On Jun1, Bert Massie said:
> 2. "Everyone who knows anything about this subject knows what the right answer
> is."
>
> 3. "This theory cannot be wrong because you have not offered an alternative
> (read naturalistic or theistic) theory to replace it."
>
> 4. "My (read pastor or scientist) said this was true."
>
> 5. "What are you going to believe, God or godless scientists."
>
> 6. "This is true because most scientists believe it."
>
> 7. "Well, this is clearly explained by (read God of the gaps or science of the
> Gaps.)"
Thanks, Bert for your additions. I would like to anecdotalize about item 4:
My Major prof* at Berkeley always said: " In a scientific argument, you should never
quote authorities. You are a scientist, you should refer to the relevant data, and
argue from that." But later in life, when he came up with the Impact theory of the
extinction of the dinosaurs, he freely quoted the results/opinions of Chemists,
Astronomers, Geologists, and Paleontologists in advancing his claims. And of course
the reason that he did this is that he was dealing with events that required the
expertise of people in many other disciplines than his field, Physics.
The same applies to most of the things us guys/gals talk about. We are way beyond
our expertise but we think we have enuf understanding of other fields of inquiry
that we can use their findings. Otherwise there's not much to talk about on this
scientific List. So hey, we better be judicious but it's ok to stick your neck out
here. It won't usually be chopped off.
*Luis Alvarez, who with geolgist son Walter, investigated the K-T event
All God's Best, Larry
"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set
eternity in the hearts of men" - - Ecclesiastes 3:11, NIV trans
================================================
Lawrence H. Johnston 917 E. 8th st.
professor of physics, emeritus Moscow, Id 83843
University of Idaho (208) 882-2765
http://www.uidaho.edu/~johnston/ =====================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jun 01 2000 - 14:31:59 EDT