The World Population Is Suffering From Scientific Illiteracy

This is not about Evolution, the Big Bang, Gravity, or about hardcore mathematical formulas. This is about something much more fundamental, what science is really all about. Science is a spiritual force. It is a way of thinking. A way of living. It is love.

Why do I call science a spiritual force? The word “spirit” comes from the latin word “to breathe”. We need to breathe to survive, to fill our lungs with air. Science is a spiritual force, and it has a tendency to change and transform the life of those who breathe in science.

What is science? You can read books after books of people trying to define it, but when we boil it down, science consists of basically two pillars:

1) Curiosity

2) Trial and error

The result is often a deep and spiritual wonder for the universe, for our Earth, for us, and for nature itself.

Science is not just something we do in labs. We all apply science all the time in our everyday life. For instance when we start to learn how to cook. We make mistakes, and from the mistakes we do, we improve our skills in the kitchen. The food becomes more delicious. Standard trial and error. We show curiosity when we are in the kitchen, where we add new ingredients to a dish to change it or to improve it. We get our hand on new foodstuff from abroad as we get access to markets from around the world. It provides more room to let your curiosity reign.

At the same time, when we stand in the kitchen, we do not begin from scratch. We stand on the shoulders of our parents, who again stand on the shoulders of their parents and so forth. Knowledge about cooking has been transferred from one generation to the next one. It is also how we know which food stuff that are edible and which that are not, or worse, which foodstuff that could be potential lethal. You stand on the shoulders of your parents.

Science is not a Western invention, it is not an Arab invention, it is not an African invention or an Asian invention, it is a human invention, and we stand on the shoulders of our forefathers. Science, our accumulation of knowledge, is a driving force in our evolution from living in small bands as hunters and gathers to now, where we live in cities with access to the entire world through our phone, a device that just 100 years ago would be deemed as witchcraft.

The best way to measure the progress of science, that is not by looking at the invention of electricity or that we have walked the on moon. The best way to measure the true value of science, that is by looking at our longevity. We can thank our insight in how we are infected with bacteria and viruses and how to fight them. Some of the diseases that once were lethal, we have almost totally eradicated. Smallpox, measles and polio are now under control. It has saved millions of lives. Science is life. What you may also have noticed so far, there is no conflict between science and religion. They coexist peacefully.

So since we apply science in our everyday life, how come I can assert, that the world suffers from a scientific illiteracy?

I may have to clarify, our children do not. Children might be the most scientific literate beings we have. Any parent will agree with me, that if you leave a toddle anywhere unsupervised for just a second, the toddler would begin to study it's surroundings with a curiosity that is stunning and at times inspiring. The toddler's desire is to discover the world, the toddler may break a vase, or your pile of cloth has been scattered everywhere. Everything has to be touched and tasted.

But the adults, we are the problem. The school is the most important place on Earth. The school can nourish our curiosity, teach us how to systematise it, and how to improve our trial and error. It can teach us how to breathe. To be able to do so, a teacher has to lit a spark within us, to teach us to remain critical to authorities. Only by staying critical to information, we can assert if what we are told is correct or flawed. If Kepler and Galileo had believed the authorities, we might still believe the Sun orbited the Earth. An authoritative regime kills our innate curiosity and forces us to accept facts uncritically. An uncritical mind is an empty mind. Louis Pasteur was curious in how we got infected with diseases. Through countless tests, he derived to the conclusion, that small microorganism, invisible to the naked eye, was to be blamed, so to avoid the spread of diseases we should wash our hands. He became the laughing stock.

Or the story of the first female professor at Harvard, Cecilia Payne; when she suggested, based on her numeral observations, that hydrogen should be a million times more abundant than metals in the universe, she was as well ridiculed. But they were all right, Kepler, Galileo, Pasteur and Payne, they all defied authorities. If you are right, and you have the evidence to show for it, stand your ground. Present your data, and if they are strong, you will enter history victoriously.

But today, schools are killed curiosity. Instead to be encouraged to question authority, to explore the wonders of the world through our curiosity, we are told to shut up, and what the teacher says are facts! The student who dares to question the authority of the teacher will soon regret he dared to open his mouth.

We are raising a generation across the world, who have lost interest in the world, we have managed to kill their curiosity completely. If a question is asked, and they don't know it, they may simply reply with a “God did it”. This is Scientific illiteracy.

They are not taking it to the next level, such as asking, if God did it, how did God do it?

I understand, why would they? How should they? They were never taught. We are taught to obey, not to think. Today, several teachers are often scientific illiterate themselves. Their curiosity were killed as well, and this system is now been preserved.

We have adults who are unaware of the splendour of the world.

E.g. that there are more stars in the universe than there are grains of sand on Earth, but there are more atoms in one single grain of sand than there are stars in the entire universe.

That the components in our body once were materials inside exploding suns billions of years ago. We are all made of stars, literally! You! Me! Everybody!

That all living organism on Earth, from the tiniest microorganisms to the mightiest tree or animal to humans, we are all connected, we all share DNA. The more related we are, the more DNA we share. Isn't it amazing? We do not stand outside of nature, we are a part of nature. We are all connected. For me that is almost a religious emotion. It makes me feel a greater joy, when I take a walk in the woods, that I am part of nature. To know how evolution works. It is far more fascinating, than anything else. It makes me feel humility to the world and the universe, and I feel humble to be able to experience this journey.

That is just our planet, think about the endless still unknown discoveries that awaits out there in the outer space. Earth is just a spaceship, and we are the lucky passages

How do I know this? Like you stand on the shoulders of knowledge in how to cook a delicious meal. So do scientists. We accumulate knowledge from the ones before us, and we correct errors, and together we help to move each other forever forward, to move away from poverty and into a world determined by equality.

What do I want to say? The progress we have made as a species, from inventing fire, to combat diseases, to walk on to moon, or just to invent a new dish in our kitchen, would not have been possible without science.

If we become a generation of scientific illiterate, we would stop moving forward. However, we would still encounter new challenges. Each generation has their challenges, and if we begin to unlearn what we as a species have accumulated over more than 2 millennia, we may not be able to survive. Further more, we may not know, if we are doing something horribly wrong. What if we had not discovered that an illness is caused by microorganism? We would not have known how to fight a disease. There would not be drugstores, no malaria drugs and no vaccinations. You may not even had been born.

Lastly, as most teachers will correctly tell you: knowledge is power. Science is power. We have admirable scientists, who are trying to find a cure for HIV, trying to mitigate the effects of the ongoing climate change, how to find out, if there is life on other planets, and how to build robots. One day, you can stand on their should, exploring the wonders of the world. BUT science can be used for good, and for evil. The fewer who know science, the fewer will share the power it holds. Power in the hands of few is a dangerous thing. Power corrupts! The more people who have access to science, the more people have access to the power, and the more people we are to share the power. Democratic access to power limits the possibility for corruption and evil-doing.

By relying on scientific illiterate teachers in educating our students, we are hindering our generation to breathe, and we are partakers in making this world more corrupt. If we turn the light of science off, darkness awaits.

“We wait for light, but behold darkness” - Isaiah 59:9

How can we lit the touch of light, the touch of science?

In the words of the renown astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson:

“it's about the need to separate ignorant, scientifically illiterate people from the ranks of teachers.”

Never forget, you are made of stars. You can do anything, if you allow yourself to breathe. Ignore scientifically illiterate teachers, there is a world to be discovered just outside of your doorstep.