Hello Michiel,

One must doubt to believe ...

Science is not about certainty. Neither is religion, for that
matter. But how many people hold on to their beliefs, whatever
those beliefs may be, and refuse to even acknowledge their own
view of the universe/reality could be something else entirely?

This is a small part of an interview with physicist Carlo Rovelli,
dated 5/30/2012. You can read the entire interview at the url cited
below. Would be interested in hearing your comments, if any. Thanks
in advance.

--Lee

source: edge.org

The final consideration regards just one comment about this
understanding of science and this long conflict that has crossed the
centuries between scientific thinking and religious thinking. I think
often it is misunderstood. The question is, why can't we live happily
together, and why can't people pray to their gods and study the
universe without this continuous clash? I think that this continuous
clash is a little bit unavoidable, for the opposite reason from the one
often presented. It's unavoidable not because science pretends to know
the answers. But it's the other way around, because if scientific
thinking is this, then it is a constant reminder to ourselves that we
don't know the answers.

In religious thinking, often this is unacceptable. What is unacceptable
is not a scientist that says I know, but it's a scientist that says I
don't know, and how could you know? Based, at least in many religions,
in some religions, or in some ways of being religious, an idea that
there should be truth that one can hold and not be questioned. This way
of thinking is naturally disturbed by a way of thinking which is based
on continuous revision, not of the theories, of even the core ground
of the way in which we think.

So summarizing, I think science is not about data; it's not about the
empirical content, about our vision of the world. It's about overcoming
our own ideas, and about going beyond common sense continuously.
Science is a continuous challenge of common sense, and the core of
science is not certainty, it's continuous uncertainty. I would even
say the joy of taking what we think, being aware that in everything we
think, there are probably still an enormous amount of prejudices and
mistakes, and try to learn to look a little bit larger, knowing that
there is always a larger point of view that we'll expect in the future.

https://www.edge.org/conversation/carlo_rovelli-science-is-not- about-certainty-a-philosophy-of-physics

--
It Ain't Payday If It Ain't Nuts In Your Mouth

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