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To: Condorman
"Pick one:"

Exclusivity cannot be supported only falsified. TRUE.

Any such instances in the future, if and when they occur, will serve to either support my assertion or falsify it. TRUE AGAIN.

Any instances of life being assembled from lifeless matter will either support my assertion (if the assembly is intelligently directed), or falsify my assertion (if a self organizing principle is discovered and demonstrated).

Exactly the way the exclusivity of the law of gravity is only falsifiable not supportable, my statement is true. You said it yourself. We can observe many instances of gravity working which supports that the law of gravity is true. But there is no way to support that it is exclusively true. We can only assume this until proved otherwise. The general statement is supportable, but exclusivity cannot be verified.

"assume we observe an instance of intelligence assembling life. How does that lend support?"

The same way instances of gravity working SUPPORTS the law of gravity.

"Going back in the thread, I posit that electrolysis of water is the only way to produce O2 gas. I set up an electrolysis rig and produce O2. What have I learned?"

Answered already. Until some other way is found, your assertion is true. But since it can also be a product of fusion, we must modify the assertion to merely state that electrolysis is a common way for oxygen to form. You might even say it is the most common. But your first assertion is no longer valid. Likewise, when any instance of self assembly occurs, my assertion will be falsified.

"Confirmation is different than proof. Validation for a single instance is not generalizable over a wide class of observations."

And where did I claim proof for my assertion? Further, I do not have even a single instance. If, however, multiple instances are observed, they can be generalized to support my assertion.

"Because Newton's Law has a wide population of observations from which to draw conclusions"

As I said, my assertion is supportable not supported. If we eventually have thousands of instances wherein life is intelligently assembled from lifeless matter, and we have no instances of life self assembling, will you be prepared to concede that your standard has been met?
3,266 posted on 01/27/2006 11:33:36 AM PST by unlearner (You will never come to know that which you do not know until you first know that you do not know it.)
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To: unlearner
Exclusivity cannot be supported only falsified. TRUE.
Any such instances in the future, if and when they occur, will serve to either support my assertion or falsify it. TRUE AGAIN.

Not remotely. Not until you remove the word "only" from your assertion. Intelligent assembly may be A way in which life can form. Human-created life will support that.

Exactly the way the exclusivity of the law of gravity is only falsifiable not supportable, my statement is true.

Gravity makes no exclusive statement. It is universally INCLUSIVE. Gravity deals with a property, not a process.

Until some other way is found, your assertion is true.

I disagree. Does the truth of a statement depend on the knowledge of the individual making the statement?

If we eventually have thousands of instances wherein life is intelligently assembled from lifeless matter, and we have no instances of life self assembling, will you be prepared to concede that your standard has been met?

It depends on the qualities of the created instances of life and the intelligences doing the creating. If we are attempting to learn something about the initial appearance of life on earth (as I assume we are), then at least one instance of creation should be performed by a non-earth-type intelligence. Would you agree?

3,276 posted on 01/27/2006 12:05:22 PM PST by Condorman (Prefer infinitely the company of those seeking the truth to those who believe they have found it.)
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