The Construction ,Worship, and Loathing of Models Part 1

     As a college student , I took some astronomy courses . Mostly I did this out of curiosity past the first semester, and seeing as I never did take physics, required some pretty good mental gymnastics to keep up. It was also a good balance to spending hours each day underground in a practice room.
      One of the things the professor  would often remind us is that we are dealing with models. Our eyes, our brains, our perceptions, our explanations for what we observe, scientifically ( or not). We create models to explain our observations. If we have been good scientists we ought to have good models. We can then based on the weight of evidence and data form postulates, theories, and even laws
to explain and predict behaviors of natural or social systems.
We've as a species evidently been doing this awhile. We have understood the importance of keeping historical records from times predating written language acquisition .
   
Which runs us into the first long standing Wall of Dumb-ass that persists in existence very nicely into modern times thank you.
   Patriarchal organized religion. Models? we don't need models. "We" know the TRUTH!!! "We " know what God wants, and if you don't follow you may be-
                                                                Disrespected
                                                                Pitied
                                                                Laughed at
                                                                Shamed
                                                                Hated
                                                                Lynched
                                                                Burned
                                                                Blown to smithereens......
Because God loves you. And because we have the Bible/Koran/Torah etc etc etc to prove it.
Plus we have thousands of years of beautiful traditions and revered heroes to point to. Not to mention brutal , sociopathic mass murder from wide and varied sources. Good persuaders, both.

Theres the perception  thing again. PROOF. Of course where good science attempts objectivity, no proselytizing religion would accept objectivity at the bottom line. Off with their heads.
       Some are crazier than others. There isn't , for instance, any Reform Mormon Church. You are in or not. End Days and afterlife all together as a family. Even Black people can be in the club now!!
Objective science? According to large swaths of The Very American Church of Enormous Church Building selling billions of books by preachers with Big Teeth, thats Secular Humanism and its a sin.
These are the people that brought us Intelligent Design. Am I mocking faith? Not if it allows for a live and let live bottom line. Otherwise, yes , I am mocking faith ." My Gods better than YOOOOURE God..." . Mocking, yes.
         
           But honestly, Im digressing- not without purpose, but my philosophy is not the point. What is the point is that I - or any other human that has one- can have one.
         
          Ill finish part one by pointing out that the best we can hope for is that people update their models that they base their philosophies on as they age, as good  scientists do. Unfortunately it takes some ability to "detach" to do this, and to face things about oneself that may not be pretty. It cant work in the case of prejudicial minds. Ill leave it to the reader to decipher the differences and similarities between philosophy ,and the outcomes of scientific endeavor.