The gravitation of belief …

… A Matter of Trust | The Los Angeles Review of Books. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Faith and belief are not optional. A true scientist can be certain of nothing. Science demonstrates no truths, but identifies only what is not true according to (an always provisional) paradigm. The most ardent atheist could not get out of bed in the morning without trust. In science, as in the rest of life, faith and belief depend ultimately on induction, namely experience — guided, moulded, and interpreted by our beliefs, by the questions we ask or don’t ask, what our assumptions allow us to see or prevent us from seeing. Logic is of vital importance along the way, but science is ultimately a form of pattern recognition.