The Science Delusion – Revisited

January 2013, Rupert Sheldrake did a TEDx talk on the Science Delusion which received numerous pushback from scientists for claims they viewed as pseudoscientific. For a long time, I could not watch this talk because it put my own career in question. Until my own TEDx talk was banned and I forced myself to investigate.

I encourage everyone to do the same. Do your own research and make up your own mind.

Truth be told, I also reject many of the claims that Rupert made in his TEDx talk however, when we look beyond the claims themselves, we are confronted with something far more sinister – the Matter of Principle.

Do we ban what we disagree with?

This question is at the very heart of why there is a growing distrust in institutions and doctors, professions that were once revered. How on earth did we get here?

While much of Rupert’s scientific claims are questionable, he was Correct on Principle – Science is a Delusion. We are so deeply trapped in this delusion that Science has become a danger to itself.

Rupert tried to warned us of this delusion by challenging scientific facts, I will take a different approach – questioning the origin of scientific belief itself.

As with every narrative, we’ll have to start at the beginning – Thursday November 24th 1859 to be exact.

This day marked the publication of one of the most important books ever put to print. After numerous delays from  fear of religious persecution to social disgrace, the Origin of Species by Charles Darwin was published.  Only 1250 copies of the first edition made it to bookshelves and was priced at 15 shillings. These copies now sell for $950,000 a piece.

Unlike the laws of physics such as gravity which was understood since the late 1600, the laws of nature were less apparent. To propose evolution as a scientifically measurable mechanism before the discovery of DNA was absurd or bold at the very least. Unlike the laws of gravity however, the laws of nature directly conflicted with preexisting beliefs on creation.

To accept Evolution was to refute the existence of God. 

And just like that, the origin of species marked the beginning of scientific belief – the religious scripture of scientists.

Unless you’ve been bought up by atheist parents, every scientists meets this unavoidable fork in the road of their destiny and this defines the kind of scientist they become. Lesser scientists choose to ignore this contradiction. For some there is no conflict between science and religion. For me however, I could not live with myself without an answer to this question!

My desperate search for answers begins in 1946 in a post colonial world, battered by the storms of the second world war. The mushroom clouds captured in peoples memory made it blindingly clear that for the viewpoints of the world to unite, the League of Nations must adopt an ideology that surpasses social, political, religious, economic and spiritual barriers. This sectarian, denoted in the broadest sense was – Science.

The commitment to popularise of science was recognised by the United Nations and a new organisation was established with the principal role to promote exchanges between science and society with rich and poor alike. This organisation became known as the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO).

The first director general for UNESCO was Julian Huxley (1887–1975). The grandson of Thomas Huxley, the English anthropologist famously known as Darwin’s Bulldog for his aggressive defence for Darwin’s theories on Evolution. In an interesting twist of fate, Charles Darwin’s great-grandson George Darwin married Angela Huxley, the great-granddaughter of Thomas Huxley.

Upon his appointment, Julian Huxley took two weeks to substantiate his vision in a document published on 15th of September 1946, titled UNESCO: Its Purpose and Its Philosophy, accessible through UNESCO’s document archives.   

Fundamental to his thesis was the central idea that humankind could guide the process of Evolution consciously, to achieve further world progress. Natural Selection was to be replaced by Conscious Selection as the motor of evolution, the possible rate of which was therefore, enormously speeded up.

Perhaps the most significant of the claims made in the document was the need for UNESCO to promote population control and the study of ‘the eugenic problem‘.

It is very curious indeed for Julian Huxley be destined to drive Man’s Evolutionary Progress when his brother, none other than Aldous Huxley gave us – A Brave New World.

In the United Nations thirteenth General Conference (Paris, 1964), Science was rebranded to the same high-priority level as Education. Similar to missionaries during the colonial ear, UNESCO introduced the ‘Bright Zone’ initiative to provide equal access to scientific advancements for nations ‘on the periphery’. This contributed to educating tribes out off ancient knowledge and the dismissal of any kind of medicine or technology that was not industrial.

