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Author Topic:   What is beyond the reach of science?
nwr
Member
Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 7 of 13 (573947)
08-13-2010 8:58 AM
Reply to: Message 1 by Dogmafood
08-11-2010 10:54 PM


Dogmafood writes:
He said " Watch out for the true believers, they are always blind to something." I always thought that he was referring to the vehement theists but I am wondering if it doesnt apply in a more general sense.
Yes, "true believer" is often used in a non-theistic sense. It is used to refer to people who seem absolutely committed to a particular view, and seem completely immune to any evidence to the contrary. For example, it is used to refer to some people who believe that the Twin Towers of the trade center were actually taken down by explosives set up on the inside, presumably by the US government. Such people are usually called "conspiracy theorists" because they see massive conspiracies everywhere. But when their arguing style shows that they will ignore all evidence that disagrees with them, they are called "true believers".
You can google "true believer" (with the quotes) for more information.
Dogmafood writes:
Clear as a bell I hear his voice saying "Hey, dont do that".
These sorts of incidents do occur. I think most psychologists would say that it is your mind playing tricks on you. That is, the events evoked some old memories.
I'm inclined to think that might well be the explanation. However, such events are rare and sporadic, so hard to investigate.
Dogmafood writes:
Is my 'faith' in the scientific method blinding me to something?
You should not be depending on faith here. The scientific method works mainly because it is based on skeptical observation, rather than faith.
Dogmafood writes:
Is there anything beyond the grasp of the scientific method?
There are certainly questions that science has not yet settled, and perhaps may never settle. The mandate for science is to investigate what it can, and follow the evidence. There's no requirement that it answer everything.
Should I eat steak or chicken tonight? Now there's a simple question which is outside the province of science.

This message is a reply to:
 Message 1 by Dogmafood, posted 08-11-2010 10:54 PM Dogmafood has replied

Replies to this message:
 Message 8 by Dogmafood, posted 08-13-2010 10:11 AM nwr has replied

  
nwr
Member
Posts: 6409
From: Geneva, Illinois
Joined: 08-08-2005
Member Rating: 5.3


Message 11 of 13 (573973)
08-13-2010 10:58 AM
Reply to: Message 8 by Dogmafood
08-13-2010 10:11 AM


Dogmafood writes:
I understand that we dont have all of the answers yet but are we not on the road to omniscience?
No, we are not on that road. I'm inclined to think that the idea of omniscience is merely a myth, anyway.
Dogmafood writes:
If I could prove that there was a quantity but that it was unknowable isnt this injurious to the scientific method?
We know that the ratio is a quantity, but we also know that we cannot find the exact decimal expansion by scientific or mathematical means. This does not seem to pose any problem for science or for mathematics.
(I'm not sure if latex support is broken. Preview is not working for this post. I'll try submitting as a post and see what happens.)
This is what happened on submission:
Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, admin@evcforum.net and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.
I am disabling the latex, to try again.
Latex is working now - the text and background colors are incorrect, but that will have to wait. --Admin
Edited by Admin, : Correction.
Edited by Admin, : Rerender after latex fix.

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 Message 8 by Dogmafood, posted 08-13-2010 10:11 AM Dogmafood has not replied

  
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