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From: padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Religious/Scientific Theories
Message-ID: <34@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 3-Apr-85 19:30:46 EST
Article-I.D.: utastro.34
Posted: Wed Apr  3 19:30:46 1985
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Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
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Ken Arndt asked
>Could someone please explain (Ethan??) the difference between a 
>"Religious theory" and a "Scientific theory"????

Some criteria for determining whether a theory is scientific or not are:

a) Logical criteria:
  1) Simple and unifying
  2) logically consistent internally,
  3) logically falsifiable,
  4) clearly limited by explicitly stated boundary conditions.

b) empirical criteria:
  1) must be testable, empirically
  2) make verified predictions and/or retrodictions
  3) concern reproducible results
  4) provide criteria for interpreting data as facts, artifacts,
     anomalies, or as irrelevant.

This list is not exhaustive, and is taken from an article by
Robert Root-Bernstein in "Science and Creationism".

> I see only more or less 'evidence' for one theory over another - religious or
> scientific!  


Indeed it is correct to point out that they are both theories, it's kind
of like saying that cats and dogs are mammals. However, one doesn't
enter a cat in the dog show, and vice versa :-)	.

Padraig Houlahan.