[MD] Faith

[ian glendinning]

Gene, You've shifted the ground from evidence to proof, which is
another matter, but ....

I completely agree with your sentiment about scientists who live in
glass houses throwing stones at the "faithful" behind their stained
glass windows. We're all in the same boat - I'm looking for the
(excluded) middle ground here, not getting caught in the ritual
stoning. (Somebody gimme a Python / Life of Brian quote please.)

The only point I would add is that the metaphysical foundations of the
axioms may seem little more than faith, but a scientist sees and
places a lot of evidential value in) the consistent explanatory whole
(consilience to use my word of the month) derived on top of such
axioms too. The elegant beauty of structures built on these counts for
a lot in both churches.

Ian