“Science is about ‘truth’, in that it is an attempt to explain what is, ie, come up with the best explanation that fits the facts. Truth does not equal ‘proof’. A theory can be viewed as true even if not ‘proved’.”
Check out cm’s homepage and then take it up with him and the folks at caltech.
“Truth: This is a word best avoided entirely in physics [and science] except when placed in quotes, or with careful qualification. Its colloquial use has so many shades of meaning from ‘it seems to be correct’ to the absolute truths claimed by religion, that it’s use causes nothing but misunderstanding. Someone once said “Science seeks proximate (approximate) truths.” Others speak of provisional or tentative truths. Certainly science claims no final or absolute truths. “
Source (http://spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/jarrett/LiU/resource/misused_glossary.html).
“Someone once said “Science seeks proximate (approximate) truths.” “
Yes, well what’s wrong with that understanding?
The point is that ‘proof’, ‘certainty’, ‘absolute truth’, etc. don’t comport well with a framework that is more about coming up ‘here is the closest explanation for reality that we can come up with now, and tomorrow we may have a better one’, which is what scientific ‘truth’ is all about.
I believe in something more dangerous than evolution. I believe in Quantum Mechanics.