Abhijit Naskar's Blog, page 99

Why do we crave for social approval

Nobody is immune to social conditioning or as people like to call it, social programming. Which means that everybody is vulnerable to this process of social programming - to social pressure. But the question that we are interested in here is why? Why do we crave for acceptance from the society? Why do we crave for approval of the society.

Unless a person has some sort of pathological condition that makes the person unable to create a healthy bond between the self and the society, everybody has the urge for being accepted by the society, by the community, by the environment - to look for approval from others. So, what is the reason that we look for approval from others, from the people around us? The reason is that we are not wired to be loners. We are social animals. Being in a community makes us stronger. And that's the faculty that actually enabled our ancestors in the jungle to survive against the forces of nature - against predators and all sorts of wild obstacles.

So we built communities, but it's not enough to build communities. The members in that community must have a neurological bond with that community - they must have a craving to belong to that community. You cannot just gather some people and say, this is my community. They must feel that they are part of that community in order for the community to survive against all odds, which at that time, that is, in the kingdom of the wild was rather imperative.

So being in a community means we are psychologically wired to feel that we are part of that community, which brings along an innate craving to be accepted by others in that community - by the majority of that community - to look for approval in everything that we do from others in that community - to look for appreciation for our actions - to look for appraisal from others, for our achievements, for our successes.

In the wild, it worked well. And even today it keeps a people together. That's okay. So it is not completely harmful, but what is harmful is that this very trait has also a negative side and rather devastatingly negative side negative aspect, which is that this craving, this social conditioning often compels a person to go against his or her own passion, his or her own uniqueness to be accepted by the society. So the person ends up doing what the society wants instead of doing what that person really wanted to do in the first place, whether it is about living life, whether it is about achieving a certain goal, or anything else.

In the end, the majority of people end up achieving the goals that a society wishes them to achieve as members of the community. And the same goes for wishes, the same goes for desires, the same goes with behaviors, the same goes for thought thinking - the same goes with emotions and feelings and sentiments and ambitions and so on. So we ended up living secondhand lives. We end up living lives of mindless machines - we end up living lives of slaves of the society instead of living the life that we want.

If a person is happy with living the way that the person is living while following the norms of the society, then that's completely fine. But if the person has to completely change himself or herself to follow the norms of the society, then that's dangerous and downright inhuman because all the progress that we have attained so far as a species took place because of the handful of so-called misfits who had the courage to go against the societal norms, to follow their dreams, to follow their passions, to follow their own original thoughts and ideas and inklings and passions.

In short, rules and norms of a society do not ensure progress. In fact, the rules that the society creates are there to ensure security, not to ensure progress. To ensure progress, one must first sacrifice security to achieve something that nobody has achieved ever before - one must have the guts to turn a blind eye to the mockery, the criticisms, the disapprovals of one's society. Only by doing this can one achieve what that person really wants for himself or herself. This doesn't mean rebelling against society violently or aggressively - it simply means paying no attention to the society's selfish expectations, instead, the person must focus all their attention, all their energy on the one idea that is most important to them - to that one dream, that one passion, that one purpose.

I am worried sick for the kids

I am worried - terribly worried - I am worried sick for the kids - for the citizens of tomorrow - and this is no everyday worry, for everyday worries come and go, but this worry of mine is not going to fade away. I am worried for the sanity of our kids - and all the kids yet to come.

We have arrived at a point of time where the way we raise our kids is going to draw the line between sanity and insanity - it's going to draw the line between the will to live and the urge to give up. Never in history, the situation was so severe as it is now. And if you genuinely want your kids to have a healthy and happy life, then you no longer have the luxury to be callous about their daily habits.

Here I am not addressing your capacity for raising kids, for that's an instinctual response which comes naturally to all parents, but what I am pointing out is that even that age-old parental instinct of raising children is not going to be enough in ensuring that the kids grow up to be mentally stable members of a healthy society. Mark this, if you do not get serious right now, then the future that awaits your kids will be that of insanity, misery and death.

Technology - that's what revolutionized this planet beyond human imagination when it came to existence - and now in its newly acquired digital form, it has begun to revolutionize this planet once again, except this time the repercussions are turning out to be a thousand times greater than all of the previous technological revolutions combined.

