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Evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins on how we justify the scientific method. DAWKINS: How do we justify faith that science will give us the truth? AUDIENCE: How do you justify the scientific method? DAWKINS: It works! It works. Planes fly, cars drive, computers compute. If you base medicine on science... show more

Colin Wright

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375,131 views • 1 year ago •via X (Twitter)

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10 Comments

~~datahazard~~1 year ago

@RichardDawkins Evidence truly is the only....evidence.

Colin Wright1 year ago

@RichardDawkins Hard to beat!

RealHuman1 year ago

@RichardDawkins Couldn’t we justify faith on the same grounds? When I operate in the world based on my religious morals found in the bible, I get more positive outcomes. When I operate against my religious morals, I get more negative outcomes.

Colin Wright1 year ago

@RichardDawkins That could be a way to justify a moral system, but not "faith" per se.

Hunter Ash1 year ago

@RichardDawkins Meta-induction is a perfectly valid argument. If people who did experiments produced nothing, while people who read holy texts could conjure rockets from thin air, I would go with the holy texts.

Sam Rosenthal, Award Winning Online Safety EXPERT!1 year ago

@RichardDawkins I long for the days where we debated this stuff instead of debating whether women have penises.

President Dr RollerGator MVIP PhD1 year ago

@RichardDawkins NOT SURE WHAT PHILOSOPHICAL VERSION OF SCIENCE IS BEING USED 2 TAKE CREDIT 4 ALL THESE ITEMS BUT IT SEEMS LIKE "N E THING WE DO THAT MATCHES OUR INTENT" IS NOW SCIENCE THE WAYS WE GOT A LOT OF THOSE WOULD NOT B RECOGNIZED AS SCIENTIFIC BY MOST ACCOUNTS

Colin Wright1 year ago

@RichardDawkins Strong disagree!

Seth Dillon1 year ago

@RichardDawkins I don't know anyone who denies that science works (least of all the believers in God who birthed modern science). But there are deep metaphysical questions about why and how it works. As Einstein put it, "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."

The Endless1 year ago

This is just a confused statement and it illustrates why scientists should qualify their remarks when speaking on a field outside their area of expertise, such as the justification of the scientific method. "It works, therefore, it's deliverances are true." Propaganda works. Misinformation works. Political rhetoric works. Doesn't make propaganda or misinformation or political rhetoric true.

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Pump Science

45,127 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk: We've got to have a serious science base on the moon "We got to get back to the moon and build a base there. A science base. I think we could learn a lot about the nature of the universe if we have a proper science base on the moon. We have a science base in Antarctica and many other parts of the world. So that's, I think, the next big thing. We've got to have a serious moon base and then get people to Mars, you know, get out there and be a space-faring civilization."

Elon Musk: We've got to have a serious science base on the moon "We got to get back to the moon and build a base there. A science base. I think we could learn a lot about the nature of the universe if we have a proper science base on the moon. We have a science base in Antarctica and many other parts of the world. So that's, I think, the next big thing. We've got to have a serious moon base and then get people to Mars, you know, get out there and be a space-faring civilization."

ELON CLIPS

1,322,720 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk: We should have a gigantic science station on the moon. “Along the way, we could do very cool things like have a moon base like Moon Base Alpha. Long ago there was a TV show about Moon Base Alpha. You couldn't think about the physics of that too much because apparently the moon base was drifting away from Earth. But anyway, we should have a Moon Base Alpha. The next step after the Apollo program would be to have a base on the moon. So you could have a gigantic science station doing research about the nature of the universe on the moon. It would be very cool.” From: SpaceX Update, May 29, 2025

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ELON CLIPS

26,175 views • 1 year ago

Elon Musk: We should build a science station on the Moon. “Along the way we could do very cool things like have a moon base like Moon Base Alpha. Long ago there was a TV show about Moon Base Alpha. You couldn't think about the physics of that too much because apparently the moon base was like drifting away from Earth. But anyway, we should have a Moon Base Alpha, which is the next step after the Apollo program. You could have like a gigantic science station doing research about the nature of the universe on the Moon. It would be very cool.” SpaceX Update, May 27, 2025

