Science Quote by Kenneth R. Miller

Science doesn’t do vows; it does prenups. Kenneth R. Miller’s line is a compact rebuke to the craving for certainty that stalks every public argument about evolution, climate, vaccines, and “just asking questions.” The intent isn’t to weaken science by admitting fallibility. It’s to clarify what makes science powerful: its refusal to confuse usefulness with infallibility.

Miller, a biologist and prominent defender of evolution education, is speaking from a context where “theory” gets weaponized as a synonym for “guess.” His phrasing flips that trap. A scientific theory isn’t a hunch; it’s the most comprehensive explanatory framework we have, built to survive contact with reality. The subtext is procedural humility: knowledge in science is always provisional, because it’s always exposed to new evidence and better instruments. That’s not a bug; it’s the quality control system.

The line also draws a boundary between science and belief systems that trade in absolutes. Miller isn’t saying scientists are relativists drifting in doubt. He’s saying they are disciplined skeptics who treat every claim as revisable, including the ones that work astonishingly well. “Not absolute truth” is a rhetorical pressure valve: it inoculates against accusations of dogma while quietly asserting a stronger legitimacy than certainty can offer. Certainty is fragile. A method that expects to be challenged is hard to kill.