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Climbing For Christ Australia 9-May-2010 At 7:16:27 PM Hendo

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On 9/05/2010 patto wrote:
>Why is there a requirement for "THE" scientific method and more than there
>is a requirement for "THE" economic method or "THE" religious method.

Because people often talk about science in a naïve way and see it as a gold standard. Scientific knowledge is not the result of pure logic and reason, independent of politics, religious ideas, social acceptance etc etc. It is very dynamic and uses all sorts of different approaches and has influences like any other human activity.

My day job is science and it is the same mind doing that as writing these posts…that has got to make you think twice :P ha.

If people are curious about science or consider that they believe in science, Google philosophy of science + scientific method and I’m sure you will find something interesting, most importantly that the ‘scientific method’, the demarcation between science and non science, doesn’t really exist, at least not in the form many people (including scientists) would naively expect.

On 9/05/2010 rodw wrote:
>Sorry hendo intellegent design has nothing to do with science...

Many scientists in the past and present, including many of the greatest names, (perhaps even a majority?), have been motivated by exploring and understanding what they believe to be a universe created by an intelligent being. From this perspective it is relevant. What is currently considered intelligent design is a permutation on this, similar approaches have their place in the history of science.

I think the creationist trump card is to say that the universe was created ~4000 years ago (or whatever) with a history, it only appears to have this long, long past/other point of creation etc. For example, the dinosaurs never lived, they were created as fossils. I’m not sure it is possible to argue with that aside from Occam’s Razor type ideas. It seems to be a choice to believe one way or the other.

I think the Abrahamic religions need intervention by God, a stumbling block I have come across is the idea that humans have evolved from ape like ancestors. At what point do you have a mother and father ape without a soul having a child that is human with a soul? It seems to me you need an Adam and Eve point of creation here. Though it is interesting to note that in Genesis there are other humans around. After Cain kills Abel and is ejected from Eden he is worried about others killing him, so God gives him a protective mark.

>"The failure to follow the procedures of scientific discourse

Scientific discourse? What many people consider constitutes scientific discourse is not based upon a universally accepted, clearly defined concept of science. See the point above.

>To even entertain it as scientific theory is absurd...

Have you met Galilean relativity, Special Relativity, Quantum Mechanics, String Theory? Science has a tendency to appear absurd until it becomes part of the furniture, and sometimes still after.