Date: Fri, 13 May 2005 09:48:10 -0400
From: "Paul Haggerty" <Paul.Haggerty at noaa.gov>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Newton or einstein?
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at WSFA.org>

Ernest Lilley wrote:

>Ted Said: "Cause-and-effect, rationally applied, led to every major
>superstition/religion, you know.  I burn a virgin at the stake and it
>rains, a deluge that breaks the drought.  Cause and effect!"
>
>Ah so you're of the let's throw the baby out with the bathwater school? The
>virgin thing should fall apart with the application of a little scientific
>method, assuming one could find a valid population for testing.
>
>Ernest Lilley
>

Should fall apart, but tends not to, because no scientific testing would
be done.  The ritual works because "everyone knows it works".  And once
something has always been done, nobody stops to question the logic.
Most of the greatest scientific discoveries have been made because
someone took an absolute truism and asked: "But why is it true?"  And,
of course,  it has only been relatively recently that asking questions
didn't get you put up on the stake next to the virgin.

My belief is that the greatest benefit that science as truly granted the
world is the ability to step back and question the unquestionable.

Paul

--

Paul Haggerty
Science and Technology Corporation
NESDIS/NOAA
Phone: 301-457-5258 x142
E-mail: Paul.Haggerty at noaa.gov