"John Mazor" wrote in
news:96cgj.955$hS.113@trnddc08:


"Bob Noel" wrote in message
...

The way I look at it is that science can be useful for trying to
explain and predict the real world around us. For hundreds of years
Newtonian physics provided a pretty good model of the real world and
useful for making predictions about how things would work.
Scientific evidence today shows that Newtonian physics is incomplete
for certain environments. Who knows what other limitations of our
understanding exist?

The limits to our understanding are infinite - which is precisely why
the scientific method never claims to have discovered "the unalterable
truth" on any matter. It compiles evidence and tries to make sense of
it with hypotheses leading to structured theory sets. Whenever a
scientist says "here's the science" he's essentially betting on the
best horse in the running (or horses, if there are convincing
alternate theories in the race). Because of Occam's Razor, science
doesn't like to bet on the long shots, such as the possibility of ID.
Many horses can be - and eventually will be - knocked out of the
running, but that doesn't mean that at any given moment there won't be
an acknowledged front-runner in a race that never will reach a finish
line.

Your Newtonian example is frequently used in an attempt to undermine
the theory of evolution, but it's just a version of requiring science
to prove a negative. "Science was mistaken about Newtonian mechanics
governing all motion, so now prove that its rejection of ID isn't also
wrong." Using that same principle, I can posit that we are surrounded
by invisible aliens from Zygorthia who are getting their kicks by
being responsible for everything bad that happens on earth (including
TWA800, for those of you who remember that set-to with the conspiracy
theorists). The alternate or null theory, that they don't exist, is
well supported by hypotheses and data, so it supports a rejection of
my theory. But science can never disprove my theory. After all, they
may really be there and we just haven't discovered the means to detect
them yet, just as "ID is/may be true, we just haven't yet discovered
the means to prove it".

For anyone who demands that ID be taught in science classes, I demand
equal billing for my theory that Zygorthians, and not the devil, are
responsible for all the evil in the world.



Infidel. The Flying Spaghetti monster is the one true god. The
Zygorthians are not in the loose canon and therfore do not exist.


RAmen


Bertie