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To: general_re
Science confines itself to the material. I have no a priori objections to discussing non-material causes for material events - or non-material events, I suppose - but let's not call it science when we do. It's not, essentially by definition.

Agreed, although I prefer the term Natural Science. But let us also admit the limits of science. Good science should have no problem with stating that the origin of life and the origin of the species might beyond the limits of science.

119 posted on 08/17/2005 9:48:23 AM PDT by Petrosius
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To: Petrosius
But let us also admit the limits of science.

Certainly.

Good science should have no problem with stating that the origin of life and the origin of the species might beyond the limits of science.

You've got two different problems there, though. Explaining the origin of life on earth is not currently a problem that science can readily approach - there are many proposed mechanisms, with the one unifying quality that they are all entirely speculative. And we should, naturally, label them as speculative, and not as fact. Perhaps someday, when we can zoom around the galaxy in our Star Trek ships, we will be able to observe origins elsewhere, which may give us a somewhat more solid idea of what may have happened here - it's not proof, but if, for instance, we see the same process occurring over and over again, induction can carry us to the logical conclusion. However, neither of us are likely to be around to observe such a thing, so I tend not to worry much about it ;)

On the other hand, the origin of species and the diversity of life on earth is, by contrast, a much more tractable problem. And it turns out that science has a rather good explanation for same - the theory of evolution.

127 posted on 08/17/2005 11:47:05 AM PDT by general_re ("Frantic orthodoxy is never rooted in faith, but in doubt." - Reinhold Niebuhr)
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