Society today appears to be watering down the components of the scientific process and beginning to treat science as loosely in its relevance and acceptance as it does the humanities. A recent poll shows that 50 percent of the people think two plus two equals five and almost every TV network agrees with them. Simply imposing two plus two equals four on them is not democracy. And, indeed, it is not democracy. But it is science, and it is not amusing to recognize that the public fails to understand what science is.
Science is much more than a body of knowledge.
It is a way of thinking. Science invites us to let the facts in even when they don't conform to our preconceptions. It counsels us to carry alternative hypotheses in our heads and see which ones best match the facts. It urges us to maintain a fine balance between a sincere openness to new ideas, however heretical, and the most rigorous skeptical scrutiny of everything. No one has defined science more eloquently than Thomas C. Chamberlin, one of the greatest geologists who ever lived.