The acquisition of knowledge, throughout human history, is the result of interrogations of nature (mostly through experimentation, but sometimes through just thinking).
In this course we have discussed the cultural conditions that hindered progress in science as well as societal conditions that promoted good scientific methods and progress. Science can not be divorced from its cultural context, but the values of science may not necessarily transition to culture or at least that transition is difficult.
This is basically a mirror of the certainty vs uncertainty conflict.
In turn, this dialogue with nature is done through measurements and hypothesis formation. This is a highly imperfect process as measurements are uncertain and error prone. The new field of quauntum mechanics operationalizes the measurement problem and shows its pervasive. This raises disturbing issues about the nature of reality.
Thus, at any given time, our knowledge about any subject is highly incomplete.
So why, at anytime
in history, does the culture/civilization think they are correct?
The acquisition of knowledge:
abduction: the process of inference to the best explanation 
The soup is "knowledge soup" 
fluid, lumpy, with
chunks that float in and out of awareness.
What you believe "science" to be is the process illustrated above that produces The Answer .
Now that would be magic!
Instead, the process is more like the following:
A testable prediction is made which then adds to the soup of knowledge. Either the theory is completely wrong, or its partially correct and we move on.
The Theory is never completely correct or provides a complete explanation. This is the essential difference between Science and Religion; religion supplies a complete (and certain) explanation .
The key to understanding the interaction between science and culture is to recognize and appreciate
the vital role of measurements in constructing a knowledge pathway. That makes it different from a belief system, which requires no data or measurements to substanitate it.
Constructing a knowledge pathway using data is stressful, difficult and
undertain. The
only tool we have available to us is measurement and guessing to produce
a consistent model.
Well
that's what knowledge is! however, it requires
enlightenment to recognize this and humility to accept that this is all that knowledge can ever be and said knowledge is therefore always in a fragile state.
And, scientifically, most of our knowledge has come to us either accidentally or by noticing the anamoly.
Hence: Enlightentment and Humility are required traits for the succesful generation and transmission of reliable knowledge rather than legend, bias, fantasy, and belief.
Which world does humanity want to live in? One that is based on belief that is then projected on to the natural world to support that belief (this is the BIAS) or one where knowledge and scientific knowledge is used to enable, on a planet wide scale, the enlighentment motto that all men are created equal .