Our Measure Of Truth

Science As Dogma Versus Science As Tool

Lamentably, post-modern society has narrowed its notion of truth to the proclamations of science. Although the font of scientific investigation has flooded us with innumerable benefits over the preceding three centuries, I contend that its dogmatic allocation of universal truth to itself alone - truth sorely needed for us to live fully - is misplaced at best and spurious at worst. How can I defend such a heretical view, a perspective which in today’s intellectual environment is regarded as the zenith of superstitious irrationality? To answer, let me briefly review the methodological purview acknowledged by science itself as the proverbial gold standard of truth.

The Inherent Limitations Of Science

Of necessity, science must confine its work solely to phenomena meeting two fundamental preconditions: 1. They must, at least in theory, be publicly replicable and verifiable, and 2. They must, as least potentially, be so orderly or regular as to be fully quantifiable. Any and all phenomena failing to meet both criteria are omitted from scientific consideration a priori. Now as we review the sum and substance of our lives as they are actually lived, that is the vast, colorful array of situations confronting us daily, how many of these subtle, mercurial, existential facets conform to that inflexible scientific template? How much of ourselves are publicly replicable and quantifiable? In fact, we quickly realize - as did virtually all pioneering scientists - that science is an ideal tool for researching certain exceptionally circumscribed areas of reality. Thus, it simply cannot generate, and was never conceived to stand in for, any comprehensive picture of the totality of our existence.

Science At Lucky Six Farms

We at Lucky Six Farms are pleased to use the findings of science but refuse to be used by them. Our philosophical horizons transcend the instruments we employ and the numbers they reveal; we know from ample testimony that our customers feel the same. Our wild-crafted, certified organic White Sage essential oil, hydrosol, smudge bundles, cones, and whole leaves are considered vital adjuncts of traditional ceremonies large and small, ceremonies honoring a universe much larger and more vital than one consisting wholly of, in Ken Wilber’s prescient words, nothing more than “frisky dirt.”


By Alan Beck