Elon Musk: We should build a science station on the Moon. “Along the way we could do very cool things like have a moon base like Moon Base Alpha. Long ago there was a TV show about Moon Base Alpha. You couldn't think about the physics of that too much because apparently the moon base was like drifting away from Earth. But anyway, we should have a Moon Base Alpha, which is the next step after the Apollo program. You could have like a gigantic science station doing research about the nature of the universe on the Moon. It would be very cool.” SpaceX Update, May 27, 2025

ELON CLIPS

28,924 views • 8 months ago

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42,089 views • 1 year ago

"We want to try to reach new heights. We should go the moon to establish lunar research base. There are parts of the moon that are older than parts of the earth. We might understand the nature of the universe if we had a science base on the moon." 一 Elon Musk

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DogeDesigner

60,478 views • 8 months ago

.Naval: Epistemology, which is a fancy word for the theory of how knowledge grows or how knowledge growth occurs. And we've all been told since we're young that there's a scientific method and that scientists sort of do this stuff in white lab coats and we're supposed to accept it because of this thing called the scientific method. And then they give us true beliefs that we can then say, well the science is settled and we take that we move on. And we all only have a very, very vague understanding of how this works. And people say, well maybe you go out in the real world, you look at what's happening, you make all these observations, and then based on that you form a theory, you test the theory against more observations, and the more observations you get the closer you get to the truth. And once you have enough observation it's true and then you call it a scientific theory or a law and it's settled and you move on. And this is the popular conception of how science works. And as Popper pointed out and as you take even further, this is completely wrong. And so I'd love for you to get into that, which is what is knowledge? How does it grow? What is the real scientific method? And how do we figure things out? David Deutsch: I love the way you just stated the prevailing view there and laced every aspect of it with the contempt that it deserves. So you just went through touching every base. It's amazing that this series of misconceptions is still common sense. I mean, that it was common sense at a time when we didn't really have science or when science was just starting up, when the main issue in science was freeing itself from dogmatism, freeing itself from religion, freeing itself from authority, and so on. There it was understandable that people would look for an alternative source of authority and they would think, oh, it's sense impressions. We can see the world and you know, these religious people, they can't even see God and so on. And so we are confined to what we can see. That's where we get our ideas from. And as you say, that is completely false. Sense impressions, like all observation, even the most careful scientific observation is all theory laden. And theories are inherently fallible. I mean, we actually want to replace our best theories. Everybody who does a PhD is technically anyway, working to overturn something in the existing body of knowledge. You're not turned away at the door if you say, I don't believe this stuff, I'm going to produce something better. Whereas for most of human history, that was exactly what you were forbidden to do. The idea was that we already had all the important knowledge. If you want to discover something new, what you had to make sure of was that it didn't contradict the existing knowledge. Now, you have to make sure that it does contradict existing knowledge. So more or less. Naval: Yeah, it's this tradition of criticism that you've talked about in the West, that the Enlightenment really ushered in the Enlightenment era. David Deutsch: It has been institutionalized. So in many ways, our institutions are wiser than we are. So the institutions of science, for instance, have this built in, even if scientists actually don't always act that way. In fact, they often don't act that way, and act in a dogmatic way and try to preserve the status quo and are resistant to new ideas and so on. But the institutions, the way the procedures of science work, makes the right thing happen in the end anyway, regardless of what the people are trying to do. Naval: So you're saying the knowledge of the true scientific method is embedded in the institutions of science in the PhD process? David Deutsch: Well, the best scientific method that we know of, and one shouldn't really think of it as a method, you know, there's this wonderful lecture by Popper when he first was made a professor at the London School of Economics. He was made a professor of scientific method, and his first six lectures, I wish the rest of them were, the first six lectures are on the internet somewhere. And he starts the first one by saying, I am the first professor of scientific method in the British Empire. The British Empire still existed at the time, more or less. And so the first thing I want to say to you is that there is no such thing as the scientific method. And then he goes on from there. So this subject does not exist. So if any of you have come here to learn the handle that you have to turn in order to make scientific knowledge come out the other end, you're going to be disappointed.

