Scientific Method - The Key to Progress of Humanity

We as a species have a lot to be proud of. Imagine you were an alien watching humainities' development over the last 100 or so years. In the early 20th century, we took to the sky for the first time; the Wright Brothers made aviation history. Just over 60 years later, we landed on the moon.

Science- Flies You to The Moon

That is insane, when you think about it. But this amazing achievement was not reached through complacency, it was reached through curiosity, which is what the scientific method is all about.

The problem with human superstitious reasoning is that it teaches us to be comfortable and content with what we have. Don't understand what gravity is? Well, "that's just the way the universe was made". If you are a human being worth his/her salt, that is not an acceptable line of reasoning.

The process of questioning our world and it's nature has given us countless advantages. From the computer you are reading this on to the clothes you are wearing. The freeze-dried foods you are eating (come from NASA) as well as the TV you watch. Your heating in your home, as well as lighting and power, your car and that aeroplane you took for your last vacation; all come from an inquisitive individual. The likes of Newton, Einstein, Fermi, the Wright Brothers, Thomas Edison - I could go on. While we may debate the personal beliefs of such individuals, one thing is clear - it was their innate curiosity and fundamental intelligence that enabled them to revolutionise our lives, nothing else. Period.

Now, compare and contrast that with what our superstitious nature has given us. War. Fighting. Arguments. Crusades. Ethnic Cleansing. Warped and unjustified moral (or immoral) demands. For example, think of genital mutilation of innocent children (circumcision), or the family strife brought about by illogical superstitious prejudices.

It comes back to the cliched adage, "Science flies you to the moon. Religion flies you into buildings." It may seem like a childish pun, but genuinely ask yourself why this is not just a simple fact.

Religion - Flies you into Buildings

You may now be arguing that 'superstition' (eg religeon) gives us our so-called 'moral compass' and without that we cannot function. But think about your workplace, for a second. If you work for a large organisation, you likely have a set of HR (human resources) rules, which outline what is acceptable in the workplace and what is not. As a species, we did not need some deity to pass those rules down to us- we were able to determine them from good business sense.

So ask yourself- is the same not becoming true of life in general? Yes, people do bad things. but our legal system is not based on superstitious input, it is based on logic and what benefits our community (species). I do not need superstitious principles to inform me that theft, rape, murder or anything like that is not acceptable. Logic tell me this. In fact, when you look out some of our superstitious textbooks closely, you will in fact find that they endorse rape, theft and murder where they see fit.

Combine this with the fact that there is no solid evidence of supernatural phenomenon. Any existing 'evidence' is all third hand accounts or questionable images/footage, or some unprovable 'faith' event. I'm sorry, but we've been around and recording our history for the best part of ten millenia now, and have had advanced video/photo technology for the last 100 years, and still there's not a jot of irrefutable evidence. Instead, we have a mounting list of scientific evidence, coherently pointing in one direction: the logical one.

So I ask you, where does superstition fit in? I don't see how it possibly tells us the best way to live as individuals. It most certainly doesn't benefit us as a civilisation.There's no reason to believe in it, and every reason to reject it.

I always say that if there is intelligent life out there, and they are waiting for us to advance to a sufficient level before interacting with us, one of the key things they must surely look for is that we abandon such infantile notions and get on with real progress, before we end up sending suicide bombers to their planet!