[UA] Re: [UA]

[Kevin Mowery]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Nick Wedig" <mrteapot at disinfo.net>
To: <ua at lists.uchicago.edu>
Sent: Friday, June 15, 2001 8:57 AM
Subject: [UA] Re: [UA]


> >    Every night, do you worry that the sun might not rise tomorrow?  If
not,
> >you've made the same "leap of faith."  It'd be cool to be able to breathe
> >water, wouldn't it?  Try it.  Didn't work?  Maybe next time it will.
Keep
> >trying--it's just a numbers game.  Sure, no one else can wrap a blanket
> >around their shoulders and fly--but that's no evidence that *you* can't
do
> >it.
> >
> >    We couldn't function if we couldn't make that "leap of faith."  Being
> >able to spot that pattern is a pretty early developmental stage.
>
> All the examples you give are rather unfair.  It's quite possible to
function normally while recognizing the possibility that physical laws will
fail.  It's just also recongizing that the chances of this are rather slim
(though basically unmeasurable) and that constant testing known laws will do
little good.

    Yep.  It's called the scientific worldview.

> Once again, it's the difference between thinking an idea is likely ("I
think the sun will come up tomorrow, but have nothing more than prior
evidence, quite possibly fallible, to support this claim") and believing it
to be true ("I know the sun will come up")

    But scientists first accept that the sun has come up every day so far,
then find a theory that explains that.  Then there's more than just
observation to back it up, there's science.

    For some reason, people seem to be getting things backward.  I *believe*
that the sun will come up tomorrow because it's come up every day in
recorded history, and presumably every day that there was an earth, and
because the way the solar system is set up, something huge would have to
happen for it to not come up.

    However, as a scientist, I'm open to be proven wrong.  The whole "sun
coming up thing" is just the best theory we have based on prior experience,
physical evidence, and models of the universe.  The day that the sun moves
comes up in the west or fails to rise at all, that theory will have to be
re-evaluated.  Likewise, I'll believe in god the instant he knocks on my
door, says, "Hey, I exist," and turns water into wine.

    Reiterating: it's possible to prove a scientific theory wrong.  All that
needs to happen is for something to defy explanation by that theory.  It's
impossible to prove faith wrong.


Kevin Mowery_____________ kemowery at earthlink.net
Mad science comics updated daily at www.narbonic.com
>
> Mr. Teapot
> quite possibly fallible
>
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