Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!samsung!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!wuarchive!udel!princeton!njin!paul.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: ut-emx!bill@emx.utexas.edu (Bill Jefferys) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: There is no God... Message-ID: Date: 26 Nov 90 01:19:50 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: The University of Texas at Austin; Austin, Texas Lines: 37 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article viusys!unislc!sch@uunet.uu.net (Stephen C. Heath) writes: # #There's no scientific truth then either!!!!!!!!!!! # #BECAUSE -- The scientific methods is founded on two "unprovable" #assumptions. # #1) The laws of the universe are everywhere the same and #2) The laws of the universe have always been the same. # #Both declare that any "truth" arrivied at by the scientific #method cannot be proved true. As a scientist, I must object to these statements. The picture they paint about science is false and misleading. While it is true that we cannot prove that (1) and (2) are true, it is a fact that if (1) and (2) were NOT true of our universe, then it would be impossible to conduct science, because we would not be able to make the correct and consistent predictions that are at the heart of science. This would falsify the assumption that there are universal laws. Natural science is an inductive process, not a deductive process. Science cannot declare that its conclusions are true, only that they are the best explanations of the data that are available at any given time. Science makes no claims concerning anything that is outside of or not part of our universe. Thus, for example, although some scientists may claim that God does not exist, science itself cannot make such a claim. Bill Jefferys -- If you meet the Buddha on the net, put him in your kill file --Robert Firth