[TXnMA]

bb: "Not everything that exists can be directly 'observed and measured.' For instance, the physical laws themselves."

I'm not at all sure what you are saying there. All physical laws of which I am aware can, by using A-G's "unreasonable efficacy of mathematics", be "observed and demonstrated" with high precision, by treating one variable as an unknown to be calculated, and by observing and measuring the other variables.

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For example, the simple equation or relationship,

"R= V/I" or, by simple transposition into its alternate forms, "I=V/R" or "V=IR"

is known as "Ohm's Law".

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It can be "measured", (or derived) in all its alternate forms, by establishing a simple series battery and resistor circuit, and measuring (observing) the variables on the right -- and then, calculating the unknown on the left.

Furthermore, actual measurement of the unknown variable is always identical with the calculated value. It works, in all three forms -- every time it is repeated.

Unless your "Not everything that exists can be directly 'observed and measured.' specifies exclusion of the use of mathematics, I don't see how it can be valid.

But, "physical laws" are inherently mathematical. (Ohm's law is an equation.)

Are you saying that mathematical relationships (i.e. "physical laws" aka "equations") cannot be "directly observed and measured."?

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Are you being "overly 'philosophicky'", Dear Sister, or is this old physical scientist being overly dense?

What am I missing here?

¡No comprende...!

[TXnMA]

Obviously, I responded to your #312 without having read all the posts that followed it -- and addressed the very issue that I raised.

I suppose you would categorize me as a "Platonist".

My life has been filled with the "Joy of Discovery" -- and awe at the magnificence of the One proclaimed by His works that I was discovering!

[betty boop]

Are you being "overly 'philosophicky'", Dear Sister, or is this old physical scientist being overly dense?

Well, there is always that risk with me, dear brother in Christ LOL!!! Though I just try to be the best "generalist" I can be, the fact is my intellectual foundations were laid in ancient Greece — by the great pre-Socratics, e.g., Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Anaxagoras, Parmenides; and the great classical philosophers Socrates/Plato and Aristotle.

I do not believe you are being "overly dense" here.

The idea I was trying to get at was far better expressed here:

For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: [Romans 1:20]

The LOGOS of God is never a direct observable, nor can it be. It can only be seen in its effects.

I daresay this observation supports your own cosmological findings....

Thank you so very much for writing, dear brother in Christ!