"Faith is a belief held without evidence. The scientific method, a loose collection of procedures of great variety, is based on precisely the opposite concept, as famously declared by Thomas Henry Huxley:
The improver of natural knowledge absolutely refuses to acknowledge authority, as such. For him, scepticism is the highest of duties; blind faith the one unpardonable sin.
Huxley was one of a long tradition of British sceptical philosophers. From the Bacons, through the likes of Locke, Hume and Russell, to the magnificent climax of Popper’s statement of the principle of falsifiability, the scientific method was painfully established, only to be abandoned in a few short decades. It is one of the great ironies of modern history that the nation that was the cradle of the scientific method came to lead the process of its abandonment. The great difference, then, is that religion demands belief, while science requires disbelief. There is a great variety of faiths. Atheism is just as much a faith as theism. There is no evidence either way. There is no fundamental clash between faith and science – they do not intersect. The difficulties arise, however, when one pretends to be the other.
The Royal Society, as a major part of the flowering of the tradition, was founded on the basis of scepticism. Its motto “On the word of no one” was a stout affirmation. Now suddenly, following their successful coup, the Greens have changed this motto of centuries to one that manages to be both banal and sinister – “Respect the facts.” When people start talking about “the facts” it is time to start looking for the fictions. Real science does not talk about facts; it talks about observations, which might turn out to be inaccurate or even irrelevant.
The global warmers like to use the name of science, but they do not like its methods. They promote slogans such a “The science is settled” when real scientists know that science is never settled. They were not, however, always so wise. In 1900, for example, the great Lord Kelvin famously stated, "There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement." Within a few years classical physics was shattered by Einstein and his contemporaries. Since then, in science, the debate is never closed.
The world might (or might not) have warmed by a fraction of a degree. This might (or might not) be all (or in part) due to the activities of mankind. It all depends on the quality of observations and the validity of various hypotheses. Science is at ease with this situation. It accepts various theories, such as gravitation or evolution, as the least bad available and of the most practical use, but it does not believe. Religion is different...
Read the complete article by John Brignell here: http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/religion.htm
Sid - thanks - my assumption was 100% correct. AGW offends doesn't it Sid.
And SJT comes up with the profound statement that there is 'No evidence of God' and, that one 'Should not bring God into an evidence based blog'.
Well, I'm sure SJT would agree that a lot of R&D would go into the design & manufacture of say, the latest PC hardware or software. Or the latest Boing Dreamliner, or Air Bus. Or the latest lifesaving medical procedure. Nope, no intelligence involved. They just happened,.. or evolved from nothing. Or maybe they are evidence based facts.
Well, forget the world, the solar system, the universe, no R&D there, they just happened. Look at the four seasons..nope, ditto.
Just get down to one very small thing, say, the human eye! No thought and design gone into that?
Nope, it just happened to be! Or... Maybe the design & manufacture of the human eye is an evidence backed fact.
Well, there is a hell of a lot more evidence supporting the fact that the eye is a brilliantly designed bit of work, then there is factual evidence supporting the theory of AGW.
'Melting Ice a Hot Topic" Oh dear more of the unscientific scare tactics. And notice how these Ning Nongs hone in on AGW threat to national icons? eg. here in Oz, it's the GBR, Kakadu and the Alpine areas that are going to be razed. Gotta scare the masses. That once highly respected and august body the Royal Society has now degenerated to the Small and the Silly. Its President, Sir whatever his name is, recently uttered the profound statement that within 50 years,"Antarctia will be the only habitable place left on the planet". How incredibly stupid. Now let the reality deniers come out and defend him!
SJT is the real nong, not Brignell.
Neither the theist or atheist has evidence for the existence, or non-existence of God.
Both are beliefs and like a coin, are the obverse and reverse of the same issue.
Stupid is as stupid does I suppose.
More on the same topic
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-garden-of-good-and-evil/2007/06/16/1181414606757.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
cheers
Arnost
Luke,
Our kind and generous hostess did not open a discussion on Iraq, herbal tea, combat equipment, etc.
It's unusual to mix elves and fairies in with theology, but maybe the antipodes have a different take on things.
But hey, I'll be amenable to "amenable to new evidence and new paradigms" if you can cough up something about the elves and fairies. (Importing them from California won't count.)
Schillsy - I'm really amazed you can be worried about ethics when your government has invaded Iraq on false pretences, destabilised the region, made the world much less secure, forgotten to go after the real terrorists, and is bogged down in a VietNam style quagmire. I mean come on - who's more dangerous. The establishment or some fringe greenies.
Have a herbal tea and form a unification prayer circle. It's much less dangerous and you don't need a flak jacket.
Scientists and atheists don't have really srong beliefs. They should be amenable to new evidence and new paradigms. They're simply not going to accept bulldust and silly ideas without reasonable evidence or theoretical mechanisms. Go too far away from this and you might as well believe in fairies and elves. Do you?
I don't get this stuff about atheism and science.
Scientists and atheists have remarkably strong beliefs. Such as, their belief in the experimental method.
Thing is, any normal person--i.e., a non-Greenpeacer, will accept the experimental method on faith. Works pretty well.
The other thing is, someone who believes in the experimental method will not torch your laboratory or threaten your children if you disagree.
These themes are completely disconnected.
What we need to worry about is not scientists, or atheists, but about people whose enthusiasm for a doctrine leads them to despicable deeds. This used to be reserved for the Middle Ages, and later, the WWII thing, but the Greens have brought it back all over again.
Arnost, firstly, renewables can provide base load and base load can be reduced in other ways. I am trying to 'educate' people on the nuclear thread also running on this site.
China and India are developing and deploying large amounts of solar hot water and biogas respectively because it's cheap, flexible and more reliable than alternatives.
Australia should be leading the design of these technologies, getting them manufactured in low cost centres (china and india) and rolling them out across the world. Biogas has huge potential as a versatile fuel and Europe has picked up on this.
If you kick back and wait for the market to make it cheap, you'll be importing for the rest of your life. To turn this into an industry, we need to get involved at design and development AND retain ownership over upside! Australia will not be able to import forever on the back of mineral exports and resources because in time they will either run out or be obsolete.
What happens now is typically a concept gets developed here, loses funding momentum, oversees investors pick it up and make motza. We have seen it with solar hot water, we will probably see it with the sliver cell and we are seeing it with solar thermal and its primarily because we don't have
1- investors with the appetitie for risk and cash required
2- government support
super funds have enormous potential to fill the void and the government can faciltate this