Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man

Its said that science will dehumanise people and turn them in to numbers.

That's false; tragically false.

Look for yourself! This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. This is where people were turned in to numbers.

In to this pond were flushed the ashes of some four million people. And that was not done by gas, it was done by arrogance, it was gone be dogma, and it was done by ignorance.

When people believe that they have absolute knowledge with no test in reality this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the very brink of the known, we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgement in science stands on the edge of error and is personal.

Science is a tribute to what we can know to what we can know although we are fallible.

In the end, the words were said by Oliver Cromwell…

I besiege you in the bowels of Christ, think it possible that you might be mistaken.

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