> Charles Brown wrote:
>
> Ravi,
>
> How about this as a fairly strong ,universal ,scientific truth: all
> humans are born of the union of an "egg" and a "sperm" ?
Examples don't count by themselves in this sort of a discussion. And your example, I think, is an example of why non-scientists should be very careful in selecting/constructing scientific examples.
In this discussion by "science" we mean the disciplines that emerged in the last few centuries after the work of Newton, Boyle, et al. It was known for many thousands of years before that that pregnancy resulted form intercourse. Now I don't myself know just when "eggs" were discovered and their function identified. I doubt that you do. Now I suspect it was the result of modern physiology and genetics, and if so your example is an example of a discovery of science specifically and not just of human thought and experience in general. But before you use it you had better find out and be prepared to tell us when that specific discovery was made and under what circumstances.
Now the radical skepticism that ravi is practicing is sufficient to deny _any_ claim to knowledge, scientific, pre-scientific, what have you. And the best answer usually to radical skepticism is not Dr. Johnson's stone but merely changing the subject. It is not worth arguing because nothing follows from it.
Carrol