Re: [asa] lock-picking tools

> But being "discovered by a failure" is a bit of a self-contradiction, isn't
> it? It's like saying that I can discover that an indeterminately long road
> has no road-blocks because I walked along it for a ways and found none.
> My failure to discover one doesn't establish the non-existence of any
> roadblocks because I could always walk farther. Given that the entire
> "domain-space" of possible scientific inquiries qualifies as an
> "indeterminately long road", failure is inconclusive on this.

Yes, though the metaphor would depend on whether one is critiquing ID
or anti-ID overconfidence-ID tends to assert that any apparent
roadblock is absolutely impassable; scientism claims a priori that any
roadblock is only apparent.

Although existing ID formulas are unpersuasive, I would not a priori
rule out the possibility that some situation could be found in which
scientific data were available about a situation in which ordinary
operation of natural laws truly fails, as far as we can tell. (One
might argue that this is actually the case for Biblical miracles-e.g.,
we have plenty of data indicating that dead people stay dead).
However, I would be inclined to suggest that the scientific verdict is
"inexplicable" and the design inference in such a case is resonable
but outside of science.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.