A Series of Tubes

Our way of knowing makes knowledge extremely complicated.  Columbus saw what he thought were mermaids, so mermaids existed.  Nowadays, for someone to say that they saw a mermaid that would not be enough.  Someone would have to catch one; scientists would study it, and then decide that it was in fact a mermaid.  The problem is whether the only people who know the truth are those scientists or those who believe that the scientists found that truth.  Scientists have proven that protons, neutrons, and electrons exist, but I have never seen them.  I know that they exist, but does that mean I am as superstitious as Columbus for believing in something that I personally cannot verify?  I am not so sure. 

However, when I take the technological aspects of knowledge that are open to us, I would say that, yes our way of knowledge is better.  If I desire to see subatomic particles collide, I can google it or look it up on youtube.  The Internet makes puts knowledge of just about anything at our fingertips.  On the other hand, anyone can put something up on the Internet.  So, just as easy as it is to gain knowledge via the Internet, you can gain false knowledge.  This can be very harmful.  For example, one of my relatives found a scientist in Europe who believes that global warming in happening because the Earth’s atmosphere is actually cleaner than it was a century ago.  Our relationship is strained because I agree with the majority of scientists after doing research on reliable websites.  I generally think that the positives outweigh the negatives, but I agree with Jasmine in the feeling that our way of knowing is still not the best way.  Better, but not perfect.  I do not think that we ever will achieve a perfect way of knowing, but it is a good thing to strive for in the scientific sense.