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Author Topic:   Another anti-evolution bill, Missouri 2012
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Message 139 of 283 (649365)
01-22-2012 8:14 PM
Reply to: Message 135 by marc9000
01-22-2012 6:30 PM


Re: summary
marc9000 writes:
The problem is, that process is governed by imperfect humans, and no, that’s not a projection of the fall from the Bible or anything like that, it’s a simple, secular fact that humans are imperfect, and I don’t’ think any serious evolutionist is going to point to any human organization that’s ever existed and claim that it’s perfect.
No serious scientist from any field is going to claim that science is perfect. Scientists understand completely that humans are fallible and make mistakes. That's the reason science requires repeatability as one of the hallmarks of science. Any individual person is subject to normal human foibles; ambition, confirmation bias, and even dishonesty. The idea behind repeatability is that if numerous different and independent researchers come to the same conclusions, that makes it more likely that the conclusion is accurate.
Science further accounts for the fallibility of humans by acknowledging that all scientific conclusions are tentative. Any theory can be overturned by new discoveries or a different theory that better explains the facts we already have. Einstein is not regarded as a genius just because he developed a revolutionary new scientific theory, but also because he overthrew what was at the time the singularly most successful scientific theory of all time, Newtonian mechanics.
The question underlying this topic is "What should be taught in science classes?" One would think that the obvious answer is that scientists should decide what is taught in science classes. They seem to be the best equipped to decide what is science and what isn't. Your answer seems to be that scientists shouldn't be allowed to determine what science is because humans are flawed. By that logic, we shouldn't allow any institution to make any decisions.

Ridicule is the only weapon which can be used against unintelligible propositions. -- Thomas Jefferson
We see monsters where science shows us windmills. -- Phat
It has always struck me as odd that fundies devote so much time and effort into trying to find a naturalistic explanation for their mythical flood, while looking for magical explanations for things that actually happened. -- Dr. Adequate
...creationists have a great way to detect fraud and it doesn't take 8 or 40 years or even a scientific degree to spot the fraud--'if it disagrees with the bible then it is wrong'.... -- archaeologist

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 Message 135 by marc9000, posted 01-22-2012 6:30 PM marc9000 has not replied

  
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