[MD] Science and belief

[David M]

Hi DMB

Try Karl Popper as a starting point, no theory
can be confirmed by evidence due to the
problem of induction, only falsified. I am not
saying this is conclusive but do you even understand
this basic argument?

David M


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "david buchanan" <dmbuchanan at hotmail.com>
To: <moq_discuss at moqtalk.org>
Sent: Sunday, January 07, 2007 5:50 PM
Subject: Re: [MD] Science and belief


> David M said:
> ... science is full of concepts, metaphors, analogies, abstractions, that
> are tools for 'making things happen' as a recent award winning book on
> science of that title says. ..As science is a created/creative human 
> project
> it is full of ideas, assumptions, metaphors, etc, that in no sense derive
> from the reality they are used to describe and control. Scientists believe
> in them because they have proved to have their uses, they work, but they
> cannot be confirmed by experiment.
>
> dmb replied:
> Dave, you're not making sense. If the metaphors and concepts of science 
> are
> good for making things happen, then what sense does it make to say they 
> are
> not derived from the reality where those things happen? If the have been
> proved by their uses and they work, then what sense does it make to say 
> they
> have not been confirmed? Where did you get the idea that proven usefulness
> does NOT constitute confirmation? I mean, what more "proof" do we need? If
> the wave analogy works to organize the data in a useful way, then its a 
> good
> idea. I realize that at a certain level its usefulness begins to break 
> down,
> but that doesn't alter the success it had in other areas. Anyway, this is
> just another example of the same bogus criticism...
>
> If there is no such thing as perfect proof or absolute truth then its a 
> bit
> ridiculous to criticize sceince for falling short of them, you know? Its
> kind of a pointless point made against a straw man and its really getting
> boring. This is the sort of argument that the fundamentalists use all the
> time, by the way. I mean, I've heard this line of attack from them all my
> life. Its one of their standard talking points.
>
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