I Know This Much Is True

I was reading an article recently that happened to mention Neil de Grasse Tyson (NDT). For those of you who may not know, he’s an astrophysicist, a real smart guy, a scientific bon vivant, and unlike Bill Nye, a real science guy.

Now, I will stipulate that NDT likely has a higher IQ than I do, even though I’m no slouch. But I suspect that, just like Barack Obama, he benefits rather than suffers from what George W. Bush referred to as the “soft bigotry of low expectations” because of his heritage. What I mean by that is what has already been said, that if Barack Obama had been white, he never would have been elected president. He was just another bright young graduate of the Harvard Law school. But he was the cool young black guy that young progressives and even establishment democrats couldn’t resist with Joe Biden referring to him as being “clean cut” and Harry Reid commenting that he was electable because he was “light skinned” and that he spoke without any “negro dialect unless he wanted to”. In short, it was his skin tone that made him a stand out. People were willing to overlook his black liberation theology, his intolerance toward the LGBT community, and the lack of any personal information about his education being available.

Similarly, is NDT the most gifted, glib, interesting, telegenic, or most accomplished member of the American Astronomical Society, or has his elevation to the status of cultural icon been based simply on his being an academic novelty?

Anyway, what caught my eye was something that he said on Bill Maher’s HBO program “Real Time with Bill Maher”. What he said was "The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it." Now, of course, he was prattling on about global warming, extreme weather, and climate and environmental studies and you can argue that any way you like. But he and Bill were having a great time mocking catastrophe skeptics and the president as ignorant rubes and congratulating themselves for being members of the enlightened. It caught my eye because it always amazes me when someone who should (and quite probably does) know better, says something so profoundly misleading and stupid. The scientific method is a way of learning, a process of increasing knowledge, not something that is provably true or false. At one point not so long ago science said that heavier than air flight was impossible, and then that supersonic flight was impossible, something we know now not to be true. The molecule was the smallest particle, then the atom, then sub atomic particles. We were told that scientists couldn’t explain why bumble bees can fly. As an astrophysicist, Tyson knows well how Copernicus, Galeleio and others suffered at the hands of their contemporaries whose “truths” were rooted in the earth centric theory of the solar system which allowed Mars to mysteriously move backward in its celestial travels.

To imply that science says that something is true or false is to assert that our knowledge of the world and the universe is now complete, and that we are now masters of the universe instead of insignificant actors.

But that’s just what an average guy thinks