2 



Why Do We Believe 

 What Science Says? 



We started the last chapter with the assertion 

 that this is probably the first time in history when an 

 appreciable number of young people can seriously say to 

 themselves that they are considering science as a career. 

 We turned aside for a bit to discuss some of the reasons 

 why science has been relatively slow in developing and 

 to sketch some of the other methods for understanding 

 the world with which science has had to compete. 



We must now take a more positive approach and ask 

 what it is that has brought science to its present estab- 

 lished position in civilized society. The reason that large 

 numbers of students can allow themselves to think about 

 going into science is that society is willing to provide them 

 with laboratory facilities and salaries to Hve on. In 1962, 

 for example, the United States was devoting approximately 

 8.1 billion dollars ^ to the support of science. Why is this 

 so? Although one might think of several reasons, the 

 overwhelming fact is that science has been successful in 

 describing the nature of things in such a way that the 

 resulting knowledge is useful in making hfe more com- 

 fortable and healthy for everybody and for defending 

 ourselves from people who have diJfferent views from ours 



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