are true.  Although theories are tested multiple times in order to check for validity and reliability, these concepts are man-made.  Humans produced explanations for the situations they were in at that time.  The differences of perception in certain situations are not considered.  Instead of considering how the peoples’ perception could have influenced their findings, we grasp the explanation tightly because we fear the possibility of not having answers to our questions.

Question:
Are fear and the need for control the reasons why people believe that everything needs an explanation that only science is able to provide?

Reference:
Lanza, Robert. “A New Theory of the Universe.” The American Scholar. 3, Mar. 2017.

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