.Naval: Epistemology, which is a fancy word for the theory of how knowledge grows or how knowledge growth occurs. And we've all been told since we're young that there's a scientific method and that scientists sort of do this stuff in white lab coats and we're supposed to accept it because of this thing called the scientific method. And then they give us true beliefs that we can then say, well the science is settled and we take that we move on. And we all only have a very, very vague understanding of how this works. And people say, well maybe you go out in the real world, you look at what's happening, you make all these observations, and then based on that you form a theory, you test the theory against more observations, and the more observations you get the closer you get to the truth. And once you have enough observation it's true and then you call it a scientific theory or a law and it's settled and you move on. And this is the popular conception of how science works. And as Popper pointed out and as you take even further, this is completely wrong. And so I'd love for you to get into that, which is what is knowledge? How does it grow? What is the real scientific method? And how do we figure things out? David Deutsch: I love the way you just stated the prevailing view there and laced every aspect of it with the contempt that it deserves. So you just went through touching every base. It's amazing that this series of misconceptions is still common sense. I mean, that it was common sense at a time when we didn't really have science or when science was just starting up, when the main issue in science was freeing itself from dogmatism, freeing itself from religion, freeing itself from authority, and so on. There it was understandable that people would look for an alternative source of authority and they would think, oh, it's sense impressions. We can see the world and you know, these religious people, they can't even see God and so on. And so we are confined to what we can see. That's where we get our ideas from. And as you say, that is completely false. Sense impressions, like all observation, even the most careful scientific observation is all theory laden. And theories are inherently fallible. I mean, we actually want to replace our best theories. Everybody who does a PhD is technically anyway, working to overturn something in the existing body of knowledge. You're not turned away at the door if you say, I don't believe this stuff, I'm going to produce something better. Whereas for most of human history, that was exactly what you were forbidden to do. The idea was that we already had all the important knowledge. If you want to discover something new, what you had to make sure of was that it didn't contradict the existing knowledge. Now, you have to make sure that it does contradict existing knowledge. So more or less. Naval: Yeah, it's this tradition of criticism that you've talked about in the West, that the Enlightenment really ushered in the Enlightenment era. David Deutsch: It has been institutionalized. So in many ways, our institutions are wiser than we are. So the institutions of science, for instance, have this built in, even if scientists actually don't always act that way. In fact, they often don't act that way, and act in a dogmatic way and try to preserve the status quo and are resistant to new ideas and so on. But the institutions, the way the procedures of science work, makes the right thing happen in the end anyway, regardless of what the people are trying to do. Naval: So you're saying the knowledge of the true scientific method is embedded in the institutions of science in the PhD process? David Deutsch: Well, the best scientific method that we know of, and one shouldn't really think of it as a method, you know, there's this wonderful lecture by Popper when he first was made a professor at the London School of Economics. He was made a professor of scientific method, and his first six lectures, I wish the rest of them were, the first six lectures are on the internet somewhere. And he starts the first one by saying, I am the first professor of scientific method in the British Empire. The British Empire still existed at the time, more or less. And so the first thing I want to say to you is that there is no such thing as the scientific method. And then he goes on from there. So this subject does not exist. So if any of you have come here to learn the handle that you have to turn in order to make scientific knowledge come out the other end, you're going to be disappointed.

Deutsch Explains

114,992 views • 1 year ago

"This is true! When Elon says 'Questioning the science is part of the science,' I don't know if anybody in scientific academia knows that because usually if you publish a paper or a study, that's it! Nobody questions it. You just publish it, and that's it!"

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Destiny | Steven Bonnell II

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Charlie Munger: "Why not do it the way that you would want it done if you were on the other side of the transaction? How can you fail if you treat other people the way you'd like to be treated yourself? It's the Golden Rule. Of course it works."

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Kevin Carpenter

49,114 views • 1 year ago

🚨🇺🇸 ELON: Let's make Moon Base Alpha real! “We could do very cool things like have a moon base, like Moon Base Alpha. Long ago, there was a TV show about Moon Base Alpha. You couldn't think about the physics of that too much because apparently the moon base was like drifting away from Earth. But anyway, we should have a Moon Base Alpha, which is the next step after the Apollo program, to have a base on the moon. You could have a gigantic science station doing research about the nature of the universe on the moon. It would be very cool.” SpaceX Elon Musk

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Mario Nawfal

38,795 views • 5 months ago

Pastor Phillip, normally Satan no suppose forgive you for that last thing wey you talk 🤣🤣🤣🤣 That was below the belt. But truly, if you don’t do it, how will it happen? If you don’t lay hands on the crippled, how will they walk? If you don’t lay hands on the blind, how will they see?

