(no subject)

Gregory wrote: "Let me then repeat that MN is a pseudo-philosophy, a
justification for saying (natural) science can't study the
supra-natural."

While I understand how some might view MN that way, I do not. MN is an
underlying assumption (in physics anyway) which confines experiments and
theories to natural causation. That's all. It does NOT say science cannot
study the supranatural -- it simply says that scientists (again, I
confine my remarks to physics) cannot include non-natural causation in
the discourse. At least not as a scientist. Outside science, one is free
to make claims and arguments of any kind.

When I was a physicist with the Navy Mine Defense Lab (a lot of years
ago) I studied underwater pressure/magnetic/sound effects of ships
passing overhead. Sometimes the readings we got were unexplainable. We
used to joke that God was messing with us, presumably because we were
devising engines of war. Now a scientist not wedded to MN might have
taken such talk seriously. We did not.

Let me take it seriously -- just for a minute. Our experiments are being
bollixed by God. Why? The only reasons I can think of are three. (1) God
is just playing practical jokes (2) God is trying to mess up our work
because it is evil. (3) The devil is messing with us for reasons unknown.

Neither of these three explanations work. None of them, even if true,
suggests anything we should do. The first suggests a frivolous god. The
second suggests a god who is pretty inept. The third ... .

So I repeat. MN is just a way of doing business, if one is a physicist.
Physics is about verisimilitude, not "truth."

Burgy

Recent changes to www.burgy.50megs.com:
Added August, 2007:
My review of AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH, by Al Gore
My review of THE GOD EFFECT, by Brian Clegg
My review of CREATION AND THE COURTS, by Norman Geisler
My review of THE MIGHTY AND THE ALMIGHTY, by Madeline Albright
My review of LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME, by James Loewen
My reviews of LONGITUDES AND ATTITUDES and OFF CAMERA by Thomas Friedman
and Ted Koppel

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Received on Tue Jul 24 13:39:58 2007