science as proof
scientific evidence as an argument for truth faces major obstacles
firstly - the method: although science starts from simple rules about honest observation and transparency towards others about the research method and how to report the results, in practice it is very difficult to follow these rules because of all kind of group pressures and personal interests that do intervene all the time
there is emergent literature within the scientific community itself indicating that because of personal, political or commercial pressures an overwhelming amount of scientific publications fail on one or more essential criteria
moreover, reports about scientific publications in the media often are presented like an advertisement to sell some product, by theatrically overhyping small or uncertain results, which makes it difficult for the general public to get a realistic picture
secondly - many, if not most phenomena fall outside the scientific scope because science as a tool simply cannot deal with them in a proper scientific way
in principle science may be our best effort to grasp physical reality, but it can only produce “hard evidence” by strictly limiting itself to well defined phenomena and well-defined and independently reproducible methods
in practical terms that means science can only tell us that much when we look at all the phenomena that are important in our life that define the “truth of our existence” - whether we understand that existential truth or not - for most of these phenomena science does not give an answer and cannot by its very nature
in the end here is only one enduring truth, and that is our physical reality
this reality is mainly outside the human mind - it is more of an experience, an encounter with our senses, and although patterns may appear in this reality, it changes all the time and these patterns may only appear from hindsight, in a memory
the mystery of the moment can only be experienced, it cannot be magically captured in a theory or law or principle: science can only look at traces of this mystery as leftovers, that belong already to the past the moment we write them down
from these leftovers science creates a body of knowledge that gives partial insight into some phenomena in our existence
this body of knowledge and these insights are in the abstract realm, they are basically ideas, mental constructs, and by the above definition of truth science as knowlegde cannot be truth itself - at best it can give useful insights and tools in dealing with some aspects of our reality
