Science does not limit itself merely to what is currently verifiable. But it is interested in questions that are potentially verifiable (or, rather, falsifiable).
Interpretation
Science seeks to explore and understand questions beyond current evidence, focusing on what can eventually be tested.
In this quote, Sam Harris emphasizes that the realm of science extends beyond what can be immediately verified. Instead, science is dedicated to probing questions that may not yet have empirical evidence but are subject to testing and falsification in the future. This approach encourages open-minded exploration and the pursuit of knowledge, acknowledging that scientific inquiry is a dynamic process that evolves as new evidence emerges.
In practice
In a debate about the future of scientific research, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of exploring untested theories.
Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.
What I'm asking you to entertain is that there is nothing we need to believe on insufficient evidence in order to have deeply ethical and spiritual lives.
The core of science is not a mathematical modeling--it is intellectual honesty. It is a willingness to have our certainties about the world constrained by good evidence and good argument.
It is time that we admitted that faith is nothing more than the license religious people give one another to keep believing when reasons fail.
It is taboo in our society to criticize a persons religious faith... these taboos are offensive, deeply unreasonable, but worse than that, they are getting people killed. This is really my concern. My concern is that our religions, the diversity of our religious doctrines, is going to get us killed. I'm worried that our religious discourse- our religious beliefs are ultimately incompatible with civilization.
It is time that scientists and other public intellectuals observed that the contest between faith and reason is zero-sum.
That which is measured improves. That which is measured and reported improves exponentially.
The enemy of science is not religion... . The true enemy is the substitution of thought, reflection, and curiosity with dogma.
Dissections daily convince us of our ignorance of the seats of diseases, and cause us to blush at our prescriptions. How often are we disappointed in our expectation from the most certain and powerful of our remedies, by the negligence or obstinacy of our patients! What mischief have we done under the belief of false facts and false theories! We have assisted in multiplying diseases. We have done more β we have increased their mortality.
Those who are not shocked when they first come across quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.
Our senses enable us to perceive only a minute portion of the outside world.
Psychological factors are critical in supporting immune function. If you suppress this psychological support by telling someone he's condemned to die, your words alone will have condemned him.
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