[MD] Metaphysics

[markhsmit]

On Jan 16, 2010, at 10:51:09 AM, Krimel <Krimel at Krimel.com> wrote:
As a scientist you no doubt know that it is wrong for either scientists or
the public at large to take scientific knowledge as anything other than a
best guess. It is true that often confidence in the quality of scientific
guesses can lead to over confidence and appear to some as arrogance. But in
the realm of science that arrogance can be rapidly dispelled at any moment
by some new data or some new way of thinking about the data we already have.
Yes, paradigm shifts are met with all manner of resistance. But they do
happen. In faith based belief systems we almost never hear about paradigm
shifts or for than matter have any means of affecting them. 

[Mark]
I could go on, of course, on the ways in which science manipulates, but I'm
sure you are aware of these.  It is nothing nefarious (usually), but just
the result of a deep faith in science.

[Krimel]
I am happy to acknowledge a degree of faith in science. I have said so, many
times in the past. But I would like to point out that much of that "faith"
is in the self correcting nature of the ongoing pursuit of science and not
in any particular scientific claim. Science does not claim to yield a final
truth that cannot be questioned or challenged. In fact it demands quite the
opposite.

I agree with you Krimel, in terms of the self correcting nature of science.  However,
this does not happen very quickly, and in the mean time the current version
of science is accepted as truth, not conjecture.  Scientists are people with all
the flaws.  Science as an institution is therefore misguided, often for personal
gain.  And why not, as a living it is not different from being a lawyer, arguing
your point, trying to convince others that you are right.  While science may not
claim to yield a final truth, such a claim is lost on the non-scientist.  Science is
used by politicians in the same way that God is used by the Church.  It is
used for justification of action, as though it were a higher truth, for the imparting
of restrictions which are deemed to be necessary to uphold that higher truth.
Now pure science is another thing, but it is hard to make a living there.

All I ask is that it is seen for what it is, a temporary set of agreed upon
rules, that will be totally different in 100 years.  We only experience
reality through one body, that will all change once we understand
it.

Mark