The Center for Truth in Science
Well, now I have had the complete 2020 experience, trailing into 2021. CoVid-19, a.k.a. Trump flu happened. The worst for me is now mostly over, and I can see a light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately it is not the hypoxemic end-of-life light at the end of the tunnel.
Kurt Gödel famously noted that the “the meaning of world is the separation of wish and fact.” The work of science in fields that touch on religion, politics, and other dogmas requires nothing less than separating wish from fact. Sadly, most people are cut off from the world of science by ignorance, lack of education, and social media that blur the distinction between wish and fact, and ultimately replace the latter with the former.
It should go without saying that truth is science and science is truth, but our current crises show that truth and science are both victims of the same forces that blur wish with fact. We might think that a center established for “truth in science” is as otiose as a center for justice in the law, but all the social forces at work to blur wish and fact make such a center an imperative for our time.
The Center for Truth in Science was established last year, and has already weighed in on important issues and scientific controversies that occupy American courtrooms and legislatures. Championing “fact-based” science, the Center has begun to tackle some of the difficult contemporary scientific issues that loom large on the judicial scene – talc, glyphosate, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and other – as well as methodological and conceptual problems that underlie these issues. (Of course, there is no other kind of science than fact-based, but there are many pseudo-, non-fact based knock offs out there.) The Center has already produced helpful papers on various topics, with many more important papers in progress. The Center’s website is a welcomed resource for news and insights on science that matters for current policy decisions.
The Center is an important and exciting development, and its work promises to provide the tools to help us separate wish from fact. Nothing less than the meaning of the world is at stake.
