epistemology, science, kinds of knowledge, methodology
I agree with those theological critics who say that the age of the earth or universe is not by itself a major issue for theology. It’s only when the age of the earth or universe are wedded to other ideas that major issues arise. Two minor issues can make a major issue. Before the rist […]
The dialectic of extremes and means is a method of reasoning whereby one begins with extremes and reasons to means or vice versa. If one begins with means, these are considered as unanalyzed entities, attributes, propositions, etc. The goal is to work out the implications of them as principles or to analyze them into their
A model is a realization of a mathematical formalism. So ordinary arithmetic is a model of ordinary algebra. That is, the algebra of the integers, the rational numbers, and the real numbers is realized by the arithmetic of the integers, the rational numbers, and the real numbers, respectively. Are there other models of ordinary algebra?
Evidence of Absence: Completeness of Evidential Datasets Elliott Sober presents a likelihood argument about the motto “Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence” (Sober 2009). He states the Law of Likelihood this way: The Law of Likelihood. Evidence E favors hypothesis H1 over hypothesis H2 precisely when Pr(E│H1) > Pr(E│H2). And the degree to
The Bible is diachronic but secular historical sciences are synchronic. Let me explain. The term “diachronic” arose in the study of the development of languages over a long time, which was the focus of linguistics in the 19th century. But to make linguistics more scientific in the 20th century this changed to study languages as systems during
There’s a common idea that science shows appearances are often wrong. It is said science shows that earth is not flat, the sun doesn’t go around the earth, and that life is not designed, all despite appearances to the contrary. I think this is a mistaken view of what science has done. Surveyors work with
“Design” is one of those terms many people use but few define. Two aspects of design are: (1) to plan and (2) to make. An evolutionist might say that “nature made man” but would never say “nature planned man.” The theistic evolutionist might say “God planned man” but avoids saying “God made man” except in some
It’s easy to forget that “nature” means the essence or form of something. Over the centuries this morphed into nature as a “natural world” as if only some things have a nature, which is mistaken. Every thing or being has a nature, including God. A natural science is the study of things/beings with a common nature
Emil Brunner in Christianity and Civilization (1948) wrote: “the popular belief that the idea of evolution and progress was first worked out within natural science, and thence affected the conception of history, is false. The reverse is true: the idea has been transplanted from an evolutionary conception of history into natural science. Lamarck and Darwin are not
The discipline of history investigates what actually happened in the past as far as that is known from records or other evidence. Scientific history is what could have happened in the past without being inconsistent with the data or laws of science. Note the difference: scientific history is about possibilities; real history is about actualities. Scientific history
