> -----Original Message----- > From: Vivec [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 11:29 AM > To: CF-Community > Subject: Re: What Do Creationists Make Of This? > > It's illogical and impossible to try to prove : the ball falls to the > ground because God wants it to.
There are two clear principles that cover most of this area: +) Scientific claims MUST be falsifiable. In other words there must be a method (or at least the idea of a method) to test the claim. The claim that "Rocks have feelings that can't be detected, understood or examined by us" isn't falsifiable. It might be true, of course, but there's no way to test it. So it's outside the realm of science. +) Science cannot prove a negative; it can only adjust the probability. For example science can not "prove" that ESP doesn't exist. Instead it can test claims, examine evidence and construct experiments to show that there is no evidence of its existence. The more evidence there is the more _likely_ it is that ESP doesn't exist - but it can never be proven. This is often erroneously pounced upon by believers. They demand that science that prove that ESP doesn't exist. There's an idiot in Australia offering a million-dollar prize to anybody that can scientifically prove (to him) that there is no afterlife! When talking about this stuff it's really useful to have a good handle on the many logical fallacies that will invariably crop up. Here's some good references: http://www.fallacyfiles.org/index.html http://www.nizkor.org/features/fallacies/ You'll see these same conditions repeated over and over and over again. For example Michael Shermer recently caused a small brouhaha by comparing the arguments for evolution denial to the arguments for holocaust denial. It's amazingly interesting to see how many of essentially the same arguments are made. Of course what this means is that if you learn to recognize a fallacy in action you gain an almost instant "bullshit detector" for an enormously wide range of claims: scientific, political, social, etc. It's actually rather liberating. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:201714 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
