Steve C:
Hi Betvan
>n your earlier quote, you said that "Science is the process of observation
>and accurate measurements." When questioned whether this was sufficient to
>define science you altered your definition and said that science is "an
>attempt to describe reality". In the first case your definition is based
>on method and in the second it is based on subject matter (reality).
Bertvan:
Hi Steve,
We might be able to agree on a definition of science, but I'm not sure we'd
get everyone to agree. I'm not committed to any particular definition. I
rarely use the word evolution because what I specifically question is "random
mutation and natural selection as an explanation of macro evolution."
Awkward, but I do all I can to make my position clear.
Steve:
>Let's explore your second definition My question here is similar to the
>one I posed earlier. Is your second definition an adequate definition of
>science? If so, please explain whether you think that literature, art,
>philosophy, theology and metaphysics are science (don't they each attempt
>to describe reality?).
Bertvan:
Sure, I agree literature, art, etc., are attempts to describe reality. I
doubt you'd find many materialists who wouldn't insist the "truth" of such
descriptions are a level of several magnitudes less than science as they
define it.
Steve:
>As you will see from these questions, the demarcation between science and
>nonscience is tricky to describe. But this point of demarcation keeps
>coming up in the debate over evolution and ID. I think that it is
>important to clearly understand this issue and what one means by
>"science". It is interesting that many people here want to strictly define
>evolution before proceeding in the debate. I believe that it is more
>important to define science before proceeding.
Bertvan:
That would be one sure way to silence critics -- insist that they agree upon
a list of definitions before they are allowed to express skepticism. As I
have stated repeatedly, I am skeptical of "random mutation and natural
selection as an explanation of nature's complexity" - Darwinism!!! - no
matter how you define anything. And I heartily applaud physics for
attempting to move beyond materialism.
Bertvan
http://members.aol.com/bertvan
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Wed May 03 2000 - 15:21:53 EDT