RE: agreeing about a mere creation?

On Thu, 28 Jul 2005, Richard Fischer wrote:

> So you want to open Pandora's box just a tiny bit? Okay, just put the
> caveat "God willing" after every scientific principle and law. I'm sure
> that will satisfy scientists everywhere. All conclusions reached on every
> scientific experiment will carry a tentatative label because you never know
> when some supernatural event tainted the results.

  Actually, results of every scientific experiment already carry several
similar implicit caveats.

 "... assuming random effects didn't randomly throw off the results by
          several standard deviations."
 "... assuming some unknown uncontrolled variable did not also
          have a significant effect."
 "... assuming the scientist(s) used the equipment and read the
          results properly."
 "... assuming some outside factor or person wasn't deliberately
          manipulationg the results."

... and many more you could think of.

  So, yes, "... God willing" is yet another phrase already implicitly
attached to any scientific finding, under the "Ceteris Paribus" heading.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceteris_paribus)

Loren Haarsma
Received on Thu Jul 28 13:29:19 2005