Pedant mode again. You are right though, this is what is at the heart of the religion vs science debate, one sets itself up to be knocked down whilst the other defends itself at all cost.
true that... my brain feels a lil squishy over the whole thread tbh.. thought i was up to it but..... gunna sleep ok i know that much.. :Banghead: i prefer the brainless thread jacking stuff. and motorcycles
I did watch the first program this evening with SWMBO and we both came to the same conclusion, wasn't science poorly taught compared to this guy. Great program. Well worth regularly watching. Some of the implications are beyond mind boggling.
Couldn't find that thread so I created it for you... left off the motorcycles bit though so as not to confuse.
I find quantum physics fasinating.I do however find myself questioning some of it.Yes it can all be "proven" with a page of hierogliphics/maths but my feeble brain just cant cope with it all.The last time I remember feeling a little short changed by some boffin was when they were measuring some galaxy or other ,after the aforementioned maths they discovered an answer they didnt expect.So,they concluded there must be an additional "something"there.Dark matter.You cant see it or detect it,but it IS there,maths said so.
10/12 I know. I was at least as surprised as you. I suppose I even remember some of the books I have read on the subject. Mind you, if I took it again, there is no guarantee I'd do as well. And the first question is written in American. I wasn't entirely sure what it meant.
Dark matter and dark energy are extremely cool. Either maths is leading us to a truth we wouldn't have found out about otherwise, or they made a mistake somewhere. But many people will have done the calculations...
A score of 2 on the Quantam Physics tests, but did try one of the other ones and found I was a lesbian. Which is nice.
Dark energy and dark matter are postulations to explain the maths. So in this case, yes, they are hypotheses and nothing more - a working idea. Unlike most other things, they haven't been observed so the jury is still out. It's not a question of blind faith; it's a question of keeping an open mind on the matter until there is some sort of evidence which proves their existence or a better hypothesis is found. I suppose, if you want the religion analogy, that you could keep an open mind about God in the same way. Well, you could. What you can't very well do is keep an open mind about conflictual belief systems: either one is right and the others wrong, or they are all wrong. They can't all be right. And dark matter and dark energy haven't had entire books written about them, setting out their doings with the exhortation to follow them slavishly. But enough already! (don't you just love this Jewish expression?)
Pete - two points... I accept your premise that there is a difference between "faith" and "belief" - could we agree to a compromise on this one, and say that "faith is the belief in the unproven" (not necessarily the untrue) ? Secondly; as you accept that science does not know and cannot expalin everything, and you accept that there are (a few) intelligent, educated people who, despite all the scientific evidence shown to them, still believe in god or some other higher being or force - can you not accept that there is the teeniest, tiniest chance that they may be right ? Surely, with everything that even the most intelligent and highly educated brains on earth cannot explain, entirely ruling out the existance of a god (however unlikely it may appear) as a possible explanation is actually an unscientific way of thinking ?
