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From: padraig@utastro.UUCP (Padraig Houlahan)
Newsgroups: net.origins
Subject: Re: Faith, Induction, and all of that.
Message-ID: <162@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 31-May-85 02:34:11 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.162
Posted: Fri May 31 02:34:11 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 1-Jun-85 13:52:06 EDT
References: <275@cmu-cs-gandalf.ARPA>
Organization: U. Texas, Astronomy, Austin, TX
Lines: 32

> A long time ago, a philosopher named Hume came up with this problem.  The
> problem of INDUCTION.  Science, as we all know, (since Newton anyway),
> relies on induction in its quest for the "truth".  We see it everywhere.
> For example, Newton saw that the his laws of gravity  seemed to hold on the
> earth, and on the moon, and around the solar system, so he makes an
> inductive leap and says, "here we have the UNIVERSAL law of gravitation."
> How can he make this leap?  He can't, but he did, and it worked.  In fact,
> it seems that induction does work well, seeing where science has gone to
> these days, but you have to believe in it to do science.  And HERE is where
> faith in science is.  Faith in science is faith in the fact that induction
> works, and that you can really determine how nature works through
> observation.  In fact, even to believe that induction works because it
> always has involves believing in induction.  Hence, there seems no way
> around it.  
> 
> Pete

You have correctly identified induction as being crucial to science.
That scientists accept induction as a working hypothesis, on the basis
of experience goes without question, however it is seriously inaccurate
to confuse this with the religious concept of faith, which involves
accepting something as being true without being able to substantiate
it in an objective fashion. Now I know that the scientist cannot verify
induction, but the practice of adopting it as a working hypothesis 
gains reliability each time it is invoked successfully. 
Religious faith, on the other hand, requires
acceptance of something without regard as to  whether it can be demonstrated
to be true, or not. This kind of attitude is very far removed from
the adopting of a hypothesis that is based on observation, which is the case
with science.

Padraig Houlahan.