Selfies have begun to replace memories - likes and comments have begun to replace lasting conversations - illusive friends and followers lists have begun to replace real reliable friendship. And this is nothing to be taken for granted, for the digital innovation that set out to connect people, has slowly started to tear those people apart both from within and without.

Reliability has become scarce - commitment has become scarce - attachment has become scarce. The very socio-psychological mechanisms that sustain the stability and wellness of a society are beginning to collapse, and when they do, the very fabric of societal stability and sanity will get ripped apart, which I am afraid is no longer a possibility.

This has already begun to happen and the situations will get only worse, creating a society full of sociopaths, psychopaths and basically unstable, depressed and superficial human beings with no strength of character and conscience, and no sense of patience and sanity whatsoever. They will crave for appraisal - they will crave for attention - they will crave for flattery - they will crave for perfection. Everything about them will be artificial and superficial. And no matter how much they pretend to present their life as perfect, inside they will be dying every single second of their existence.

Now the question is, what are we going to do about it? Are we going to do anything at all? Are you going to do anything at all? Are you? I am asking again and again, because upon this question depends the very stability and sanity of our children and grandchildren. So if you can perceive the impending doom, then we can move to actions.

The best way to teach the children a habit is to adopt it ourselves. So, the first step to raise a society that will know the distinction between healthy use of technology and harmful use of technology, is to practice that distinction religiously in our own lives. This means that you must right this very moment start modulating your use of devices, by turning off all notifications except the most important ones.

You do not actually need to delete your social media accounts, but what you must do is - and I mean must, not should, because if I ask you, do you want to protect your child from committing suicide, then you would probably say, you must, not should - so, what you must do is, check your social media only once or twice a day - at most three times, but not more. And this applies to all the responsible adults everywhere, whether you are at home, at work or in transit. Because, if you can't be the role model for the children of this world, not just your own children, then you have no right to blame those kids for their behavior.

So, renounce the 24/7 smartphone scrolling behavior, if you actually care for the future of your kids - for the future of this world. Then comes giving a little nudge to your kids when you see them being consumed by their devices. You may say, they won't listen. Actually, they do not listen because you do not give them enough time from an early age. Spend time with them - watch a movie with them - go for an outing with them - do something with them whenever you have time.

Set the standards of healthy living in front of the children, by being an embodiment of healthy living yourself, then and then only will there be hope for the kids to turn into responsible, stable, patient and socially functional human beings.

Recommended Reading
Mission Reality

Beyond The Fairy-tale of Mental Health Awareness

To understand mental health, we must first understand what is mind? And by understand, I mean realize, in our bones, what this mind thing is. So, let's try to figure out. I assume you know what water is - what it is made of. It's made of hydrogen and oxygen. That's why, water is H2O. Likewise, mind is made of neurons - most of which are inside our brain and the rest are spread across our body like a network, not just to drive our body, but also to receive information from the environment.

We have about a hundred billion neurons in our brain. And just so you know, the number of neurons remains almost the same, since the time of our birth, what changes as we grow up and live through time, is their interconnections. For example, when you practice a certain task over a long period of time, the neurons responsible for that task, get substantially interconnected, and as they get more interconnected, you become better at that task.

Now, where does mental health come in all this? Well you see, we are animals. Yes we are, technically speaking. But since we severed our dependency on mother nature, by building civilizations, modern civilizations, we became somewhat non-animal. Which means, we no longer rely on the internal mechanisms that helped up animals to survive in the jungle alongside other animals. And these mechanisms are what we call instincts. But by instincts, I am not talking about the way you use the term in everyday life. I am not talking about just gut feeling. Instinctual drives helped us survive in the merciless kingdom of the wild - the drive for reproduction, the drive for staying alert and so on.

Now, the drive for staying alert is the instinct that's responsible for most of our modern everyday mental health issues - anxieties, stress and so on. Why, because we are not wired in our brain to stay calm - we are not wired to remain peaceful - we come from a long line of ancestors, who had to remain alert all the time, in order to be able to fight any possible predatory attack. And this evolutionary instinct of alertness still remains quite strong in the human psyche, except, now, we have labeled it with problematic terms like anxiety, stress and so on.

We have started to delude ourselves with the belief that these everyday mental health issues are our enemies that have risen recently, but the matter is quite the opposite. As I said in my book "What is Mind", fear, anxiety, stress - these are not our enemies. You cannot get rid of them, by thinking of them as enemies. They are evolutionary wisdom in the face of danger. So, you should not try to get rid of them, rather you should try to befriend them.

