From: John Burgeson (burgythree@hotmail.com)
Date: Fri Dec 20 2002 - 11:36:53 EST
Lucian wrote: "I think the problem here is different understanding of what
the word science means. "
I agree. As a matter of fact the various definitions of science will be a
focus item in the five week SS class I'll be teaching starting the first
Sunday in January at Montview Blvd Pres Church here in Denver.
Among the definitions offered to spark our discussions (the class will be
20% lecture and 80% discussions) are the following (still draft form).
Comments and additions to this material cheerfully accepted. Most of the
quotations include a citation; some, as yet, do not and may be paraphrases.
III SCIENCE
Many argue there is no adequate, satisfactory definition of science (even
when narrowing the definition to the natural sciences). E.g., see
Morelandís Christianity and the Nature of Science: A Philosophical
Investigation. Grand Rapids: Baker Book House, 1989.
ìScientism is a scientific worldview that encompasses natural explanations
for all phenomena, eschews supernatural ans paranormal speculations, and
embraces empiricism and reason as the twin pillars of a philosophy of life
appropriate for an age of Science Ö cosmology and evolutionary theory ask
the ultimate origin questions that have traditionally been the province of
relgionÖ .î Michael Shermer, Scientific American, June 2002, p. 35.
In Webster's 1828 dictionary science is defined as: "SCIENCE, [from the
Latin scientia, from scio, to know.]
1. In a general sense, knowledge, or certain knowledge; the
comprehension or
understanding of truth
or facts by the mind. The science of God must be perfect.
2. In philosophy, a collection of the general principles or leading truths
relating to any subject. Pure
science, as the mathematics, is built on self-evident
truths, but the term science is also applied to
other subjects founded on generally acknowledged truths, as
metaphysics; or on experiment or
observation, as chemistry and natural philosophy; or even to
the assemblage of the general
principles of an art, as the science of agriculture; the
science of navigation. Arts relate to practice,
as painting and sculpture. A principle in science is a rule
in art. Playfair.
3. Art derived from precepts or built on principles.
Science perfects genius. Dryden.
Any art or species of knowledge. No science doth make known
the first principles on which it
buildeth. Hooker.
4 One of the seven liberal branches of knowledge, viz, grammar,
logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry,
astronomy and music. Bailey, Johnson
A scientist's verse: Psalm 27:4 -- "One thing have I desired of the Lord,
that I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the
days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in his
Temple."
Science ñ doing oneís best with oneís mind ñ no holds barred. ñ Bridgman
ìScience is a systematic method of continuing investigation, based on
observation, hypothesis, testing, measurement, experimentation, and theory
building, which leads to more adequate explanations of natural phenomena.î
ñ adopted in 2002 by the Ohio State Board of Education..
It is clear that science is not in contact with ultimate reality, but that
it is describing the waves, and not the ocean.
Trap of ìnothing butteryî thinking. (to be expanded)
A definition of Intelligent Design by Angus Menuge, which opens his essay
for a volume on ID and Darwinism that Bill Dembski is editing with Michael
Ruse:
"Intelligent Design (ID) argues that intelligent causes are capable of
leaving empirically detectable marks in the natural world. Aspiring to be a
scientific research program, ID purports to study the effects of intelligent
causes in biology and cosmology. It claims that the best explanation for at
least some of the appearance of design in nature is that this design is
actual. Specifically, certain kinds of complex information found in the
natural world are said to point convincingly to the work of an intelligent
agency. Yet for many scientists, any appearance of design in
nature ultimately derives from the interplay of undirected natural forces.
What's more, ID flies in the face of the methodological naturalism (MN) that
prevails throughout so much of science. According to MN, although
scientists are entitled to religious beliefs and can entertain supernatural
entities in their off-time, within science proper they need to proceed as if
only natural causes are operative."
There are many lessons to be learned from science. #1 is humility. ñ I. Rabi
Nature abhors a vacuum. So does science. A theory continues to be viewed as
authoritative until (and unless) supplanted by another theory. Theories do
not purport to describe ìtruth,î but only a model of truth, always
tentative. ñ subject to modification, change or a complete discard.
