On Sep 7, 2007, at 11:30 AM, Simon Jester wrote:
Well, I suppose you could call biology a sort of soft science- there
are just way too many variables and unknowns when dealing with living
things.
? Science *deals* with the unknown - otherwise there would be no need
for experimentation and discovery... so I'm baffled by the suggestion
that because any given field deals with unknowns, it cannot be
considered a 'science'.
I meant that with living things we have very little understanding of
how it works, and what is controllable, in the sense of controlled
experiment. Like in chemistry, you try to change one perameter and see
what happens. Then check the next thing. and so on. Like Edison finding
the best filament for his bulbs- it can be very tedious, even with
materials whose qualities are known. When you get into the study of
living things, it turns into much more of an art, and in great drs it
seems that instinct developed over years of practice is invaluable. I
am not sure how one could classify the subtle realm like that. I had a
master herbalist from Vietnam, who read my pulse and knew about a
congenital heart murmer, just from putting his fingers on my arm, he
was an expert. It is possible that such things might be classed as a
science given enough knowledge, but for now from my point of view it
looks like magic. I doubt that it is really magic, this is the natural
world and everything must follow the laws of nature, but I sure don't
know those particular ones.
Medicine I would definitely call a religion. I intend no offense to
anyone here, especially those who may be MD's. This is my opinion
based on my experiences with the doctors here.
The 'practice' of 'modern medicine' is definitely not a science - it
is a commercial endeavor. Many 'Doctors' would be more appropriately
be called 'Pharmaceutical Salesmen'... but this is changing. More and
more doctors are learning about traditional medicine (ala
Hippocrates)...
The absolutely wonderful things about science is that we learn.
Nothing is written in stone, it is not dogma, it is a field of study.
That depends entirely on the 'scientist' in question... the
'scientists' that persecuted Galileo were practicing dogma, not
science.
got an example about the chemistry?
Heh - not off the top of my head, but suggesting otherwise would mean
that the vast body of knowledge that makes up the science of chemistry
just occurred spontaneously... ;)
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