Saturday, February 11, 2006
Is Science Logical?
Philosophy of Science:
This is a field of study that is little known but is very important The philosophical foundations of science are taken for granted within most of the scientific community, yet they are never (well rarely ever) explicitly taught and are therefore not questioned.
Logic as typically used by scientists
Deductive Reasoning
If A is true then B is true.
Premises A1: All bald men are handsome.
A2: Dan is bald
Conclusion B: Dan is handsome
Begin Atheists Web Reference (http://www.infidels.org/news/atheism/logic.html)
Implication in detail
"Clearly you can build a valid argument from true premises, and arrive at a true conclusion. You can also build a valid argument from false premises, and arrive at a false conclusion.
The tricky part is that you can start with false premises, proceed via valid inference, and reach true conclusion. For example:
Premise: All fish live in the ocean
Premise: Sea otters are fish
Conclusion: Therefore sea otters live in the ocean
There's one thing you can't do, though: start from true premises, proceed via valid deductive inference, and reach a false conclusion."
"So the fact that an argument is valid doesn't necessarily mean that its conclusion holds -- it may have started from false premises." End Atheists Web Reference
Fallacies [Something that looks logical but is not. Dan's Definition]
A common fallacy in science.
Begin Atheists Web Reference Affirmation of the consequent
"This fallacy is an argument of the form "A implies B, B is true, therefore A is true". To understand why it is a fallacy, examine the truth table for implication given earlier. Here's an example:
"If the universe had been created by a supernatural being, we would see order and organization everywhere. And we do see order, not randomness -- so it's clear that the universe had a creator." End Atheists Web Reference
An example of a this fallacy in Science:
If A1: All life evolved from a common ancestor
And A2: Organisms with a common ancestor will have similarity.
Then B: All organisms will be similar.
And we do see that all life forms are similar, therefore they all have a common ancestor.
This applies more directly to the use of experimentation in the scientific method.
A simplified picture of the scientific method.
1. Create a hypothesis (State a test premise)
2. Design an experiment to test the hypothesis. The experiment will apply the principles of the hypothesis and predict an outcome. The experiment must have a control group.
3. Prove (validate) the hypothesis by showing that the predicted outcome (conclusion) occurs.
Just because it works does not mean it is true.
Deductive Reasoning Summary
Deductive reasoning can disprove a premise if sound reasoning brings a false conclusion.
Deductive reasoning can validate but cannot prove a premise.
If deductive reasoning can only provide true conclusions if the premises are true and if deductive reasoning cannot prove the premise then:
Where do hypotheses come from?
Inductive Reasoning
Definition:
Induction - "Probable reasoning whose conclusion goes beyond what is formally contained in its premises." Garth Kemmerling, (http://www.philosophypages.com/dy/i9.htm#ind)
Induction - "A method of reasoning by which one infers a generalization from a series of instances. Inductive syllogisms are of the following form:
These beans are from this bag. (and these beans..., and these beans..., etc.)
These beans are (all) white.
Therefore, all beans from this bag are white."
Chris Eliasmith, (http://artsci.wustl.edu/~philos/MindDict/induction.html)
In other words:
You line up 1 million bald men. The first bald man is handsome. The next bald man is handsome. Etc, until you have seen so many handsome bald men and no ugly bald men that you are convinced that "All bald men are handsome."
From inductive reasoning you can find what appears true or is probably true but one untrue example disproves the conclusion.
If Dan is ugly then the inductive conclusion is proved untrue.
What is faith?
In both instances (inductive and deductive logic) the premise appears true and cannot be disproved so it is taken as (assumed to be) true. Is this faith?
None of these methods proves truth, they just provide evidence on which we can make decisions.
Science Summary
1. Science is good and useful. It produces results.
2. Science is a systematic study of nature, a part of God's general revelation.
3. Science cannot prove that its premises are true, it can just show that they work and that they have not been proven untrue.
How then do we know the truth?
Worldly tools such as science and philosophy do not have the authority to state without doubt that their premises are true.
Imagine a child who no matter what you answer asks "Why?". After a while you answer either "I don't know." or "Because I told you so, that’s why."
There inevitably comes either an admission of ignorance or an appeal to authority.
God provides his own authority.
John 14: 6 "I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the father but by me."
John 8: 31-32 "Jesus therefore said to those Jews that had believed him, If ye abide in my word, then are ye truly my disciples; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Romans 10:17 "Faith comes from hearing and hearing by the word of Christ."
1 Corinthians 2:10-16 "For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in Him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ."
Summary: What is the truth and how will we know it?
We know the truth because God reveals it to us.
Christ is the Truth. We have the mind of Christ because he has given us the Spirit. If we "abide in his word" we shall know the truth (Jesus) and the truth will set us free.
GRANTED;
This post presupposes that the Bible is God's message to us. Not everybody agrees with that.
I believe that true knowledge of the world comes not from Science or any other efforts of mankind. Knowledge of the world can only be found if God reveals it to us.
Why do i believe that? Why is it reasonable to believe that?
That my friends is a whole 'nother post.
