[UA] "I believes in Science!"

[Greg Stolze]

>"In the limited time at my disposal, I endeavoured to respond in
>kind, pointing out that science does *not* claim to have all the answers,
>and it is religion, not science, that depends essentially on absolute faith
>and conviction that the truth is known. 'I don't *believe* anything', I
>said, and was about to expand on this philosophy when the program came to en
>end."

What's interesting -- if you read Thomas Kuhn and study the history of
science fromt he right perspective -- is that although the scientific
method is, in theory ABSOLUTELY UNCERTAIN, there is still TREMENDOUS
resistance to ideas that challenge what Kuhn would call the "dominant
paradigm."

Science can only, EVER, say "The current theory that best fits the observed
facts is [...]."  Fill in the blanks with whatever fits.  Evolution.
Heliocentrism.  Superstring theory.  And these current theories WORK --
they usually work fairly well even when they later turn out to be "wrong."

(Terrocentric models of the solar system could, and DID, provide more
accurate predictions of celestial events than Galileo's heliocentric model
for decades, until Kepler [Kepler?  I think it was Kepler.] came along with
the idea of elliptical orbits instead of circular ones.  And let me add, in
passing, that the idea of circular orbits started out as a religious idea
-- as did the idea of elliptical orbits.  In fact, the only purely
scientific inspiration for a model of planetary paths would be the loathed
and despised epicycles.  Hm...)

In theory, science and faith have nothing to do with one another.  But in
the historical record, they're frequently jumping over the back yard fence
for a quickie when no one's looking.

-G.

If the reinstatement of capital punishment was clearly doing nothing to
reduce the number of murders in those states permitting it, it certainly
appeared to be cutting down on the number of confessions.
        -Dr. Douglas Ubelaker

www.waylay.com
www.thehungersite.com



_______________________________________________
UA mailing list
UA at lists.uchicago.edu
http://lists.uchicago.edu/mailman/listinfo/ua