Accept them as part of your life - accept them as part of your being - rid yourself of the fairytale notion, that you ought to be full of happiness all the time - rid yourself of the false belief that being sad is bad, that being upset or disappointed is bad - these are all human conditions - one can't erase them, just because one doesn’t like them or one's society presents them as evil. Only when you accept yourself, the way you are, along with all your joys, sorrows, miseries, disappointments, failures, achievements and ecstasies, can you truly step beyond the dualities of existence - only then can you become truly alive to life itself.

Mental health awareness doesn't mean fighting stress, anxiety, depression and other everyday mental health issues, rather it means consciously modulating the habits that intensify those issues. Once you are in control of your habits, instead of letting your habits control you, you would automatically be in a much better shape, both mentally and physically. In fact, if we put aside the severe neuropsychological conditions, there is no such thing as mental health awareness, there is only awareness. Awareness breeds health, whereas callousness breeds more suffering.

Neurohacking, Consumerism and Marketing

Let's begin this brief journey of investigation and insight, by stepping inside the magnificent realm of neurons to witness the process of consumption or consumerism or acquisition of goods and services, as it influences and rewires our brain circuits.

Consumption is a universal phenomenon. All humans consume varieties of products, many of which beyond actual necessity, because it activates the brain's reward center. And the more a certain product activates the reward center with its unique characteristics or its predominant social stature, the more that product gets chiseled into the long-term memory of the consumer, making it a fundamental part of the individual's psychological well being.

Thus the human mind grows a deep psychological bond with a product. And this bond can grow so strong in time that it would defend itself from all sorts of criticisms. It is the brain's way to maintain its internal purely individualistic well being. Hence, a strong psychological bond between the mind and a product slowly not only becomes invincible to criticisms, but also, develops its own cognitive immune system against such criticisms. And this very attachment or bond between a consumer and a product or service manifests as loyalty.

Now let's take a deep dive into the understanding of what exactly are the nature, basis and origin of this loyalty. It's not just brand loyalty - loyalty is rather a basic human instinct, which has been in our brain circuits, since our days in the jungle. Our ancestors had to be loyal to the leader of their community, of their tribes, in order to stay strong as a group of people, and this loyalty in turn increased their chances of survival.

This instinctual sentiment called loyalty still runs boldly in our nerves. And it manifests in different forms in the human society - loyalty to a political leader - loyalty to a celebrity - loyalty to a certain product or the creator of that product and so on. In short, if we the humans are influenced by something or someone in our life for a long a period of time, our brain automatically grows a sense of loyalty to that figure or brand or product.

And sometimes this sentiment can grow so strong that it begins to defy rational explanation. Which means that if a product can influence a person emotionally in their daily life and can continue to do so for a long period of time, then the consumer mind grows dependent on that product. Here it is all about sentiments - it has nothing to do with rational explanations or reasoning.

For example, if the people are shown advertisements of two similar products but from different brands, then which one do you think they will choose to buy, next time they go shopping? They are going to buy the one which had a more emotional impact on them in its advertisement. And to predict the impact of an advertisement or a product, based on neurological predispositions and real-time brain activities, is the purpose of our field of "Consumer Neuroscience" or in simple terms "Neuromarketing", which has already started to replace the traditional marketing models and methods and has helped countless companies, small and big, save a great deal of money and anxieties.

For example, it’s not just the advertisement that matters in a product's impact on the consumer brain, but also, something as subtle as the color scheme of a product's packaging matters a great deal. Each color triggers certain emotional responses in the human brain, so the color-scheme of the packaging of a product must match correctly with the product's nature and purpose. For instance, a bottle of drinking water, which represents serenity and satisfaction, must never be packaged in provocative colors such as red or dark colors such as black.

So, in short, the most effective and first step to present a product or service to people is to appeal to their emotional existence, for people are first emotional, then rational. And this emotional existence of ours is driven a great deal by our instinctual urge for consumption, and that too beyond necessity. And many companies actually unscrupulously target people's this urge for more to make a ridiculous and rather absurd amount of profit.

