Re: [asa] Science's Blind Spot: The Unseen Religion of Scientific Naturalism

Both for natural and social sciences, there is the question of "what
is this approach competent to handle" as well as "what possibilities
do we think may exist". Thus, one may think that the Great Awakening
was prompted by God, yet not be able to find a good way of analyzing
this aspect within sociology or other social science field. Natural
science can work with regular patterns, regardless of whether they are
caused by supernatural or natural causes (for example, the claim "I
can bend spoons psychically"), but theologically God doesn't work like
a magic formula at our beck and call. Most of the daily running of
the universe confirms to the regular patterns that we try to describe
with natural laws; the distinctive working of God is entirely outside
this. Another example comes from history. Only in hindsight aided by
spiritual insight tells us how God is working history to His goals-we
can't tell what will come next, though it shouldn't take much
intelligence to suggest, e.g., some likely troubles over the next
several decades.

Another illustration of this comes from a Journal of Irreproducible
Results article claiming to be testing angels versus rats for lab use.
 Angels went through the walls of mazes, weren't intersted in chow,
and generally weren't amenable to research.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
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