Scientific Impartiality
In Australia, as in many Western countries, there is an emphasis on keeping to an arbitrary speed limit. The stated reason for this is to reduce accident tolls. Scientific studies in Australia have consistently found that lower speed limits result in lower accident rates.
In Germany, however, the scientific studies have found that having no speed limits
at all result in lower accident rates. This isn't just an anomaly of German conditions
as
this
US study shows. In reality much of the motivation behind speeding fines is
to raise revenue. I pointed out (‘Guilt Free’) that people like to justify their
actions with an altruistic motivation. This applies to governments as well who,
with speeding fines, can raise revenue and kid themselves that they are saving
lives. In Australia state governments also raise money through gambling taxes
but arguments on the dangers of gambling to the community fall on deaf ears.
There is another point here though. If science is impartial and objective, how is it that studies in one country can reach such different conclusions to studies in another country? The reason, of course, is that scientific impartiality is a myth. Scientists simply reflect the prevailing thought of the day.
Research has found far reaching effects from something that scientists call ‘quantum
entanglement’. In a nutshell, they have found that the ramifications of quantum
mechanics, which was previously thought to be merely an attribute of small-particle
physics, have influences on the ‘real’ world. I have previously pointed out how
this works in ‘The Nature of Reality’, but scientists don't change their basic
understanding of the world. They are like religious zealots who, having formed
a view of how something works, don't change it even when the view becomes untenable.
I've dealt with this before in ‘Scepticism and Anosognosia’.