What is, “wishful thinking”? A common theme in TV shows and movies is the idea that, “if you believe in yourself or something you want to happen” hard enough, long enough and work at it with enough effort that thing will become reality. You hear very little about those that fail in such an effort and there are plenty that face that. “Oh, just believe in yourself and you will succeed!” This is a popular form of, “wishful thinking”. It’s like saying you are some sort of god and that your imagination can produce any result you desire, just work at it…

This also works in science. Ideas that sound logical or maybe support a certain world view can become widely accepted even though they make no sense in the bigger picture. In some cases a false world view and the ideas associated with it can propagate a flurry of wishful thought and before you know it reality can be completely obscured. As a student of biology I was exposed to the principles of the other areas of science which helped me to measure the validity of the biological concepts being put forward against a healthy understanding of physics, geology, mathematics, etc.

But as it turned out, every discipline has its own set of wishful ideas embedded in them. They all were made subject to the idea that nature governs everything, that nothing is engineered in nature and wishful thinkers are constantly hard at work thinking up wishful stuff to support this notion. In reality, an objective approach to all the disciplines leaves only one conclusion. Nature displays careful engineering everywhere you look. To deny this has required boatloads of wishful thinking in order to maintain any bit of credibility. “Evolution” brought wishful thinking into a “bright new era” in science. A wishful world view for those who think supporting their dreams is more important than facing reality.