>> Related to testibility is repeatibility. To be considered valid science, a
>> claim should be testable by anyone who has the appropriate equipment and
>> repeats the conditions under which the phenomenon is claimed to occur. The
>> supernatural is excluded because it is assumed to be nonrepeatible.
>
>It isn't per se repeatability, it's more a matter of the test being
>verifiable.
>If it is a lab experiment, it should be repeatable. If
>it is a field observation, someone else should be able to verify it.
Agreed.
>The supernatural isn't excluded because it is nonrepeatable, it is
>excluded because we cannot demonstrate that it exists in the first
>place. It is excluded for the same reason ESP, Atlantis and UFOs are
>excluded from mainstream science, because these things simply are not
>shown to exist and hence, we cannot be making hypotheses based on
>them.
Here I want to quibble a bit. It's true we can't demonstrate the existence
of the supernatural -- scientifically anyway, but for some of us the
existence of the supernatural doesn't require scientific demonstration. We
_are_ convinced it exists. But still I don't consider the supernatural a
legitimate subject of investigation, because the supernatural is not
mechanism but personality and will. As such it may or may not choose to
cooperate in experiments and observations.
>
I wrote
>> Walter, if you claim a supernatural occurrence -- an act of God, say -- is
>> testable, are you not implicitly claiming that it is possible for an
>> experimenter to establish conditions under which God will do something,
>> predictably? And doesn't that amount to claiming that under these
>> conditions it is possible for a human experimenter to control God, however
>> slightly?
>
Brian responded
>And since God hasn't been terribly willing to sit down and perform
>under lab conditions, God will continue to be excluded from science,
>like it or not. Otherwise, why can't we claim that Allah or Vishnu
>or Enki or a whole host of other deities aren't really out there and
>responsibility for the universe? They don't sit still for science
>experiments either.
>
if they exist (Vishnu, Enki...other deities)
Bill Hamilton | Vehicle Systems Research
GM R&D Center | Warren, MI 48090-9055
810 986 1474 (voice) | 810 986 3003 (FAX)
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