Separating scientists from their beliefs is vitally important

It’s very likely that if you’ve come to this post from the main science page of ‘Medium’ or from a search for science or from a link shared in a social media group. Thus, there’s also a fair chance that you already have a good grasp on what the scientific method is.

It’s heartening to see that more and more people seem to be embracing the scientific method and the results its use have yielded. The popularisation of the scientific method has some drawbacks, but its overwhelming benefit is there is a growing minority of people that no longer accept what they are told by the unqualified. People who are starting to understand that taking medical advice from a person that has never studied medicine is probably not a great idea.

As science-communication becomes more popular, it’s import to realise that just holding a qualification in a field of science doesn’t earn a person the right to be taken seriously in all scientific subjects. Your dentist may be one of the best around, you wouldn’t allow him to perform heart bypass surgery on you though.

This analogy comes to mind every time I write about the alleged link between wave function collapse and consciousness or the ‘quantum mind’ hypothesis. Such a discussion always spawns a significant amount of responses from supporters of this idea that…