[Avodah] Science and Truth

[Harry Maryles]

Note: I am sending this to Avodah as well as I think it qualifies for both - HM
 
--- On Mon, 6/30/08, T613K at aol.com <T613K at aol.com> wrote:



 If scientists don't believe that science is objective truth, they believe that science is the process by which objective truth can be discovered -- and if something is not subject to experiment or observation (if it cannot be proven or disproven), then by definition, it is not science.
 
Nevertheless, they believe all kinds of things that can never be proven or disproven, things that are not subject to experiment or observation, and they nevertheless call those things "science." For example, they believe in spontaneous generation.  Oh no, not the spontaneous generation of maggots or of lice -- rather, they believe in the spontaneous generation of amino acids from the primordial soup.  They also believe that the universe was not created, but just popped into existence for no reason.  They are allowed to teach their creation story in a science class, but they are not allowed to mention that there is a different possibility, other than "it just happened randomly."  And most adherents of TuM seem to be fine with that.  
--------------------------
 
Science is - one – method of determining objective reality. But science does not deal in absolutes. It deals in degrees of probability. The more you can repeat results in laboratory trials the higher degree of probability it is that it is one has discovered an objective truth of nature. This is why we can get on an airplane without fear and confient that the many tons of heavier than air metal will actually take off and fly. Based on scientific experimentation  and repeated identical results, there is a high degree of probability that it will not crash. 
 
No scientist will say that anything science knows today about nature is the absolute objective reality and cannot ever be refuted. A scientist who says that is not truly a scientist. He is a believer.
 
Religion deals in absolutes. Those absolutes are based on belief. Belief is based on many factors having to do with observation, tradition, inductive reasoning, and intuition. Belief it can be argued is much stronger than science. Belief can neither be proven or disproven and is therefore not so easily refuted. 
 
Science relies on observation and experimentation – things we can measure and deduce from via our ability to reason. The scientist is Rav Soloveitchik's quitessetial 'Cognitive Man'. 
 
Mesorah and intuition are not measures of science. Religion relies not on the measurable - but the immeasurable. It dictates to us what the objective reality is without necessarily requiring the use of reason. Religion and science -two different thought systems. Neither of which can objectively proven with 100% certainly that they are the objective reality. Every scientist knows this Frum and not Frum. Both the scientist and the believer act on their beliefs. The only difference is how they developed those beliefs. 
 
The second paragraph is your assertion and I don’t accept it. The big bang is not discussed in terms of First cause. A scientist can neither say it was spontaneous or that it wasn’t. An individual teaching the Big Bang brings with him a personal perspective. So an atheist will say that it must have been spontaneous. A believer will say that there was a First cause. Neither belief is science but belief as neither can prove his position regarding that. He or she ought to take care (perhaps even manated) not to let his or her bias about religion enter scientific discussions in the public school science classroom. 
 
In a public school - if a student asks whether the Big Bang ‘just happened’ or whether there is a First cause, the teacher should answer that this question does not belong in a science classroom any more than an answer of ‘Buddha created it’ does. 
 
If there is an atheistic bias on the part of science teachers in the classroom it should be routed out.  But let’s be clear. Atheistic biases are not science any more than Orthodox belief in the Creator is.
 
HM 

Want Emes and Emunah in your life? 

Try this: http://haemtza.blogspot.com/

 


      
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.aishdas.org/pipermail/avodah-aishdas.org/attachments/20080701/39f53d46/attachment-0001.htm>