Science surrenders but...

I have been writing this column for almost nine years now but I still have not figured out why my column appears in the Business Section. I am one of those who can whip up an idea or review one, exhaust all my energies flaking it, but completely miss out on the part on how to make money out of it. I simply suck at wealth-thinking and as a consequence, also in wealth-making. But this week, probably for the first time in the history of “De Rerum,” I am proposing a measure on how the government can make money out of science, or more precisely, from the lack of it.

Some say that science is a luxury of mind only cultivated by the educated. Science (and often, this column) has always been accused of being so “out there,” far from the reach of the masa as if the masa were a lump of homogenously muddled thinkers and rich folks were the absolute clear-thinking elite. That is akin to having a most impoverished view that you could categorize your friends as either just idiots or geniuses. But if science were indeed mere luxury, then only a few could rely on it. If that were so, then on whom do most people rely for how things work?

Enter the advocates and practitioners of superstition. They claim that they are the “friendlier” and “more accessible” medium for understanding how things work. Whether in deities, objects, psychic or supernatural powers, vampires, elves and auras (you get the drift) — they seem to provide the answers that many say they can easily grasp far better than the geeky cold stuff that science provides.

I say, sure. Let us go ahead and welcome superstition. But just as we hold science professionals accountable for their claim and fire them when they do not make good on those claims (remember Dr. Prisco Nilo, the PAGASA head who was fired when his weather prediction failed?), we should also hold superstition’s advocates to account for their predictions if they turn out to be wrong. First, let us charge them VAT for the value they claim add to how things will turn out. We can also charge them hefty fines if their predictions and explanations are clearly overturned by reason and evidence. Surely this will not be discriminatory since this will apply only to those whose superstitious beliefs fail us. Those whose deities turn out to be reliably responsive to the human plea, whose vampires turn out to really cause the disappearance of your neighbors, whose psychic powers are able to call on the dead, and those whose message from the stars have verifiably determined the outcome of your day, of course, need not worry. They will be exempted from these fines. And they get to keep their TV, radio and print spots.

This is not my original idea. I have to thank Romania for it. Last February, Livescience reported that there is a law seriously being proposed in that country that will fine or imprison psychics and witches for making incorrect predictions. I did not have to be visited by a Sean Connery-looking muse to realize I could relate it to how things are in our country. And to those of you who are fond of twisting words to skew intentions and consider this as also an attack on the use of superstition as the subject or inspiration for art and literary narratives, I urge you to demand more attention from your reading brain. Superstition is succulent with the zestiest of juices to flow through the veins of narratives, paintings and other art forms but here I speak of superstition as the regular substitute for science.

I think our history and society in general and media in particular, give far more space and credence to superstition than science. That gives superstition a far wider and deeper influence in how our society thinks and works. Since we have allowed this to happen for so long and most of us have just been shot dumb, exhausted or frustrated, fighting for the rule of reason over superstition, then it should just be fair that science cedes to superstition not just its role but also its censures. We should now hold superstition materially accountable for its failures to explain and predict how the world works. And the country can make money out of those letdowns. And I think it will be a substantial collection since they are a big part of society and their practitioners inhabit every social and economic class. So to scientists, by degree, practice or passion, I say, sit back and relax. If we can’t join them, let’s just milk them. 

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