To the editor:

“War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength.” Orwell wrote this 56 years ago in his hellish masterpiece “1984.” It was recently paraphrased (Jan. 9) in a letter to the editor as a response to Leonard Krishtalka’s recent column about science. This letter claimed that science as it is practiced today is based on blind faith: To paraphrase Orwell, science is religion.

Nonsense! Science is based on the observation of natural phenomena, the development of testable hypotheses used to model natural phenomena, and the constant testing of these models against new evidence. Faith requires belief in the absence of evidence. Science describes natural, testable phenomena. Faith helps us probe the untestable: The meaning of life and the motive for creation.

Science and faith were divided almost 500 years ago precisely because the mixing of these two forms of inquiry was developing wildly incorrect models of the natural world. Among these scientifically discredited hypotheses were the ideas that 1) the earth is the center of the solar system, 2) a vacuum cannot exist, and 3) the earth is less than 6,000 years old. Modern scientists must rely on evidence, not faith, as they develop descriptions of the natural world.

So, the next time someone tells you that science is based on faith, let them know what you think their ideas really are: Bunk and hokum! And, the next time someone asks you if you want to turn back the clock 500 years, tell them no!

Joseph Heppert,

Lawrence