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To: albionin
albionin: "There is no such thing as scientific truth? Absolute Rubbish.
According to you then you can not prove your own existence by science.
Subjectivist codswallop."

Please. Don't make yourself angry over definitions of words like "truth".
The word "truth" is not normally used in science.

That's in part because the entire scientific enterprise begins with an unprovable assumption called "methodological naturalism", which means science can only seek physical causes for physical events.

So the various categories of science begin with observations, or data, which when repeatedly confirmed are called "facts" (not "truth").
Data can be related by mathematical "laws" (not "truth"), and attempts to explain how and why are called "hypotheses" or sometimes "educated guesses".
A scientific hypothesis which can be confirmed by making valid predictions is called a "theory" (not "truth").

So the word "truth" is, or at least should be, reserved for higher level discussions -- of metaphysical, supernatural, religious, ethical, aesthetical, etc. matters.

As for your obvious alarm over some alleged "subjectivist" notion, I don't see that at all.
My existence is not a matter of "proof", but rather is confirmed as a fact by daily, hourly, even moment by moment observations.

Those are all matters of definitions of scientific words, of which higher "truth" is not normally one.

80 posted on 11/21/2012 11:33:17 AM PST by BroJoeK (a little historical perspective....)
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To: BroJoeK

I only believe in one truth: That which exists. I don’t believe in a higher level truth or a material world and a spiritual world. There is only one existence. Science is the study of that which exists. So when you say to me there is no such thing as scientific truth I say what in the world do you think a fact is? Science deals with objective reality. What other means does man have of learning about reality other than observation?

I can totally understand your seeing a dichotomy between facts and truth since you are a subjectivist. I can also understand you not wanting me to get caught up in definitions since you are a subjectivist. The fact that you put the word truth in quotation marks is very telling and proves that you are a subjectivist. All truth is an objective absolute. There is no difference between the fact that 2 and 2 equals 4 and other “higher truths” whatever that means.


85 posted on 11/21/2012 2:55:49 PM PST by albionin
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