If we don’t question science it becomes a religion!

You can’t find a more unscientific phrase than the phrase ’trust the science’.

The whole purpose of science is to use logic to establish facts and visible solution. The minute it becomes just a matter of ’trust’ without clearly laid out evidence, it has become a religion

Some say it us undisputed that lying is something human beings do best (then we lie about not lying), but we decide which lies are acceptable e.g. we start early by telling children about Father Christmas or Santa Claus and we weave in a bunch of lies and people get to sell all sorts of Christmas merchandise and ensure this fabrication never ends – but it keeps children happy we tell ourselves, then we later tell the same children that life isn’t about materials etc. We laboriously manipulate and hijack a middle eastern story of a messiah, turn him caucasian, come up with convincing images of Jesus and compose a bunch of songs to go with it. But hey, those are ok lies we say. Personally, I am never one to judge, if that works for many – and it appears to – good for them. Carry on. But with science, when there’s a pandemic and we initially ignore it as a Chinese thing, then it’s all about washing your hands with soap for 20 secs, then wearing masks, then standing 2 metres apart, then staying at home (lockdown), then vaccination followed by more vaccination, then boosters likely followed by more boosters and then out pops variants and we now face likely more lockdown shortly. And NO, nobody should question the science, just trust the science…

It’s like climate change; we can all see the changes happening. Can scientists gather data, compare past occurrences and speak coherently? NO. What we end up with is a bunch of bored teenagers saying more needs to be done and the minute anyone seeks to ask them an intelligent question, the reaction is: ”how dare you question a child?”. Environmental Engineering was part of my degree at university and I am a strong believer in the urgent, critical need to tackle climate change and that so many human activities are a major contributing factor e.g. reckless use of fossil fuels, pollution, how we use & discard plastic, other waste etc. BUT I believe questions MUST always be allowed. Science must not become a matter of blind faith and trust without any question allowed. Science cannot be taken over by barely educated teenagers no matter how passionate they are or however convincing their speeches and twitter following. Science is stronger with questioning

Like so many others, I have taken my Covid vaccines and booster, to ensure our health system isn’t chronically crippled, with beds taken up by Covid patients, while other illnesses are pushed aside and surgeries postponed etc. And I have complied fully with all social-distancing rules at all times and will continue to do so – regardless of all the stories of affluent people ignoring these rules – to ensure its controlled. BUT what is frustrating is that similar to Brexit, society has again been allowed to form these crazy, inflexible faction, which has now symbolised the social media generation, with facts out of the window, replaced by horrific lies and the science that should drive a prudent set of actions that could help us all, is what suffers irretrievably. I believe that if the implications are better explained, there may well be no need for the spread of some of the dumb conspiracy theories out there and most of the crazy anti-vaxxers may understand that taking the jabs is not just about the individual but helps prevent the spread to others who are more vulnerable, takes up hospital beds that could have saved other lives etc. But similar to Brexit, madness has taken over. Britain quitting the EU was a very necessary move, but not for the lies that were and are still being told, but solely because the EU has become a pointless redtape run by people with their own agenda that has very kittle to do with the reasons the EU was created. But in order to sell the exit, whipping up hate via false narratives was seen as the quickest, easiest route – and it proved quite effective. Would the brexit vote have favoured quitting the EU if the campaigners had stuck with just facts? Probably not – so, perhaps like the Santa Claus example, they simply did what had to be done to get Britain out and the means justifies the end? —- they probably think so. Either way the reaction of EU and the aftermath, firmly underline the fact that brexit was very timely and necessary – if the EU was such an awesome organisation to be a part of, why did they have to be so hateful when Britain decided to leave? (a decision that was made democratically via a formal referendum by the people, and whether or not they were lied to, is beside the point, a vote was conducted and that was that) if Britain is set to miss out on EU goodies, should the EU not have just celebrated our exit and joyfully waved us goodbye? – what is the need to make an example of the UK to apparently prevent others exiting? If the EU was such a good thing, would others not just stay? So, one can only assume that the vindictive backlash visited on Britain is just a personal decision of the individuals in charge of the EU? Either way, it only served in demonstrating to Britons that brexit was indeed necessary. I hope that in the coming years, the EU will soften its approach to the UK – what we could have all fought to avoid, was the need to call a referendum in the first place, but we didn’t. Once it was called and the result favoured an exit, WHAT ELSE COULD BE DONE? the same people who are now trying to frustrated implementation of brexit should be the ones trying to focus on dealing with the reasons so many people chose to vote in favour of an exit, but again, we will focus on the wrong things or just ignore it, to later cry over spilt milk! It is exactly the same with Covid – how are so many people believing the dumb conspiracy theories out there? BECAUSE WE ARE FAILING TO GIVE THEM COHERENT FACTS. Yes, some loonies will still believe whatever they want to believe, even with facts in front of them, but why don’t we at least try to get those facts out there? Instead, we sleep-walk, just as David Cameron believed the british population would never vote to exit the EU. With Covid, we now see society again needlessly split, with sides pitched up against each other yet again, while hundreds more continue to die.