The universe is not only queerer than we imagine, it is queerer than we can
imagine. -- Haldane
The work of Science is to substitute FACTS for appearances. - Ruskin, 1853
"Science is a hierarchy of causal explanations characterized by increasing
generalizations, quantifications, and mathematical simplicity arrived at by
an inductive-deductive process characterized by isolation, control and
repeatability."
Three types of science:
Measurement science. Experiment and run repeatedly. Physics, chemistry,
some medicine, some biology
Observational science. Regular events but little or no
control. Astronomy,
meteorology, ecology.
Historical science. Events and processes in the past.
Geology, archeology,
origins, etc.
Natural science is a disciplined and systematic human activity that includes
observation, measurement, experimentation, theory formulation and theory
evaluation. Activity in any one of these categories is likely to stimulate
fruitful action in the others. The goal of the natural sciences is to
understand what our physical universe is like, how it functions, and how it
got to be the way it now is. To that end the sciences seek to craft theories
that give an adequate/satisfying account of what can be observed
(qualitative) and measured (quantitative) in our world.
Given this concept of the natural sciences, the formulation and evaluation
of the Grand Evolutionary Theory on the basis of what can now be observed
and/or measured falls well within the scientific domain. Howard Van Till
Science is the human attempt to understand the predictable, reproducible
aspects of nature, with nature defined as that part of the physical universe
with which we can interact.
Science may be regarded as a minimal problem consisting of the complete
presentation of facts with the least expenditure of thought. --Ernst Mach,
as quoted in Wilsonís ON HUMAN NATURE
The purpose of science is not to open the door to everlasting wisdom, but to
set a limit on everlasting error. -- Bertold Brecht
"When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in
numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when
you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and
unsatisfactory kind; it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have
scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science." - Lord
Kelvin
>From the point of view of the physicist, a theory of matter is a policy,
rather than a creed; its object is to connect or coordinate apparently
diverse phenomena, and above all to suggest, stimulate and direct
experiment. J. J. Thompson, 1907
Science is built up of facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of
facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house. -- Poincare'
In the end, Einstein came to embrace the view which many, and perhaps he,
himself, thought earlier he had eliminated from physics in his 1905 paper on
relativity theory: that there exists an external, objective, physical
reality which we may hope to grasp - not directly, empirically, or
logically, or with fullest certainty, but at least by an intuitive leap -
one that is only guided by experience of the totality of sensible "facts".
Events take place in a real world, of which the space-time world of sensory
experience, and even the world of multidimensional coninua, are useful
conceptions, but no more than that . . . Einstein . . . preferred to call
his theory not "relativity theory", but the opposite: Invariantentheorie. It
is unfortunate that this splendid, accurate term did not come into current
usage, for it might well have prevented the abuse of relativity theory in
many fields. - Gerald Holton, Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought,
Harvard, 197
It is an interesting question whether biology is physics writ large in the
sense in which chemistry is certainly physics writ large. ñ John
Polkinghorne
One lasting product (of contemporary science) is the grand idea that the
entire universe is governed by a few simple laws and that these laws are
within human understanding. Leo Kadanoff, 1986
At the highest level of mathematical sophistication, beyond numbers and
relationships, are theories. The device for putting them into words is
analogy, the very essence of scientific popularization. Physicists are
comfortable with analogy because in some sense their whole enterprise, the
modeling of nature by means of mathematical constructs, is analogical. --
Hans Christian von Baeyer, 1986
As a scientist, I share the credo of my colleagues: I believe that a factual
reality exists and that science, though often in an obtuse and erratic
manner, can learn about it. -- Gould, THE MISMEASURE OF MAN, p 22, 1981.
