Warp wrote:
>   Maybe you could argue that science makes the *assumption* that measurements
> correspond to reality, but as long as there's no evidence of the contrary,
> there's no reason to think otherwise. Someone could argue this *is* faith.

I think what makes it faith is the behavior in the face of contradictions to 
what one has faith in.

The behavior when showing a religious person things that tend to contradict 
their faith is generally denial and looking for some way to show you've 
misinterpreted their holy works or some such. The classic example is if you 
show someone where the bible says God is evil, they will tell you that 
you're misinterpreting the bible.

If you tell a scientist that you have measurements that don't match theory, 
the first assumption is that you measured incorrectly. The second assumption 
is that the theory is wrong. I don't think there's ever an assumption that 
reality is conspiring against you.

>   Well, hypotheses are not necessarily taken for fact in science. It's
> hypothesized that humans aren't the first intelligent life form in the
> Universe. However, it's just that: A hypothesis. 

Sure. Those were just examples of the kind of "what are we missing" ideas. 
Nobody says "Well, it's settled, we're the only intelligent life forms, 
unless we find evidence otherwise." Instead, it's almost always "we're 
pretty sure they're out there, we just don't know why we aren't seeing them."

I think scientists are willing to be proved wrong about a lot of stuff. But 
I think there's a handful of things that regardless of the amount of 
evidence, scientists will believe they're doing science wrong rather than 
admit they are stumped.  For example, if physical laws vary, I don't believe 
scientists would ever stop looking for a rule by which they can determine 
how it varies. I don't think they'll ever stop looking for a way to unify GR 
and QM. It's just taken on faith that there's one set of rules that apply to 
everything.

-- 
Darren New, San Diego CA, USA (PST)
   Yes, we're traveling together,
   but to different destinations.

Post a reply to this message