Merinder's House

When does science become evangelism? Is it a question of who speaks the loudest or who holds out the longest, and is endorsement by the establishment, the popular mind, or history the most enduring? In today’s world, the competing agendas of economy, politics and personal ambition are so often the direct funders of research and debate that the very criteria for objectivity evolve anew with each new phase of marketing. We may be tempted to think our generation is uniquely given to this hidden lack of objectivity.

I am reminded, however, of all the great men and women of history and antiquity whose ideas had to wait a century or two to gain ground, and who, during their own lifetime, suffered the derision and criticism of more powerful interests or of louder people with considerably less talent than themselves. Galileo, Bruno, Lister. These were the braver ones who did not give up, but it cost them their lives, their sanity or, at the very least, the recognition they deserved during their own lifetime. It is, however, remarkable how good ideas will not lie down and die. They have a habit of living on, because somewhere in the root of them is something truly great.

It seems to be an unfortunate characteristic of good ideas that they carry the inherent risk of incurring the wrath of others. Someone, somewhere, will feel threatened by them, and the louder the threatened shout, the more they carry popular opinion with them. For some reason, members of the public love to be told what they should and should not like, and eventually, they come to believe that their opinions are, in fact, their own. They rarely stop to think that they have been presented with such a limiting selection of choices that they could not fail to choose the one they were supposed to.

Unfortunately, it is ultimately the fickle nature of popular opinion which determines right and wrong, truth and falsehood, acceptability and rejection. Popular opinion, as marketing magnates, politicians and successful scientists well know, is very easily bought with any combination of money, favours, flamboyance, self confidence and a round of drinks. “But,” whispered Galileo under his breath as he was tortured into renouncing his views: “…still it moves.”

Discover the magic of Scottish fiction through The Books and the Sea, a collection of short stories, Scottish literature with a maritime flavour, written by Jane Coutts.