[lbo-talk] Appeal to Ignorance

Jim Devine jdevine03 at gmail.com
Sun Jun 12 08:00:51 PDT 2005


J writes: > science certainly makes claims about "truth", "facts", and the like, but that is very different from saying that science makes religious claims . . . even if we agree that religion also makes claims about "truth".


> if you're going to say that science makes religious claims, you need to be clear what you mean by both terms. no?<

Though the principle is not always put into practice, the scientist's "truth" (a conclusion from an experiment, etc.) is nothing but a new hypothesis that can (and should) be tested and can (and should) be subject to skepticism. There is no _final_ truth in science. There is reality out there, but a serious scientist assumes that we can only approach understanding that reality rather than attaining a complete and full and totally accurate understandng of it. (Worse, scientists know that sometimes this marginal movement toward understanding could be moving toward being stuck in a cul-de-sac.)

Religion, as I understand it, claims to know the final truth about some basic things. "We know there's a god (after all, my revelation tells me so) but he or she moves in mysterious ways." JD



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