Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

To: Coyoteman

Science always backs up what it PROVES, not what it claims.

Don’t pick on creationists, their science fits their model just as well as yours.


5 posted on 01/09/2009 7:38:31 PM PST by BillT (Socialism = Equal Poverty for ALL)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies ]


To: BillT
Science always backs up what it PROVES, not what it claims.

Don’t pick on creationists, their science fits their model just as well as yours.

Science deals with evidence and theories. It allows you to examine two competing ideas and determine which, if either, is the more likely. It can falsify, but not prove, theories.

When compared with real science, creation "science" has done very poorly. It is essentially religious apologetics, whose aim is to support scripture and revelation no matter what the evidence might show. In this, it is the opposite of science, which must go where the data leads.

And just for your information, proof is not a part of science. Science deals with data and theories.

Here are a couple of definitions from my FR home page that might help explain this concept:

Theory: a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world; an organized system of accepted knowledge that applies in a variety of circumstances to explain a specific set of phenomena; theories can incorporate facts and laws and tested hypotheses. Theories do not grow up to be laws. Theories explain laws.

Theory: A scientifically testable general principle or body of principles offered to explain observed phenomena. In scientific usage, a theory is distinct from a hypothesis (or conjecture) that is proposed to explain previously observed phenomena. For a hypothesis to rise to the level of theory, it must predict the existence of new phenomena that are subsequently observed. A theory can be overturned if new phenomena are observed that directly contradict the theory. [Source]

When a scientific theory has a long history of being supported by verifiable evidence, it is appropriate to speak about "acceptance" of (not "belief" in) the theory; or we can say that we have "confidence" (not "faith") in the theory. It is the dependence on verifiable data and the capability of testing that distinguish scientific theories from matters of faith.

Proof: Except for math and geometry, there is little that is actually proved. Even well-established scientific theories can't be conclusively proved, because--at least in principle--a counter-example might be discovered. Scientific theories are always accepted provisionally, and are regarded as reliable only because they are supported (not proved) by the verifiable facts they purport to explain and by the predictions which they successfully make. All scientific theories are subject to revision (or even rejection) if new data are discovered which necessitates this.

Proof: A term from logic and mathematics describing an argument from premise to conclusion using strictly logical principles. In mathematics, theorems or propositions are established by logical arguments from a set of axioms, the process of establishing a theorem being called a proof.

The colloquial meaning of "proof" causes lots of problems in physics discussion and is best avoided. Since mathematics is such an important part of physics, the mathematician's meaning of proof should be the only one we use. Also, we often ask students in upper level courses to do proofs of certain theorems of mathematical physics, and we are not asking for experimental demonstration!

So, in a laboratory report, we should not say "We proved Newton's law" Rather say, "Today we demonstrated (or verified) the validity of Newton's law in the particular case of..." Source


7 posted on 01/09/2009 7:57:52 PM PST by Coyoteman (Religious belief does not constitute scientific evidence, nor does it convey scientific knowledge.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

To: BillT
Don’t pick on creationists, their science fits their model just as well as yours.

Umm, what science?

17 posted on 01/09/2009 8:56:12 PM PST by Strategerist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson