The irony is that people think science tells people to disregard their gut instinct, when it is in fact the engine behind all advances.
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gut instinct
If one has a very well educated gut, then yes, that can help in formulating theories. Theories which then have to face the rigors of scientific methodology. Some call it 'insight' or 'smarts', but if you want to call it 'gut', then that's just fine. An uneducated gut, however, will leave you with a flat earth and an unstable house.
Intuition is a mental shortcut, used to prevent decision paralysis in cases where you don't have all the information needed to make the best possible choice. This is because decision paralysis is usually worse than making a poor choice.
Science is the art of gathering and interpreting information so you don't have to rely on intuition, because sometimes "semi-randomly sort of correct" isn't good enough.
gut instinct ... is in fact the engine behind all advances.
One case in point. Our gut instinct tells us we can load up a rocket with all our nuclear waste, point it towards the sun, shoot it off, and let it all burn up there, i.e. in the sun. Case closed, problem solved.
Science tells us that with our present equipment, the rocket will never get to the sun and may, in fact, crash back to earth sometime in the not too distant future. The delta-v to cancel out earth's orbit is much, much to high. It would be much easier to shoot the rocket away from the sun out of the solar system.
So much for gut instinct.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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