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Subject: 
Re: Why these news groups were created
Newsgroups: 
lugnet.off-topic.debate
Date: 
Sun, 26 Sep 2004 00:22:19 GMT
Viewed: 
2385 times
  
Andrew,

Two things: First, you’re absolutely right in calling me one of the people stating opinion as fact. And I do know that I’m right. And please believe me when I tell you that I wish, more than almost anything else, that I was skilled enough at communication to show you how I know it. But I’m not. The best I can do on this one is assert what I know and debate how I can. Sometimes it makes “good” happen and sometimes not.

In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Andrew Engstrom wrote:

   2. Everything is opinion until it can be proven--consult OED for a definition if you wish, but you’ll find that there is no way to “prove” that human action is natural. Remember that by strict definition (something you seem to like), a claim is not scientific unless it is disprovable (implying that it is also provable).

The only specific that I want to address is the very tail of this. It’s just not so. Science isn’t in the business of proving things. Not anything. Nothing has ever been proven by science because that’s not part of the process. Hypotheses can acrue supporting evidence or they can be disproven (which doesn’t in any way imply provability -- and specifically so).

Chris



Message is in Reply To:
  Re: Why these news groups were created
 
Allow me to say: 1. It is the connotation of the word "superstition" that is unfair, not the strict definition itself. All book knowledge must be tempered with common sense. Othewise, I would not argue with your point here. 2. Everything is opinion (...) (20 years ago, 25-Sep-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate, FTX)

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