Re: Did they do good science Re: [asa] Was Adam a real person?

> Now wait a moment. I grew up in Africa and some of the observations etc we biology types call science were equally good to ours. And If I remember isn't there a system called geometry we still teach that was developed by Euclid.
>
> Of course they got it wrong at the cellular level because they didn't have the instruments but don't sell some of these chaps short.
>
> I think Kuhn might just say that some of them were doing science.

> > I respond: Sigh. No, it's just anachronistic to call what the Babylonians
> > and ancient Hebrews were doing "science." Take a look at John Walton's book
> > "Ancient Near Eastern Thought and the Old Testament." It is a completely
> > foreign mindset to our contemporary scientific worldview.

Are we talking about the overall set of beliefs, etc., or individual
actions in particular situations? I would say that anyone might do
science in a particular situation, but the specific practice of
science as such is a more modern and primarily Western development.

For example, the additions to Daniel describe a hypothesis and
experiment-the envious advisors claim that Darius put Daniel in a den
of lions that weren't hungry, and Darius tests this by putting them in
the den. Hypothesis failed the test. However, Darius did not
systematically investigate feline physiology.

-- 
Dr. David Campbell
425 Scientific Collections
University of Alabama
"I think of my happy condition, surrounded by acres of clams"
To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@calvin.edu with
"unsubscribe asa" (no quotes) as the body of the message.