For example, most of Apple's revenue is predicated on selling people products and features that they do not actually need. But the glare of Apple's brand image blinds people of the very distinction between necessity and luxury. Here, please do not think of me as some Anti-Apple Android fanatic, or some advocate for the so-called minimalism. I am a scientist. I do not fall into those childish and empty categories. My purpose here has been to point out the significance and implications of consumerism and consumer loyalty in human life and society.

In most cases this loyalty is one-sided, that is, although the consumer stays loyalty to a brand for a long period of time, if not for life, the brand rarely stays loyal to its consumer - instead it treats its consumers as merely source of revenue, without paying much attention to product quality, consumer relationship and affordability. And this one-sided loyalty only leads to a financially uneven society. It is only when a company cares for its consumers as much as the consumers care for its products or services, can we create a healthy consumer culture - or else, corporate irresponsibility and consumer stupidity will only create a shallow, snobbish, insecure and ignoramus society. In short, consumerism is not bad, but reckless and mindless consumerism is not just bad, but downright injurious to the health of not just the individual, but of the entire society.

 

Why Entertainers are More Appealing to the Masses than Scholars

Stop making stupid people famous. Such goes the saying. Everybody has heard of it. Everybody knows what it implies, yet, that very everybody, or at least, almost everybody, never thinks twice before “making stupid people famous”. Hence, I have said in my book “Mission Reality” – “Stupid people make stupid people famous”. But why? Is there a deeper reason behind such a primitive act? Is there something more than mere stupidity? Is this stupidity really that stupid or does it have some incomprehensible value which can only be discovered if we see past the surface of such behavior!

If we speak empirically, then there is no such thing as stupid or wise in the kingdom of nature, for the kingdom of nature is governed by only one quality, and that is survival potential. If a behavior exists, it does so, because it has some sort of survival potential attached to it. And this is the reason why scholars, such as scientists and philosophers are way less appealing to the masses in comparison to entertainers such as filmstars, singers or sportspersons.

Scholars (including scientists, philosophers, doctors, teachers, innovators and many more, involved in the practice of science, technology and philosophy) make some of the greatest physical contributions in the health, prosperity and progress of the human species, take away the scholars and all progress will come to a standstill, yet most of them spend their life in anonymity outside the tiny circle of their distinct field. On the other hand, entertainers are seen by people from all walks of life as some form of all-knowing prophet – if they say, a certain health drink is good, the masses would most naively embrace that health drink in their life – if they say, a certain watch or perfume or handbag is the symbol of elegance, the masses would most blindly run after it – and if they run for office, the masses would most stupidly vote for them, without actually knowing their psychological capacity to run a people.

Here, I beg you not to think of all entertainers to be stupid, rather what I am pointing out is that, the expertise of an entertainer is in entertaining, so you should give them as much reverence as they deserve, not more than that. They are not expert in medical issues – they are not expert in running a people – they are not expert in anything except their work in entertainment – just like, I am not an expert in Chemistry or Physics or Mathematics – I am a Biologist and that’s where all my attention is placed. So, if you have a question about Quantum Physics, you must not ask me, rather you must ask a Physicist. And the same is true for every other expert in the world – be it an expert of science, mathematics or arts. For example, my favorite actors are Cary Grant and Jimmy Stewart, and I enjoy their work immensely, but I don’t expect them to have a deep insight into human nature, just because they were and still remain quite famous – that’s my job, just like their job was to hold up a mirror in front of the society through their acting.

Now the big question is, why do people fall prey to the charm of celebrities and confuse their charisma to be the sign of wisdom, in most cases quite subconsciously? This behavior goes back millions of years. When our ancestors lived in the jungle amidst other animals, the chances of survival of the tribe increased in proportion to their blind loyalty to the alpha, a character with leadership characteristics, which mostly consisted of an absurd amount of confidence and charm. And this evolutionary instinct of attraction to confidence and charm still remains rather dominant in the common human psyche, which makes them vulnerable to the spell of charisma, even if that charisma has no content of character or wisdom underneath it.

In everyday life of the common human, reason takes a back seat and emotions dictate all significant behavior. “Erase the emotions and you would erase the most important part of what it’s like to be human” (as said in Mission Reality). In short, no matter what you say, if you can say it with such a confidence that it touches people at an emotional level, then you can make them believe in anything – you can make think anything – you can make them do anything.

In the human society, being famous is not the same as being right. Because people who make individuals famous, do not care about right or wrong – they don’t care about truth and reasoning – they are subconsciously driven by their instinct for survival, towards confidence, charm and charisma, just like moths are drawn towards a burning candle to face their inevitable demise.

