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| Certainty in Science | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: May 23 2009, 10:21 PM (270 Views) | |
| Deleted User | May 23 2009, 10:21 PM Post #1 |
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Mike, you argued science makes statements with certainty. Here's how uncertain science is, reported fairly accurately I think: Life on earth may have started 4.4billion years ago, according to asteroid study
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| ngc1514 | May 23 2009, 10:56 PM Post #2 |
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The "certainty" in science resides only in the minds least attuned to science. Even stating "The sun will rise tomorrow" is assigned a degree of probabilistic uncertainty. While we may be sure that the chances of tomorrow's sunrise (no, it doesn't rise... we all know that) is highly probably, it is not assigned a probability of 1.0 because science knows that a day will come when the sun doesn't rise. It might (although the probability is low) go nova in before dinner today or (probability even lower, but not reaching 0.0) be swallowed up by a passing black hole. Science does not deal in certainty which is why every good scientific number is accompanied by error bars. From the Wiki article on the Age of the Earth:
It's that "± 1%" that moves it from dogmatic certainty (like that found in religion) to science. |
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| Deleted User | May 24 2009, 12:32 AM Post #3 |
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Another creationist misunderstanding of probability is their arguments the universe is so complex it is improbable to have emerged and evolved without a creator. Yet, regardless the minuteness of that improbability, it allows for the possibility. |
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| ngc1514 | May 24 2009, 08:23 PM Post #4 |
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The universe, taken as a whole, is surprisingly uncomplex. A bit of hydrogen and some gravity is, apparently, all that's needed to get the stars going and the galaxies built. Complexity comes with those wonderful self-replicating organic molecules - DNA. Arguing complexity as a basis for a creator is a bit odd. One might expect the creator to be more complex that the creation, so we are back to the First Cause, if complexity needs a creator, who created god? |
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| Deleted User | May 24 2009, 09:48 PM Post #5 |
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Exactly, but creationists aren't that logical. |
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| ngc1514 | May 24 2009, 10:58 PM Post #6 |
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Well.. THAT'S a given, isn't it? |
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