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DetlefK

(16,480 posts)
34. Not provable/disprovable for science, but who says it's the only way?
Sun Mar 24, 2019, 07:10 AM
Mar 2019

The scientific method is at its core pragmatism: Whatever works is accepted as truth until it no longer works. The scientific method does not show us "truth". It shows us the best-possible guess what the truth is, working with nothing more than the limited and error-riddled information we finite beings have.

Do you know how the scientific method came to be? Evolution. Science combined occult experimentalism with mathematics and it survived where other methods (such as hermetic magic) had failed because it was capable of producing practical results.

Up until the Middle-Ages the evolutionary pressure was that a world-view must provide a stable society, and that's why religion ruled supreme since the ancient days. Then the zeitgeist and the evolutionary pressure changed and now a world-view was supposed to provide practical results. And that's why science replaced religion as the dominant world-view.





There are other methods. Flat-Earthers love the zetetic method. It's related to the scientific method but considered better because it's not "mainstream-science". But it has a barely visible yet massive math-error in its structure. Therefore the zetetic method's logic is simply invalid.

Goedel made a mathematical proof that a supreme "good" must exist, however his proof contained lots of unrealistic assumptions, such as the world being clearly divisible into good and evil.





As for belief... I don't trust belief. A logical conclusion derived via belief always depends on the subjective entity who made that proof.





EDIT: It is possible that there is a method out there that is structurally capable to allow for a finite being like us to prove/disprove an infinite being like God, but we don't know that method.

Recommendations

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Pandering shit gets pandering shit prize. enki23 Mar 2019 #1
I agree with the professor!❤ Karadeniz Mar 2019 #2
About what, exactly? Mariana Mar 2019 #5
I think the professor's point is that one can't be certain of deitys nonexitence, so atheism Karadeniz Mar 2019 #20
Atheism does not require certainty. Mariana Mar 2019 #21
How many theists do you know allow for the possibility that god does not exist? Major Nikon Mar 2019 #23
I can't be CERTAIN that Zeus, Posiden, Thor, etc. DON'T exist? Really? bitterross Mar 2019 #29
Whether they understand physics.. I dunno, uriel1972 Mar 2019 #3
He sees atheism incorrectly. Perhaps some new glasses? MineralMan Mar 2019 #4
Who defines what atheists are? guillaumeb Mar 2019 #8
Certainly not you. Act_of_Reparation Mar 2019 #10
Each atheist defines it for him or herself. MineralMan Mar 2019 #11
So that shows his claim that atheists in general "believe in non-belief" is wrong muriel_volestrangler Mar 2019 #24
He is a physicist. And.... guillaumeb Mar 2019 #25
I thought the "Professor of Natural Philosophy" title refered to philosophy muriel_volestrangler Mar 2019 #28
You mean the same Templeton Foundation thas has ties to the Cato Instutute... Act_of_Reparation Mar 2019 #6
He said: guillaumeb Mar 2019 #7
Yes, he said something stupid. Act_of_Reparation Mar 2019 #9
Well, he's full of crap, then, if he said that. MineralMan Mar 2019 #12
Nice company the Templeton Foundation keeps, eh? MineralMan Mar 2019 #13
The Templeton Prize is not only bullshit edhopper Mar 2019 #14
It's telling. Act_of_Reparation Mar 2019 #15
Any port in a storm. MineralMan Mar 2019 #16
A short interview of Marcelo Gleiser by Scientific American. Jim__ Mar 2019 #17
Thank you for the link. I wil lread it later. eom guillaumeb Mar 2019 #19
... Major Nikon Mar 2019 #18
That gif is a workhorse Lordquinton Mar 2019 #22
He writes on this blog.. full text mitch96 Mar 2019 #26
I read the first page. guillaumeb Mar 2019 #27
Finally someone said it. Atheism is not compatible with science: DetlefK Mar 2019 #30
One can be a scientist, guillaumeb Mar 2019 #32
Not provable/disprovable for science, but who says it's the only way? DetlefK Mar 2019 #34
Claims about a deity can be disproven Lordquinton Mar 2019 #35
Meh Templeton Loki Liesmith Mar 2019 #31
Understood. eom guillaumeb Mar 2019 #33
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