Many years ago, Ambrose Bierce published a
satirical 'Cynics Word-Book’ (retitled ‘The Devil's Dictionary') of cynical
definitions about Life, the Universe and Everything, based on his observations
about life in San Francisco during the 1860s. It’s all wonderfully dark,
but let’s begin the New Year with some (slightly more wordy) alternatives.
Faith
‘(n.) Belief without evidence in what is told by
one who speaks without knowledge, of things without parallel.’ (Ambrose
Bierce)
‘The good thing about
Science is that’s it’s true whether or not you believe in it.’ (Modern T-shirt
slogan) Fail. Anyone saying that doesn’t
understand Science, which is all about making a hypothesis, then testing it to
destruction. Any body of knowledge is based on a series of interconnecting
hypotheses about why things are the way they are, all subject to change, depending
on whoever comes up with a better hypothesis that then needs to be considered and tested.
Some hypotheses (eg Newton’s laws of thermodynamics) have
stood the test of time better than others (phrenology, eugenics) but they’re
all up for testing. Establishing the Truth in Science requires a lot of belief
that the Truth is Out There waiting to be discovered, and it can sometimes be
stranger than we can possibly imagine (Thank you, Professor Brian Cox).
