anglagard, msg 134, writes:
No It does not work both ways.
Actually, it does work both ways. That is, it does, if would if you had said it like this:
Hypothetical DBaF writes:
Scientists can be every bit as biased and stereotypical as
religious people.
However, since you actually said it like this:
The Real DBaF writes:
Science can be every bit as bias and stereotypical as
religion.
I agree with anglagard.
Religion does not subject itself to the scrutiny that science subjects itself to, nor does it ever question its tenets. The entire point of science is to question things, because questioning is the only way to make it stronger.
So, if one biased scientist wants to forge something, the first group of people he has to convince may be the media, but he'll eventually have to face up to his scientist colleagues. As soon as he publishes his work, he submits himself and his academic reputation to his colleagues, many of whom consider it their duty and privilege to assail any new, paradigm-changing idea that comes along the pike. He no longer has control over what happens to his study.
Have you read about
Homo floresiensis, the "hobbit" fossil found in Indonesia? Somebody found a dwarf hominid that survived until something like 15,000 years ago on Flores Island, which they described as a new species derived from
H. erectus. There are several scientists who believe it's just a pathological human, and they have attacked it with a rash of papers over the last couple years about possible alternative explanations for the fossils.
As far as I know, the species is still accepted by the scientific community at large, and the original description still stands. But, if it had been a fake (or even if they researchers had just been mistaken), do you think it would have survived this kind of pounding?
Here is a link to a search window on Fox News's website that talks about a large handful of the studies that have come out about
H. floresiensis. Feel free to peruse them and see what the critics (these critics are scientists) are saying about the fossil.
Also know that, whenever something important and high-profile comes out in science, scientist critics pop up all over the world to challenge it, just like they did to
Homo floresiensis.
So, no it doesn't work the same way between
science and
religion.
Darwin loves you.