We are assured we live in a scientific age. Indeed, scientific methodology has brought us comforts and marvels unimaginable in the not so distant past. The very fragments of fragments of atoms seem to do our bidding. The foundations of the universe seem to yield to our inquiries.
And yet…
Scientific outlook applied to daily life is often less than wonderful. In fact, I would almost call it wrong. A few examples will suffice.
I go to bed at the same time. One night I sleep soundly, one night I dream, one night I hardly sleep at all. I take the same route to work. One day I zip there in almost no time, one day traffic slows to a crawl, one day all routes are closed. Deep scientific outlook would tell me there are good reasons for all this. The problem, it continues, is that I am unaware of extraneous variables and conditions.
Knowing and controlling conditions is the sine qua non of science.
That’s the basic issue. An individual life and consciousness is immersed in and surrounded by extraneous conditions that are randomly variable and absolutely uncontrolled. Scientific outlook applied to life and consciousness works badly and erratically if at all. It is like a lawyer trying to raise a family as if it were a courtroom, a general as if it were an army. Don’t work well.
Sanity requires recognition that scientific outlook has limits. And most of those limits are apparent in the truly important things in our lives _ self and society.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 