A trend emerged, somewhere around 2020, for yard signs to appear, mostly in upscale left-leaning areas, apparently in support of a constellation of left-leaning causes, that began with the line, “In this house, we believe:” This has been referred to as the Nicene Creed of the Left, and I want to specifically remark on the line, “Science is Real” as a component of that creed.
There may well be people who don’t believe that science is real – there are, after all, people who seem to seriously believe that the Earth is flat – but they do not constitute a politically significant fraction of the US population. Certainly, they are not powerful enough to be worth the cost of the ink in opposing them!
Of course, the homeowners in question are not really insisting that “science is real” – what they mean is “people who disagree with me on my favorite political or social issue for which some of the evidence is scientific in origin are so stupid as to probably not believe that science is real.”
“Science is real” encapsulates that certainty with which their position is held. The person with the yard sign may not know that the evidence for their favorite political or social issue is likely equivocal, and that others may reasonably assess the scientific evidence as a whole and come to a different conclusion. They may well not understand that certainty is not the domain of science, but rather confidence – hopefully increasing over time, but a complete overturning of the current “best guess” can’t be ruled out.
This is not science, but “scientism” – that near-worship of a warped caricature of science – harmful to public policy, fatal to civil discourse, and potentially devastating for science itself.
Alternative formulation
Here is a possible alternative yard-sign:
Alas, I doubt it’s pithy enough to catch on, much like my suggested nonracism jersey slogans.
Postscript: after writing this, I came across this recommended post by Robert Graboyes, subtitled “Eugenicists also believed that Science is Real.”