Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84 exptools; site ihlpg.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxt!houxm!ihnp4!ihlpg!tan
From: tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum)
Newsgroups: net.religion.jewish
Subject: Re: Proof of Outlandish Propositions
Message-ID: <1184@ihlpg.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 4-Sep-85 16:26:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: ihlpg.1184
Posted: Wed Sep  4 16:26:52 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 6-Sep-85 05:41:22 EDT
References: <293@mit-athena.UUCP> <3780079@csd2.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Bell Laboratories
Lines: 27

> [Martillo]
> I think Bill Tanenbaum is missing my point.  I am not questioning the
> efficacy of the assumptions which science make.  Also for  my question
> the success of science  as a method  of  relating to  the universe  is
> irrelevant.  I want a answer why the  assumptions  which science makes
> are so efficacious.  Who are what makes these good assumptions?  I  am
> asking a meta-scientific question and I  consider at best  a tautology
> the answer that these are good assumptions because they work.
> 
> Now if Bill Tanenbaum is telling me there are some questions  which I
> may ask and some which I may not,  this sounds like  some religions of
> which I have heard.
-----
I thought that your [Martillo's] point was that science, like religion,
rested on faith. I argued that the assumptions of science were
accepted by scientists because they work, not because of faith.
It does not require much faith on my part to believe that if
I cut my finger, I will bleed.  Belief in God does require faith.
The question you ask above is irrelevent to this argument.  It is
of interest to theologians and philosophers, and certainly to this
newsgroup.  You may certainly ask.
	It IS a tautology or a definition to say that these (scientific)
assumptions are good because they work.  However, it is the reason
I believe them.  I can believe them without knowing why they work,
or indeed, without knowing whether or not the why question is meaningful at all.
-- 
Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL  ihnp4!ihlpg!tan