“Feyerbend therefore argues that we must “free society from the strangling hold of an ideologically petrified science just as our ancestors freed us from the strangling hold of the One True Religion! Science should be taught in schools, but only as a historical phenomenon alongside other ‘fairytales,’ such as the myths of so-called primitive societies which also seek to explain the natural and physical world”
The first time I read this in Moran’s Interdisciplinarity I was very much disturbed. While science is constantly changing and proving itself wrong, science is backed up by empirical evidence. Currently standing scientific theories are consistent with data of repeated experimentation. Myths on the other hand are made up by people. They have no data to back them, they are not answers that can be held up, and should not be taught as such.
But then, one day, it occurred to me, had it not been for these myths, there would be no science. Science exists because of mankind’s natural curiosity. We want to know how we got here and why we are here. We want to know how things work. Therefore I do no believe it is right to stifle non-empirical explanations for the world. Non-empirical explanations lead to experimentation, which lead to data-backed scientific theories. For example Aristotle came up with the idea of the atom without knowing anything about physics. Experimentation, thousands of years later, had turned his idea, or hypothesis, of the atom into a science supported theory.
Though I do believe it should be made clear that these myths are not consistent with any experimental data, I agree with Feyerbend in that fairytales and myths should be taught alongside science so as to stimulate creative thought which could lead to experimentation that would grant us more insight into the world and its workings.