By Paul Weiser
Sir Francis Bacon, whom some call inventor of the scientific method, said,
"Whosoever is out of patience, is out of possession of his mind, body, and soul."
If such a religious/philosophical observation seems irrelevant to science, read on.
Patience is the ability to withhold action - in effect, withhold judgement - while awaiting events. It is not mere procrastination or laziness. Lack of patience causes the impatient to commit acts, make final and irrevocable judgements on inadequate information when they're not yet required. Beyond that, as Bacon indicates, impatience is an irrational compulsion to "reach closure;" it overthrows reason.
One need not consider truly bloody episodes - such as the FBI's and Clinton White House's massacre of innocents at Waco entirely from lack of patience - to see the evil consequences. The evidence for human-induced climate change (contrary to advocates of impatiently "doing something about it") is by no means settled science. More evidence arrives constantly; new models include formerly ignored influences such as solar fluctuations and water vapor. To make national - much less global - policy under these conditions is to be truly out of patience, that is, out of their minds.
The wider point, connecting Bacon's method to this quotation, is that while science is often settled on a particular subject (the germ theory of disease, for example) it is never finally settled. Science must always be open to refutation and amendment, even in its most settled parts (as Newtonian physics were settled before Einstein). Beneath all judgement there must be a final, thin but adamantine layer of doubt, and a lubricating film of patience toward disagreement that makes the whole scientific machine work properly.
Advocates out of patience must look to their own souls, but it is a fact that they are literally irrational. They're out of their minds.
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