Well... that explains it...

I remember science as that field by which provable things could be proven.  You know... science:

Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.

Does that take you back?  It should.

But we now live in the post era and by that I mean you simply prefix the word post in front of the term you're describing and you've come up with a redefinition.  Postmodern, postChristian, postthis, postthat and now... ready for this... post-normal science:

Mike Hulme, the founding director of the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, argues in the Guardian that while scientific evidence may cast doubt on Global Warming why believe science? When a larger truth must be expressed, then "post-normal" science must be employed. (Hat tip: Melanie Philips and a Belmont Club reader)

Hulme argues that Global Warming is so important that everyone must act to stop it, whether or not it is scientifically known to exist.

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Philosophers and practitioners of science have identified this particular mode of scientific activity as one that occurs where the stakes are high, uncertainties large and decisions urgent, and where values are embedded in the way science is done and spoken. It has been labelled "post-normal" science. ... The danger of a "normal" reading of science is that it assumes science can first find truth, then speak truth to power, and that truth-based policy will then follow. ... If only climate change were such a phenomenon and if only science held such an ascendancy over our personal, social and political life and decisions. In fact, in order to make progress about how we manage climate change we have to take science off centre stage. ... What matters about climate change is not whether we can predict the future with some desired level of certainty and accuracy; it is whether we have sufficient foresight, supported by wisdom, to allow our perspective about the future, and our responsibility for it, to be altered. All of us alive today have a stake in the future, and so we should all play a role in generating sufficient, inclusive and imposing knowledge about the future. Climate change is too important to be left to scientists - least of all the normal ones.

And there you have it.  When science, at least what most of us know as science, bolsters not the agenda, the ideology, then you prefix science with yet another 'post' tag, this time post-normal and tada, the new truth is born.

And don't dare disagree by citing "pre" science because then you're akin to a holocaust denier and worthy of censorship.

Think about this folks the next time global warming-ologists and post-normal science fundamentalists get in your face with their dogma.

And trust me people.  This is, beyond doubt now, religious dogma.

H/T to she with the nice humps.

Comments

[scrapiron]

"Hulme argues that Global Warming is so important that everyone must act to stop it, whether or not it is scientifically known to exist".

Reading that made my brain hurt.

Now let see if this is a match:

We have a set of railroad tracks in town that hasn't had a train on them in over twenty years. Can we get these guys to spend 24-7 out on these tracks waving a red light because if a train does eventually come down the tracks someone is sure to die. Remember now, children have been playing on these tracks for 20 years without fear.

Works for me and my brain doesn't hurt anymore.