59. The Tabooisation of Science
Chapter 59 from "Testosteronecollapse"
The taboo surrounding biology is just one specific example of the taboo surrounding science, as we see for example in the climate debate. I can only interpret this tabooisations in the following way:
Scientists learn one thing first and foremost: That there are measurable facts and laws of nature that apply in Naples or North Korea just as they do here, and which do not care about our opinion. For example, the speed of light is the same everywhere, as is the speed of falling objects on the Earth’s surface in a vacuum and the boiling point of water at sea level.
In the early modern period, describing the laws of nature was understood as reading the thoughts of the Creator, an act of piety: one can only take note of the Creator’s thoughts with reverence; one’s own opinion on the matter is irrelevant. In fact, natural science deals with things that are independent of our opinion and remain as they are.
The editorial offices of our information media and the editorial departments of publishing houses, on the other hand, are predominantly populated by humanities scholars. They come from German studies, history, political science, etc., all disciplines in which opinion stands against opinion, without any experiment being able to determine who is right. These people are used to having an opinion on everything, which above all must be ‘politically correct’.
The search for irrefutable facts and laws of nature is dismissed as ‘scientism’, and the presentation of surprising or paradoxical facts is dismissed as ‘far-fetched’.
This enables people to produce endless articles against wokeness or against the Club of Rome, or to denounce Greta Thunberg as a ‘brat’, without caring whether and what facts might underlie these phenomena.
Basically, this is the Promethean hubris of the ‘crown of creation’ that seeks the illusion of its freedom in repressing its creator-imposed conditions, as famously described in Goethes poem:
Prometheus Cover your heaven, Zeus, With cloudy vapours, And test your strength - like a boy Beheading thistles - On oaks and mountain peaks; Yet you must leave My earth alone, And my hut you did not build, And my hearth, Whose fire You envy me. I know nothing more paltry Beneath the sun than you, gods! Meagrely you nourish Your majesty On levied offerings And the breath of prayer, And would starve, were Not children and beggars Optimistic fools. When I was a child, Not knowing which way to turn, I raised my misguided eyes To the sun, as if above it there were An ear to hear my lament, A heart like mine, To pity me in my anguish. Who helped me Withstand the Titans’ insolence? Who saved me from death And slavery? Did you not accomplish all this yourself, My sacred glowing heart? And did you not – young, innocent, Deceived – glow with gratitude for your deliverance To that slumber in the skies? Should I honour you? Why? Did you ever soothe the anguish That weighed me down? Did you ever dry my tears When I was terrified? Was I not forged into manhood By all-powerful Time And everlasting Fate, My masters and yours? Did you suppose I should hate life, Flee into the wilderness, Because not all My blossoming dreams bore fruit? Here I sit, making men In my own image, A race resembling me, That shall suffer, weep, Know joy and delight, And ignore you As I do! In the next chapter 60 we will enlarge our angle of view and go into some non-scientific aspects. And this link takes you to the start of the book. The German edition of this book is available as e-book, paperback or hardcover in any bookshop and here: https://shop.tredition.com/booktitle/Testosteronkollaps/W-349-585-556.