"The scientist is by profession a map-maker; and like other map-makers he is
pledged to allow his own particular values to distort as little as possible
the representation he makes of the state of affairs. 'Whether I like it or
not, or you like it or not, that's the way it is as far as I can see.' In
this sense, he strives to make scientific knowledge 'value-free.' His maps
are meant to be reliable guides to other people, of whose values he knows
nothing; so 'scientific detachment' and 'depersonalization,' far from being
arbitrary eccentricities of the trade, are all part of his duty as an honest
craftsman.... His maps are not merely of observables but of correlations
between observables and (in due course) of interacting causal factors." -
Donald M. MacKay, PERSPECTIVES, Vol 38, # 2, June 1986.
Any understanding of the mechanisms of perception forces us to acknowledge
that we have no direct access to the world. Rather, our knowledge of it
consists of our perceptions and the inferences we draw from them.
- Tim Mead, 1986 (Platoís Cave concept)
Science, by definition, should reduce the description of more complex
phenomena to that of simpler ones. Niels Bohr, 1932
Science -- The human attempt to understand the predictable, reproducible
aspects of nature, with nature defined as that part of the physical universe
with which we can interact.
Science -- Investigations of the natural world based on the fundamental
principle of Ockham's (or Occamís) razor. This is a rule in science and
philosophy stating that entities should not be multiplied needlessly. It is
interpreted to mean that the simplest of two or more competing theories is
preferable and that an explanation for unknown phenomena should first be
attempted in terms of what is already known. Also called THE LAW OF
PARSIMONY. It was first formulated by William of Ockham (1285-1347)
"There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract quantum description.
It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is.
Physics concerns what we can say about Nature." -- Neils Bohr
"The conclusions reached by the scientific enterprise are determined not
merely by observations and experiments, but by the outcome of debates about
how to interpret observations and experiments, and such debates can be
influenced by a variety of factors (incl. politics, religion, personality,
various background beliefs, aesthetic commitments, etc)."
-- Allan Harvey
ìNatural science is a disciplined and systematic human activity that
includes observation, measurement, experimentation, theory formulation and
theory evaluation. Activity in any one of these categories is likely to
stimulate fruitful action in the others. The goal of the natural sciences is
to understand what our physical universe is like, how it functions, and how
it got to be the way it now is. To that end the sciences seek to craft
theories that give an adequate/satisfying account of what can be observed
(qualitative) and measured (quantitative) in our world.
Given this concept of the natural sciences, the formulation and evaluation
of the Grand Evolutionary Theory on the basis of what can now be observed
and/or measured falls well within the scientific domain.î -- Howard Van
Till
The physical continuum, and with it all the beautiful machinery of physics,
is myth. John Wheeler, 1988
"Nullis in verba" (Take nothing on faith) Royal Society of London, 1660
Five Science myths (from FRONTIERS OF ILLUSION:
1 Infinite benefits. More science = more public good.
2 Unfettered research. Any line equally likely to produce a good.
3 Accountability.
4 Authoritative. Objective basis to resolve political issues.
5 Endless frontier. New knowledge has no moral connection.
John W. Burgeson (Burgy)
www.burgy.50megs.com
>From: Lucien Carroll <ucarrl01@umail.ucsb.edu>
>To: asa@calvin.edu
>Subject: Re: Does the Bible teach a flat earth?
>Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2002 00:16:51 -0800
>
>I think the problem here is different understanding of what the word
>science means. I tend to look at a science as something one _does_, as
>it appears Michael does. But the word is also used to mean knowledge of
>the natural world, and sometimes merely potentially apprehensible
>knowledge as it appears you, Rich, mean. The two of you are talking
>about entirely different things, both called science.
>
>RFaussette@aol.com wrote:
> > In a message dated 12/19/02 1:16:46 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> > michael.andrea.r@ukonline.co.uk writes:
> >
> >> Science continually changes. I have nothing more to say. I am afraid
>to say
> >> that to look for science in the bible is the height of folly and
>reduces
> >> the Bible to drosnin's code.
> >
> > no - science does not change - your apprehension changes - maybe
>there's
> > something new out there you have not previously apprehended. I have
>nothing
> > more to say.
> > rich
> >
>
>
>--
>Lucien S Carroll ucarrl01@umail.ucsb.edu
>"All mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge."
>-Jeremiah 51:17a
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