In an attempt to repudiate beliefs in superior and inferior religion or cultural groups, UNESCO self-contradicts its own promise, positioning Science against Culture.

This marked the beginning of Science as a Conspiracy.

If you happen to fall in love with science in high school like I did, especially in relation to the natural world, it is painful to realise that the days of discovering the wonders of the natural world to satisfy the curiosity of the mind is long gone. The purpose of science today is to satisfy policy or commercial interests and unfortunately, this now starts in Kindergarten.

Of note are two self-contradictions that Huxley’s identified nearly 80 years ago. Yet, rather than being outdated, these contradictions have grown to define the world we live in today!

1. The Paradox of Progress
2. The Paradox of Equality

The Paradox of Progres

In UNESCO’s Purpose and Philosophy document, Huxley writes

The scientific method has firmly established itself as the only reliable means by which we can increase both our knowledge of and our control over objective natural phenomena ~ Julian Huxley, 1946.

The relentless drive towards progress and control over natural phenomena applies to agriculture, infrastructure, social and medical warfare, I mean welfare. Each of which has allowed human beings the means to occupy every habitat on this planet and beyond, manufacture, preserve and distribute food at scale and use medicine to prolong lifespan that enhances our adaptability through communication, education and skill transfer.

The paradox of progress arises in enunciating anthropocentric science as Natural Law.

As a basic criterion for evolution, increasing the number of organisms in a given area will lower their opportunities for enjoyment and quality of life. In natural ecosystems, selection pressure is applied through scarcity, disease and predation.

Progress in the name of science has a price since anything against it was seen as backward. As a doctor, I tried taking a more lenient approach, looking at both sides and hunting for a balanced perspective. 

Yet the more I learnt, the more absurd Logic became. It is now common knowledge that as medicine becomes stronger, people become weaker. For example, mental illness was relatively uncommon till the 1980s despite the existence of psychoanalytic research since the 1890s. The turning point in the 1980s was the standardisation of psychiatric diagnosis through the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This coincided with the invention of SSRIs. Could it be possible that the reason mental illness is sky rocketing is because people are weakened by the overuse of medication?

This equally applies to food surplus from agriculture leading to obesity and despite the accessibility afforded through infrastructure, we are more sedentary than ever.

As these observations become undeniable, the erosion of trust in institutions becomes unavoidable. 

The true measure of evolutionary fitness is in the quality of our diet, health and fitness. This brings us face to face with the second Paradox of Equality – evolutionary progress is impossible without inequality.

The Paradox of Equality

What we now refer to as equality of opportunity and equality of outcome was initially recognised by Julian Huxley as the democratic principle of equality and the biological fact of inequality.

The second self-contradiction is realised when we consider equality in two very different senses. The biological absence of equality is natural law with the single exception of identical twins, possessing the same genetic constitution. This by no means negates the universal law of equality of opportunity for education, making a living and the expression of free thought.

By amending biological fact of inequality with the false premise of equality of outcome, we erase the selection pressure of competition – the basic substrate for drive, ambition and  evolutionary progress.  

It does not matter if this was planned or consequential, the systematic weakening and dumbing down of the population has resulted in an entire generation of kids tapping out, playing victim and avoiding commitment to basic human outcomes of education, making a living and raising a family.

The Science Delusion

The saddest part about this is that we are not suppose to talk about it. In this contradictory world,  when you do speak up, you get laughed at, ridiculed and banned.

What happens when you demoralise doctors who standup for what is right?

The public learns to distrust doctors for lying to them!

They come to the natural conclusion that all doctors are bad. There is no denying that:

Science has become a mouthpiece for policy, doctors reduced to sales people for pharmaceuticals and education – a misdirection of the mind.

How are you supposed to remain good in this world when you’re punished for doing what is right?

What precedence are we setting for future generation when it is a danger to become a Good Man?

Science is experiencing a Central Conflict by become exactly what it claimed not to be – a Delusion.