Thomas Tachovsky

“Follow Science, Not Scientists I do not at all believe that the empirical sciences are our only means to ascertaining truth. But I do believe that we should respect what they have to teach, most of which, though certainly not all, will corroborate or deepen our ordinary perceptions of how things work and act in the world. The problem is that scientists are human like the rest of us. I do not merely mean that they make mistakes. I mean that they are motivated by passions: ambition, avarice, stubbornness, pride, envy, and fear — fear of being cast out of the inner circle, the people in the know, and being ridiculed for not going along with the prevailing views. They are, like the rest of us, apt to exaggerate what they are certain of, and to exaggerate the probability of what they admit they are not certain of. They are, like the rest of us, apt to find what they have determined to look for from the outset, and not apt to find what they have not determined to look for. They are apt to adopt explanations that do not make them otherwise uncomfortable. In groups, they, too, can behave like mobs. For a mob, unlike a natural organism, is in intelligence always far less than the sum of its parts, and people will behave in mobs as bullies, cowards, ruffians, and cretins, who would in private life be perfectly sensible and gentle. I do not mean to say that what the mob insists on is necessarily untrue. But to the mob, truth no longer matters; getting their way is all in all.”
― Anthony Esolen, Lies of Our Time