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To: Coyoteman
Rom 1:22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

You seem to have a problem separating your realities. Science in its pure form deals in facts. Scientists have a political reality to deal with, as well as a crushing cast system.

You proclaim all things you believe to be scientific fact, because you are a scientist, cool, that means you can never be wrong.

39 posted on 01/10/2009 4:38:29 PM PST by itsahoot (We will have world government. Whether by conquest or consent. Looks like that question is answered)
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To: itsahoot
You seem to have a problem separating your realities. Science in its pure form deals in facts. Scientists have a political reality to deal with, as well as a crushing cast system.

You have a severe misunderstanding of what science is.

This is the way Heinlein addressed this exact problem:

Piling up facts is not science--science is facts-and-theories. Facts alone have limited use and lack meaning: a valid theory organizes them into far greater usefulness.

A powerful theory not only embraces old facts and new but also discloses unsuspected facts.

Expanded Universe: The New Worlds of Robert A. Heinlein, 1980, pp. 480-481

You proclaim all things you believe to be scientific fact, because you are a scientist, cool, that means you can never be wrong.

As far as "proclaim[ing] all things you believe to be scientific fact" -- I'm afraid you have it exactly backwards.

A fact can be defined as "an observation confirmed repeatedly and by many independent and competent observers." Because of this repeated confirmation, facts are accorded a great deal of confidence in science.

Hypotheses and theories then attempt to explain those facts.

Nowhere does "belief" enter into this process. And nowhere does science proclaim our data or theories to be "TRUTH" -- that is left for religion.

Rather, scientific theories are the current best explanations for a particular set of facts. Those theories must explain the facts, and must not be contradicted by any applicable facts. And over time, as new data arises, those theories are subject to modification or falsification.

That is why we don't claim that status of "truth" or "TRVTH" for our theories. And that is a significant way in which science differs from religions, which generally do claim "truth" or "TRVTH" for their beliefs.

40 posted on 01/10/2009 5:19:56 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
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