I’m afraid, if the humans do not learn to make conscious and conscientious efforts to place their attention on character and wisdom, instead of on charm and charisma, then the demise of humankind is inevitable. Here, one may wonder, how can an entire society of humans change their behavior overnight! And the reality is, such a transformation or change cannot take place overnight, moreover, it won’t happen all at once. All change begins with the individual. When we change, the world will change.


Recommended Reading:
All For Acceptance
Mission Reality

Citation: Abhijit Naskar. “Why Entertainers are More Appealing to the Masses than Scholars”. EC Psychology and Psychiatry 8.10 (2019): 1083-1084.

The Planetary Anthem of Earth

O My Mother Earth,
I am your stubborn child,
I may fall again and again,
Rising right back up I smile.
I come from different religions,
Different colors though my skin reflects,
At heart I am one o mother,
At heart I am beyond all sects.

O My Mother Earth,
Never turn your back on me,
I may be arrogant sometimes,
But I always need thee.
I'm full of pride rather often,
Often I'm blind to necessities,
But fret not o my loving mother,
Sooner or later I realize my atrocities.

O My Mother Earth,
I may act greedy sometimes,
But if my neighbors are in pain,
To help them my heart chimes.
I make mistakes o mother,
And that too quite often,
But even the scorching sun,
Can't make my zeal disheartened.

O My Mother Earth,
I may or may not have riches,
But I am not poor my dear,
For I have compassion that never glitches.
You have given me all,
All that I'll ever need,
With it I'll win the universe,
And to my agonies I'll pay no heed.

O My Mother Earth,
You've given me tongues many,
But I promise to not let languages,
Cause in your home disharmony.
Love has no gender,
Compassion has no religion,
Character has no race,
In acceptance I seek salvation.

O My Mother Earth,
I am your stubborn child,
I may fall again and again,
Rising right back up I smile.

How not to kill a champion

Unfortunate and uncivilized though it may sound, in many parts of the human society, one’s worth is measured by the amount of money one earns, not by the value one adds to the society. And this has become the greatest curse of humankind – the greatest impediment to their global progress. If Mandela, King, Teresa, Bose (the man behind India’s Independence, not the Physicist) and other legends of human history ran like dogs chasing money, instead of thinking of their society, we wouldn’t have a civilized and free world to live in.

But the point is, we still don’t have a truly civilized and free society around the world. The whole world still needs the sacrifice of countless more legends, but the problem is, these legends face nothing but obstruction from their own society. Nevertheless, without the sacrifice of many more heroes in our times, this world can never become the true global abode of peace, harmony and progress for the generations to come.

Therefore, the people who can’t sacrifice anything, must, at the very least, stop being egotistical and know-it-all snobs, and give a hand to those individuals who are trying to make a difference. And if they can’t help in any manner, at least, they must try not to discourage the budding champions of progress. It’s hard as it is for the torch-bearers, so if you can’t support them, do not criticize them. Criticism is the weapon of the lesser human – it’s the weapon of the creature that’s incapable of original thinking and original action.

I’m pain stricken to say that even many of the parents around the world feed fear into the heart of their children as they grow up, and then they expect great things from them. They train their children from an early age to compete with their friends, to see their friends as enemies, to focus on earning instead of learning, they breed raise race-horses, and then they foolishly dream of a beautiful, progressive and humane society for their children.

A person with a broken leg can walk by the help of prosthetic, but no prosthetic can fix a broken spirit. Day after day the so-called modern society keeps killing the spirit of champions – they keep killing the hearts that hold the force for greatness and progress. Yet these people who murder the spirit of greatness on a daily basis, are never held accountable for their actions. In fact, they take pride in such actions, and they call it either sensibility or responsibility. It’s not responsibility my friend, nor is it sensibility, it’s irresponsibility and primitiveness at their worst.

People take pride in their historical heroes, but when a hero is born in their own family, they’d do everything in their power to trample his or her spirit. They look up to the achievements of the world’s legends, but they can’t manage to comprehend that most of those achievements were not born of conventional thinking. They survive more on fear than water and oxygen. They eat fear, dream fear, live fear and then they pass on that fear to their children. Naturally, each day the world keeps losing a dream, each day the world keeps losing a champion.

