20090702

What is the meaning of curiosity in scientific attitude?

PSI Blog 20090702 What is the meaning of curiosity in scientific attitude?

Results from the James Webb Space Telescope are products of humanity’s infinite curiosity, which, I predict, will lead to our ultimate realization the universe is infinite. That telescope threatens to increase the current 2-trillion galaxy estimate by a factor of 10. With an estimated 400 billion stars in our own galaxy, that is a lot of evidence in support of Infinite Universe Theory. How much more evidence do we need?

 

Yet, cosmogonists (those who assume the universe had a beginning) still believe all that stuff exploded out of nothing (or a “singularity,” as the venerable Professor Hawking mathematized). But, as soon as the first fuzz ball in the night sky was proven to be a galaxy containing a trillion stars, similar to our own Sun, we had a choice:

 

1.    The universe exploded out of nothing, or

2.    The universe is infinite.

 

Neither of those can be completely proven, in the same way our scientific faith that there are “causes for all effects” cannot be completely proven. Infinity requires us to make assumptions. While each thing in the universe had a beginning, the material for constructing each of those things had to come from somewhere else. That is what the 2nd choice provides us. The 1st choice is traditional and amounts to the last gasp of creationism, a myopic construct centered on our pre-Copernican selves.

 

Curiosity involves an inquiry outside oneself. The scientific “attitude” is based on the assumption that the truth may be known through observation and experiment. Dr. Chris Drew considers it the primary human instinct:


The seeking instinct is the instinct within all humans that make us want to explore. It’s built into us because it has evolutionary benefits: by seeking, we find food, shelter, and water. It helps us sustain ourselves. However, we can temporarily pause this instinct during times of fear and depression.


The nonscientific attitude is the belief that truth already is known or that it may be known in ways that do not involve interacting with the external world. The scientific attitude is inherently progressive-and dangerous. The statement “Curiosity killed the cat” is not without wisdom. On the other hand, without interacting with the outside world, nothing gets done. Each step, each bite of food, is an “ex”-periment. The upshot: We are all scientists. 

 

One way to avoid the problems caused by curiosity is to look the other way, like the cosmogonists do. Any examination of the external world will challenge your religious faith while augmenting your scientific faith. Better you should look the other way. Pope Francis sums up the religious viewpoint:

 


Photo Credit: Nacho Arteaga in Unsplash.

 

Excerpts from the Pope’s radio address in 2013 as reported by Laura Ieraci:

 

“…we find ourselves before another spirit, contrary to the wisdom of God: the spirit of curiosity. …The spirit of curiosity distances us from the Spirit of wisdom. …And the spirit of curiosity is not a good spirit. It is the spirit of dispersion, of distancing oneself from God, the spirit of talking too much. …this spirit of curiosity, which is worldly, leads us to confusion. …do not seek strange things, do not seek novelties with this worldly curiosity.”

 

The “confusion” alluded to here is an enduring problem for immaterialists who nonetheless must live in the material world. Would be solipsists expect contact with the world to produce contradictions and paradoxes. Like those who still believe the universe exploded out of nothing, they have learned to live with the cognitive dissonance triggered by curiosity. The alternative is to stifle the engine of science at an early age. ”Dr.” Joyce Meyer leads the battle:



Photo credit: Joyce Meyer.

 

The “battle” here amounts to the one between education and miseducation. It shows up whenever reality is dismissed in favor of dreams and imaginings. It shows up every time there is a fascist demand to ban books that might upset the political/religious applecart. It shows up when students are cloistered to prevent their interactions with the external world. It shows up when xenophobia attempts to prevent contact with people who are different. It shows up when a scientific paradigm allows no criticism from outsiders or upstarts from within the ranks.

 

But, in the end, it is a losing battle. No portions of the universe are completely isolated from the environment — including the people within any particular portion. As the human population grows, interactions with the external world become ever more intense, and therefore increasingly scientific. Humanity’s curiosity and penchant for observation and experiment is progressive. In the long run, the regression demanded by the Pope and by Meyer is not possible. What we have seen cannot be unseen.

 

The myopism of the current cosmology is only a phase. Today, each examination of the universe adds trillions more cosmological objects, with no end in sight. Humanity’s curiosity, like the universe, knows no bounds.