[Avodah] Heseibah, Halachah and Science

[Akiva Miller]

.
I asked:
> Why don't these "dangers" count as forbidden superstitions?

R' Micha Berger pointed out:
> First find the line between superstition and discarded scientific theory.

I'm wondering about the line between *discarded* scientific theory and
*current* scientific theory. I don't think the line exists; the only
difference between the two is which era WE happen to be living in.

If so, then the real question is "merely" to find the line between
superstition and science.

No, that's not "the" real question. It's just one of several questions, and
I wonder whether the other questions are truly different, or they are just
different expressions of the same idea. These other questions include:

Where's the line between magic (according to those poskim who accept that
it exists) and technology?
Where's the line between miracles that one is allowed to perform (if he has
the ability) and those that he is not?

I suspect that the answer to all of these is flexible with the time and
culture of whoever is asking. There is no fixed standard, but whatever the
consensus holds to be science, superstition, magic, or miracle, so does
halacha. Perhaps we can draw a precedent from dangerous situations: Which
are the dangers that halacha requires us to avoid? The ones that people
generally consider to be dangerous. So too in these other areas.

Akiva Miller
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