Scientific Fact versus Interpretation

Excellent topic Faith!As a layman I understand your quandry. How do we decide what is fact and what is opinion or interpretation?Even though you didn't like Message 5 by Modulous, I think his approach as explained more in Message 80 is a good avenue to understanding how the scientists come to their conclusions and the way they present them which sound like fact to us.When I take a blood test, I assume the resulting numbers would be considered fact, but what do they mean? Someone has to interpret what the numbers mean.IMO, the easiest way to understand their position is to start with what we, as laymen, already accept as fact on a daily basis. Understanding how we ourselves speak of certain things as fact, can hopefully help us understand how and why they speak of certain things as fact from our viewpoint.You called them out here, so let's take advantage of the opportunity. As a layman who is not able to actually run any tests, how do I discern what is fact and what is opinion? This goes for geology, biology, medicine, etc. How can I tell whether the scientist speaking is one who knows what he is doing or one who doesn't know what he is doing.As laymen, we probably accept quite a few things as fact that technically aren't fact.I think it would be easier to understand if we got away from the actual science stuff you were presenting and deal on a generic level. Then maybe you can go back and apply it to what you consider fact and see how they got the interpretation.Personally, I don't understand the stuff you presented anyway.

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"Peshat is what I say and derash is what you say." --Nehama Leibowitz