To the parents I say, if you can’t afford to give your child the right to pursue their dreams, you have no right to breed. However, if you genuinely want to be responsible parents, then learn to be selfless in raising your kids. And by selfless, I don’t mean that fake selflessness, where you believe that you are being selfless, but in reality you keep imposing all your desires and dreams on your kids. Be genuinely selfless and give your kids the courage to go after their dreams. And whatever you do, don’t program them to be afraid of failures, because without failure there’s no learning, without failure there’s no discovery, without failure there’s no progress.

COP means Caretaker of People

Bow not, my brave officer of the law, before the soul-crunching pressure of corruption – light up the nuclear furnace of responsibility and justice that sleeps dormant within you and crush all corruption to ashes – only then you’ll become the very embodiment of courage, conscience and order in the human society. You are not to live for yourself, as a labor of law – you are to live in the service of humans, as the very life-force of law in the human society. You are to exist as a living, breathing incarnate of order, harmony and civilization.


Rise and act – and corruption will be afraid of you – injustice will be afraid of you – inequality will be afraid of you. And remember, you must be a friend to the people – a guide to the people – a guardian to the people – and this means, not only protecting the people against obvious anti-social activity, but more importantly it means defending the rights of the people against all forms of anti-social and corrupt behavior even if it comes from your own department or from the government officials controlling the department.



Yours is not like any other profession – upon your duty depends whether a little child in a corner of your neighborhood will sleep sound – upon your duty depends whether a woman can return home safe from work at night – upon your duty depends whether an elderly person can reach home from the bank without being mugged. You matter – your duty matters – not merely for you mark you, but for those countless civilians who rely on your individual sense of responsibility with their very life. You are to be the lion that keeps all vicious predators away when it roams the neighborhood.



You are not just a police officer, you are the caretaker of hundreds of lives. Do you feel this, my friend? Do you feel it in your bones. If you do, then simply act in the line of duty with a purifying force of conscience flowing through your veins, and justice will follow – safety will follow – order will follow. You can’t maintain the law, for you are the law – you can’t maintain order, for you are the order – so put on the uniform and be what you are supposed to be – the vanguard of society. The law and order within you will outpour into the society through your duty, once you become one with your duty. So, be one with your duty – be one with the society – be one with the people – and all will be well.



When a burning sense of duty flows through the veins of a police officer like blood, it turns the very word police into an emblem of hope – an emblem of righteousness – an emblem of integrity, dignity and morality. Be an officer my friend, an officer with the guts to do right to the right and right to the wrong. Knowing what’s wrong changes nothing, what does is our action to make things right. And remember, politics is not your business – bureaucracy is not your business – corporate interest is not your business – in this whole wide world, your interest is only one – and that is, protection of the people. Mark this my friend, a COP means Caretaker Of People – not of the selfish and authoritarian interests of politicians and bureaucrats.

The Human Hymn

I am the Vedanta, I am the Bible,
I am the Quran, I am the God Cell.
I am the Torah, I am the Suttas,
I am the Hadith, I am Humanitas.

I am the Son, I am Jehovah,
I am the Qi, I am Bismillah.
I am the Vivek, I am the Ananda,
I am the Bodhi, I am the Sattva.

I am the Sat, I am the Shri,
I am Akaal, I am Brahmasmi.
I am the Prophet, I am Aminah,
I am the Mother, I am the Krishna.

I am the Beginning, I am the Anth,
I am the Journey, I am Ananth.
I am Creation, I am the Ravager,
I am Qayamat, I am the Creator.

What is Science

People often assume that science is only about empirical research - that it's merely about facts and figures, which happens to be nowhere near the truth. Facts are the fundamental building blocks of science, but bringing those facts together to have an insight of a certain phenomenon requires a rational, conscientious and creative mind. It's only through rigorous analysis and observation, as well as, creative contemplation, of the empirical evidence, i.e. facts, discovered through decades of research, that we can understand a certain phenomenon. Science cannot exist without empirical evidence, but evidence alone can't take science ahead and upwards, for that, we need some rather naïve and conscientious minds who can pierce through the evidence in order to have a practical insight of the big picture of a certain phenomenon. In short, there's more to science than facts and figures. Think of facts and figures as bricks and cement, and science or scientific understanding as a building. Without the vision of the architect, it's impossible to construct the building no matter how much bricks and cement you have.