Posted on 06/17/2002 3:10:50 AM PDT by PatrickHenry
One example of "intuition" is Einstein's theory of relativity. It was theory, not proven until years later (parts of it are still being "proven").
There is a lot of creativity and intuition in persuing pure science. Theories are imagination, and then it takes imagination to test the theory.
The idea that things can be measured and that laws of nature are universal are assumptions based on "divine revealation".
The 12th century philosophers who began science assumed that the universe was logical because God was logical. Because God was logical, then man, using his logic, was doing the work of God when he explored the universe. So you could say that the entire field of science is based on a "divine revealation" that nature is not a mysterious god to be worshipped, but a creation of a logical creator. And science assumes there is a logical explanation behind nature, because the original philosophy behind science, i.e. Christianity, assumed a logical creator who created things logically.
You know this is ad hominem (to the man) and therefore irrelevent. Evolution stands or falls on its own merits, not the motivation of its proponents. The same is true for proponents of "Intelligent Design." Of course their agenda is to prove God. So? ID stands or falls on the evidence they bring to the table. In that department they have a lot of work to do.
Pattern recognition. It is one of the characteristics that evolved into most of the higher animals. Humans can take it to abstract levels.
However, pattern recognition fails as often as it succeeds. Even Einstein produced flawed theories that he later scrapped. The validation of such an extrapolation relies on physical observations. Until it is validated by the normal materialistic routes of knowledge, it is a guess, a speculation -- and reviewing the history of guesses -- usually flawed, incomplete, or just dead wrong.
| You can't fold a solid rock. You most certainly can. |
Lecture 11 Structural Geology |
| CRETIGO: B (Personal Incredulity) | |
But why do you lay this at Darwin's feet? It is the purpose of science to find quantifiable explanations for natural phenomena. Back in Newton's day, people honestly believed that the planets moved in their courses because angels were pushing them around by hand. Newton came along and demonstrated that gravity was sufficient to explain all planetary motion, and as a result, Newton "banished God from the heavens themselves", as has been said. Why don't I see you railing against him? The distinction is political.
So OK, maybe the development of life is a series of divine miracles. But please don't call that science, and don't whine if science nevertheless tries to find rational explanations. That's what science is for. That's what science is. Calling something a supernatural miracle is a refusal to search for a rational explanation. It is a last resort after every possible rational explanation has been tried and disproven. It is a throwing up of the hands and an abdication of the goals and purposes of science.
That may seem to you like an appropriate response to the daunting complexities of life on Earth, but you are way out of line in chiding scientists for not feeling the same way. Science is what we do. Other people's belief systems can't be permitted to influence our research. The fact that basic biology offends your political sensibilities is of no more consequence than the offense some tribal shaman might take at the atomic theory of matter.
What is the Bible's valuation of pi?
Cordially,
| And he made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other: [it was] round all about, and his height [was] five cubits: and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about. |
1Ki 7:23 |
| CRETIGO: | |
They just hide their heads in the sand and ignore all evidence against their theory. As you will notice their posts are always 'factually deficient'.
Well, sort of shows the evolutionists outlook does it not? If the answer is God, even if it is true, it is false! I thought science was about discovering the truth of nature. If God is part of that nature then it is science, like it or not.
You know this is ad hominem (to the man) and therefore irrelevent.
No it is not irrelevant. It is imbued in the whole philosophy of evolution. Darwin was an atheist but deceitfully hid it from the world throughout his life. In other words, he was a liar. That may be an attack on his character, but it is not an ad hominem. It is a factually correct statement.
That's not always and everywhere true, but it's certainly true that being a Christian in a largely Christian society is easier than choosing some other path. It was easier to worship Jupiter in Rome around AD 100 than it was to be a Christian, and now the roles are reversed - it's easier to be a Christian than to be some other way in this society.That's not to say that people choose it because it's easier, but that most people never really choose it at all - it's simply handed to them by their parents and society, and the only conscious choice often comes in the form of a choice to reject it, rather than to embrace it.
The general leaves a lot out, i.e. all the people choosing Christianity to get away from the human sacrafice, cannibalism, headhunting, headshrinking, debauchery etc. etc. which went along with the older religions.
I saw an interview once with a Maori who noted that Christianity was the best thing that ever happened to Indonesia and Borneo. The guys grandfather had spent ten or twelve years in colonial prisons for taking heads, and he said nobody had ever gotten a decent night's sleep in the whole history of the place (either because they were out all night hunting neighbors heads or worrying about other people taking THEIR heads), and that after the area was Christianized, all of that stopped and it became possible to lead productive lives. Basically, a man had to take at least one human head before he was elligible for marriage.
I mean, who the hell wants to live that way? Why would anybody in ancient Rome want to live that way? The decision to become a Christian, once the opportunity presented itself, was probably the easiest decision anybody in Rome ever made.
Quite true, there are many things which science cannot know of. Materialism is one of the silliest philosophies around, it denies the possibility of intelligence, logic, art, mathematics, geometry, conscience and much more - just about everything which makes humans human.
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