Andrew Brown has written within his Guardian blog that it is simply absurd to claim that science is the only road to truth.
Basically he rips into a speech given by Nobel prize-winner Harry Kroto. I’ll not bore you with the details, but basically he claims that apart from science there are other ways for determining truth. Really!! … How about Astrology, voodoo, palm reading, crystal gazing, tea leaves,rituals , meditation, prayer, etc.
OK then lets think about it for a moment. Quite clearly Mr Kroto is using the word ‘science’ as a shorthand for what might better be termed ‘rational inquiry’. Now I will indeed grant Mr Brown one key point, there are indeed other forms of inquiry that lie outside the domain of rational inquiry, we have a special term to describe them – irrational inquiry, but is this what he is getting at? You bet it is.
What is indeed curious is that Mr Brown tends not to be explicit and actually explain what other ways he has for arriving at truth, but given all the shoe shuffling and hand waving going on, I’m sure you can guess, it is a rather familiar pattern. OK, here is a not so subtle clue, his blog on the Guardian falls into the context of “Comment is Free – Belief” context. “Ah ha” you say … yes exactly, now you get it, and can grok what he is implying about ‘other’ roads to ‘truth’.
