Scientific reasoning and inquiry has had and is continuing to have a large impact on the world and the human culture, especially in the areas of nature, biology, physics, chemistry, faith, morality, ethics, society, government, phycology, technology, and among others.
Scientific reasoning is the logic behind scientific research and consists of the explanation, prediction, and control of empirical phenomena in a rational manner. In general, a science involves a pursuit of knowledge by covering truths. Scientific reasoning is important not just for institutional science resources, but also it is applicable to everyday life.In day to day activities we, as human beings, need to make good reasoning to explain, predict, and control the events around us. For example when we want to protect our investments, jumpstart our career, improve our health, we gather evidence to find an effective way to achieve our goals. Using good scientific reasoning skills in everyday activities can potentially lead to success in any field or situation. Science has had a major impact on society from discovering hard truths about our world, soft truths about human beings, and more importantly drove towards the advancements in technology that has changed the culture of human beings forever.A large portion of scientific reasoning and inquiry is the use of the scientific method.
The scientific method is a process that is designed to ask a question and follow steps in order to answer the question by making observations and doing experiments. These experiments do not necessarily need to be lab experiments, but instead any real world scenario that can be experimented. The scientific method starts with a basic question which can be observed and analyzed. Then, continue with gathering background research and information on the basic question.
The next step is to construct a hypothesis and test it by doing an experiment. Usually this experiment will consist of a variable that is being tested, changed, and observed. Next, it is important to analyze the data and draw a conclusion to your original question. The importance of the scientific method is to minimize the influence of bias, prejudice, and gather the most accurate results possible. Scientific reasoning and inquiry has been used for centuries to research and explain the hard truths about the world.
There are many areas in our world that scientific reasoning and inquiry has been used successfully to discover truths, such areas being: nature, biology, engineering, physics, chemistry, education, technology, and medication. The hard truths that are known about nature have been discovered through scientific reasoning and inquiry. Scientists have spent centuries observing and experimenting on many different aspects of nature in order to determine the hard truths about our surrounding environments. This also includes our ability to predict the weather.
Without scientific reasoning and inquiry, our educational system would not exist because, the hard truths that are commonly known about biology, engineering, physics, and chemistry has been discovered by scientists by using the scientific method and scientific reasoning. Scientific reasoning and inquiry has allowed technology throughout history to evolve. Technology has had a major impact on society and its impact continues to grow. Due to advancements in technology the world’s means of communication, the way we work, our housing, clothes, food, methods of transportation, and even the length and quality of life itself.
During the industrial revolution and the information age, in the period of 1750 to 1850, were the starts of the growth of the development in the field of technology. New methods were adopted which forever has changed the means of producing goods, including textiles. Also, the steam powered engines efficiency and utility increased greatly.
It was engineered to be suitable for powering transportation vehicles. Additionally, the iron making production costs lowered due to the substitution of coke and charcoal. This boosted the economy because it allowed companies to buy more iron at cheaper prices.During this time John Roebuck and James Watt were experimenting with sulfuric acid and other chemicals. They discovered many chemical reactions that lead to bleaching powder and other mixtures that we still use today.
During this time the paper machine that continuously would make a sheet of paper on a loop of wire fabric was patented in 1798 by Nicholas Louis Robert. This invention was one of the most important inventions of this period because the paper machine allowed the production of paper products to be distributed in mass amount, which lead to a larger spread of literacy and education throughout the world.Also, at this time the invention of machinery that was engineered for the production of agriculture. This allowed a mass production of agriculture and allowed larger farms to specialize in distributing agriculture. All these technological inventions that allowed for mass production changed the worlds culture by creating specialized niches in the economy that would have to interact with each other in order for the goods or services available to the customers. Resulting from these cultural changes urbanization of the populations started to become the social normality.From this large cities started to appear throughout the world and even more technological and scientific innovations were discovered.
A very important innovation from the industrial revolution was the improvement of transportation, which includes the start of the constructions of canals, roads, and railways. The improvement of transportation allowed for new ideas to spread quickly, which led to more frequent and better technological advanced to happen. The canals, roads, and railways allowed for faster and easier transportation of goods, which improved the global economy.Because of this globally, the human population’s quality of life increased greatly. All of these technological innovations that improved our lives was and is still all due to scientific reasoning and inquiry. The combination of understanding nature, biology, engineering, chemistry, and the innovation of technology, through scientific reasoning and inquiry, all lead to the increase in the study and production of medication. The continuing study and production of newer and better medication has resulted in people living longer, healthier, and happier lives.The advancements of medication has been very positive for each individual and even as a society, but not as a species.
As humans, we do not have any predators that keep our population at a desirable level; the world’s population has grown so large that our environment is starting to feel the repercussions that are being caused, for example global warming, drought, and eventually a lack of natural resources that are necessary for maintaining our lifestyles.This has been confronted by scientific solutions that have made the production and distribution of goods and services much more sufficient even if it is not natural, for example genetically mutating our agricultural crops. Scientific reasoning and inquiry was used to discover all of these temporary solutions, and will be the reason why we find a permanent answer for the root problems. Scientific reasoning and inquiry has been successful in discovering the hard truths about the world in many areas, but there are also many areas where it fails to discover hard truths and instead finds underlying “soft” truths in many areas such as aith, morality, and society. No matter how hard scientists study society and their faith, morality, or society there are no hard truths to discover. This is due to fact that the scientific method can teach us nothing else beyond how facts are related to, and conditioned by, each other. Faith and religion are generally agreed that they deal with goals and evaluations and with the emotional foundation of human thinking and acting and is concerned with man’s attitude toward nature at large, with the establishing of ideals for the individual and communal life, and with mutual human relationship.
Religion cannot be proven or disproven by science and will continue to be a human truth that stands due to mutual human faith. For a lot of people, religion is the source of their morality and ethics, mostly from the Ten Commandments. Without religion our society would not have the strong morality and ethics that keeps the relationships between humans stable. Although scientific reasoning and inquiry cannot determine hard truths about faith, morality, or ethics but it helps to loosely define the soft truths about our society.
Science has changed how, as humans, we live and what we believe. It is obvious that science has made life easier and given man the chance to pursue societal concerns such as aesthetics, education, and justices, to create cultures, and to improve human conditions. But it can also make life harder by possibly disproving faith, which in part potentially could destroy a large portion of morality and ethics within individuals. Ergo, science has potentially placed us in the unique position of being able to destroy ourselves.The general consensus of today’s society is that either faith and religion are correct or scientific reasoning and inquiry is correct, this thought process is simply too black and white and not enough grey. Society needs checks and balances in order to keep peace and avoid chaos. The balance between faith and scientific reasoning has created a very progressive environment that has led our society to the successes that have been achieved in our world’s history.
As Dr. Eben Alexander stated, “Together, science and spirituality will thrive in a symbiosis offering the most profound insight into fundamental Truth, yielding unimaginable power. The keystone is in global progression of individual conscious awakening. ” Without faith there would be no optimism.
Without optimism there is no drive for scientific inquiry and truth. The human condition can only progress with both engines to drive it forward.