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To: Sloth

" ... science is built on faith in the observations of others."

Actually, science is built on *skepticism* about the ability to replicate the observations of others. It is this healthy skepticism that accounts for progress in refining, and occasionally overturning, scientific theories of the past.


176 posted on 08/01/2005 1:19:56 PM PDT by riverdawg
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To: riverdawg
Actually, science is built on *skepticism* about the ability to replicate the observations of others. It is this healthy skepticism that accounts for progress in refining, and occasionally overturning, scientific theories of the past.

Sure. But at some point, you have to accept what's been done & build on it -- otherwise every scientist is re-inventing the wheel. And there is certainly faith across disciplines -- somebody specializing in quantum mechanics is not going to know much about botany themselves, but that doesn't mean they disbelieve what botanists say about plants until it's rigorously proven to them personally.

215 posted on 08/01/2005 2:02:17 PM PDT by Sloth (History's greatest monsters: Hitler, Stalin, Mao & Durbin)
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