Sometimes, you will hear somebody supporting a claim that they are making with the phrase science says such and such. You have probably heard terms such as the science is settled. You are also told to believe the science and called a science denier or anti-science if You do not accept what is being claimed under the auspices of science as unquestionable fact. Sometimes, even questioning certain official scientific claims is treated as a complete rejection of science.
Contrary to what you commonly see implied online science is not an official organization, it is not a group of experts, and it is not a set of unquestionable principles. Science is at its heart a methodology for drawing conclusions about what we observe in the world around us and how it works commonly called the scientific method. This methodology is at its best when trying to understand how the universe functions, but it runs into trouble when dealing with the past. This is because we can observe and test the present to record what is happening, but we do not have direct access to the past. This means, the application of the scientific method is often hindered by philosophical assumptions when dealing with the past, time tends to he erode data and evidence such that many factors are likely to be missing that can easily be filled in by philosophical assumptions.
Put in it simplest terms, the scientific method involves looking at a phenomenon in making a guess as to a possible explanation call a hypothesis. You then take that possible explanation and derive predictions about future observations from it. If the predictions come true, then the hypothesis is confirmed, but if not, it is shown to be false. This runs into difficulties the further you are from what is actually working on because you run into the situation where more than one explanation can predict or explain the same results, or a failed prediction can be explained away by an untestable patch.
Whether or not something is science or scientific is based on whether or not the scientific method is being followed. It does not magically become science just by passing peer review or by being approved of by the right people. The problem is that it is the “what the scientific experts say” view of science that a lot of people even scientists hold to rather than the scientific method. View that you see online a lot.
