CapnG
Devil's Advocate
Rick Deckard said:Scientists don't "know" anything. They have theories, models and equations that *seem* to offer an acceptable explanation of observable phenomena.
That's crap. You can wander down the "Well, what do we really KNOW about ANYTHING?" path if you choose. As far as I'm concerned there's a bottom line, a solid foundation of absolute truths, even if we don't properly understand them. Also the term "theory" gets alot of bad press. Our current understanding of gravity is a "theory" but that doesn't mean if I decide I don't believe it I will suddenly float away.
Rick Deckard said:The problem with scientists is that if they can't boil something down to a set of equations or re-create it in a lab they don't want to deal with it - they assume that everything can be explained by scientific method alone. I think that offers a very narrow view of the world.
Well then that's the ego of the scientist, not the fault of science itself. Science is the business of being wrong, after all. Most experiments fail, it's a system of trial and error (with the emphasis on error). You have to eliminate countless "wrongs" before you hit a "right". If you can't find a "right" it doesn't follow that there ISN'T one, however, it just means our level of scientific understanding and methods simply isn't far enough along to find it yet.
Rick Deckard said:There's religion at one end and science at the other - I suspect the 'answer to everything' is somewhere in between. Until the *zealots* in both camps realize that, we're never gonna get the full picture.
I don't think there's an "answer to everything". Why would there be? Each individual question will have it's own answer somewhere along that line.
Rick Deckard said:What next in this 'discussion' - Occam's Razor?
Occam's Razor is overrated, since it assumes we all work from a baseline of logic. Suppose you have a mental condition that impedes your brain's logic centers, what then? Even without going that far, what's logic to you could be nonsense to me. It doesn't wash.