Post
Topic
Board Politics & Society
Re: 22 Messages From Creationists To People Who Believe In Evolution
by
Peter Lambert
on 28/02/2014, 19:08:39 UTC

Whoa. I'm not even religious, and I'm certainly not interested in frivolous theories.

I hope you understand that the scientific method carries certain untestable assumptions, e.g. we live in a positivistic universe, that have been proven false for literally thousands of years.

Let me ask you this: If you have a set of empirical data that appears a certain way, but a logical or mathematical proof indicates that your interpretation of the data is flawed, would you dismiss the proof because it is non-empirical?

The introduction of philosophy may render a theory unscientific, but in no way does it imply it is worse.  The scientific method is *not* the highest standard for knowledge as it owes an extremely large debt to philosophy and mathematics.

I am not saying you are religious, just that the way you are describing this sounds religious rather than scientific.

I'll try to answer: If I have a set of empirical data which I interpret a certain way, and a logical or mathematical proof indicates that my interpretation is flawed, I would not dismiss the proof I would examine the analysis and try to find a new analysis which fits both the empirical evidence and the mathematical proof. Thus is the scientific method: generate empirical evidence, check to see if it agrees with the theory, if they do not agree then you adjust the theory.