Pastor Phillip, normally Satan no suppose forgive you for that last thing wey you talk 🤣🤣🤣🤣 That was below the belt. But truly, if you don’t do it, how will it happen? If you don’t lay hands on the crippled, how will they walk? If you don’t lay hands on the blind, how will they see?

DON “Tobechukwu” Ade 👑

44,891 views • 9 months ago

🇯🇵 JAPAN SCIENCE: How fast must you drive to lift the skirt of a woman standing on a sidewalk? Folks, I don’t want any science deniers here! The science has settled!

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Lord Bebo

66,871 views • 1 year ago

Dr. Brian Hooker just delivered a powerful reminder! Real science never demands blind trust — it demands constant questioning. “You do not trust the science.” “We test the science.” “Settled science is a misnomer.” “The science is never settled.” “Nobody can proclaim that they are the science.” “Think of what a pathetic world we would live in if bloodletting was settled science and we stopped right there.” “We have so many of these advances because people dare ask a question.” “A question is a gift.”

Dr. Brian Hooker just delivered a powerful reminder! Real science never demands blind trust — it demands constant questioning. “You do not trust the science.” “We test the science.” “Settled science is a misnomer.” “The science is never settled.” “Nobody can proclaim that they are the science.” “Think of what a pathetic world we would live in if bloodletting was settled science and we stopped right there.” “We have so many of these advances because people dare ask a question.” “A question is a gift.”

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17,075 views • 9 months ago

Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly explains how "cloud-style" automated science labs can create "millions of scientists" by democratizing access to experimentation: “Science is the formalization of human curiosity. The reason everyone doesn't do science today is that you're blocked by the cost and expense of all the physical infrastructure.” “If it was available cloud-style, for example, how many people would want to be doing science? Maybe they have a health condition they want to study themselves, maybe they have a new idea for a material, maybe they're a gardener and they want to make a new plant variety?” “I know that sounds crazy, but I'll tell you something else that sounded crazy. In 1960, if you said random, average people will program computers, that sounded insane.” "The model’s ability to access literature and be smart and tell you how to turn your question into an experiment—and then the autonomous labs that could do that experiment for you in the cloud—means we'll have millions of scientists, just like we have millions of programmers now as we made it easier."

Ginkgo Bioworks CEO Jason Kelly explains how "cloud-style" automated science labs can create "millions of scientists" by democratizing access to experimentation: “Science is the formalization of human curiosity. The reason everyone doesn't do science today is that you're blocked by the cost and expense of all the physical infrastructure.” “If it was available cloud-style, for example, how many people would want to be doing science? Maybe they have a health condition they want to study themselves, maybe they have a new idea for a material, maybe they're a gardener and they want to make a new plant variety?” “I know that sounds crazy, but I'll tell you something else that sounded crazy. In 1960, if you said random, average people will program computers, that sounded insane.” "The model’s ability to access literature and be smart and tell you how to turn your question into an experiment—and then the autonomous labs that could do that experiment for you in the cloud—means we'll have millions of scientists, just like we have millions of programmers now as we made it easier."

TBPN

13,054 views • 5 months ago

NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has a direct plea for younger generations in America about the future of science and medicine. “We need you to become scientists, doctors, and nurses.” “If you become the people that you saw in these leadership positions, the next generation of scientists will not abuse science to impose tyranny in the name of science.” “We all know what happens when someone comes to you and says, ‘I am the science.’”

NIH Director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya has a direct plea for younger generations in America about the future of science and medicine. “We need you to become scientists, doctors, and nurses.” “If you become the people that you saw in these leadership positions, the next generation of scientists will not abuse science to impose tyranny in the name of science.” “We all know what happens when someone comes to you and says, ‘I am the science.’”

MAHA Action

17,700 views • 6 months ago

Arnab Goswami: "You know why they offer namaz on the road? They are not doing namaz on the road because they can't do namaz anywhere else. It is saying, see how many of us are there, and feel scared, and see how we will trouble you, and see how we will block you. If a minority has shown how much strength it has, Yogi has shown how much strength the law has. If a small group of people want to break the law, the only way to deal with them is the Yogi way."

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Rakesh Krishnan Simha

88,013 views • 1 month ago

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Mario Nawfal

49,001 views • 8 months ago