Science and extraordinary events

Auditors have discovered a million dollars missing in the accounts of the venerable First Bank. What is the explanation? (1) There has been no impropriety; small rounding errors of a few pennies have occurred many times over many years, which happened to add up to a million dollars. (2) There was an embezzlement of a million dollars. This is […]

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Stages of a science

Based on the most developed sciences, physics and chemistry, I suggest each science eventually goes through the following five stages: Stage 1. The Nascent Stage is characterized by monistic ideas such as ‘everything is a form of water’ (e.g., Thales). Stage 2. The Classical Stage is characterized by unaided observation and commonplace ideas such as

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What is creation science?

In their book “What is Creation Science?” Henry Morris and Gary Parker contrast the evolution and creation world views/models and state: “The second world view–creation–maintains that the universe is not self-contained, but that it must have been created by processes which are not continuing as natural processes in the present.” They go on to say:

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Creation and separation

The word “creation” in theological and philosophical circles means (1) “creation from nothing”, that is, the transcendent and self-existing God producing other entities without starting from something pre-existing.  However, that is not the only meaning of “creation” in the Bible or common usage.  The other meaning is (2) making something from something, particularly, making something more

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A science of biological kinds

There is an analogy between chemical kinds — elements — and biological kinds.  Both show that things have differences in kind, not just degree.  The development of the periodic table was not controversial but biological kinds are strongly opposed by mainstream science.  What happened? John S. Wilkins wrote his dissertation and book on “Species: A History

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Hegemonic scholastic Darwinism

Science historian John Schuler speaks of “hegemonic scholastic Aristotelianism” during the Middle Ages – lets unpack this a bit: hegemonic – it dominated society and excluded opposition scholastic – it resided in the schools, the universities that arose in the Middle Ages Aristotelianism – it is related to Aristotle’s writings Hegemonic scholastic Aristotelianism declined with the

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Being and becoming

Naturalism is a philosophy that looks to science to fill in the details.  It is based on putting becoming before being, contrary to the classical and Christian assertion that being precedes becoming.  We have to know what or who something is before we can understand how it got that way, or what we’re even talking

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General correspondence principle

Niels Bohr is credited with first asserting a correspondence principle with respect to quantum mechanics, though the general idea surely predates him. As Wikipedia puts it: “In physics, the correspondence principle states that the behavior of systems described by the theory of quantum mechanics (or by the old quantum theory) reproduces classical physics in the

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Galileo again

It’s amazing how much “Remember Galileo!” is still used as a warning cry for those who dare question current scientific orthodoxy. And it’s amazing how much history has been replaced by mythology, meaning something everyone knows but doesn’t check to see if it’s true. A few salient facts are in order: Galileo was a life-long member

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Academic conformity

It seems that when science in the 19th century separated from philosophy and joined the university curriculum on its own that science came to be subject to the same pressures that other academic subjects deal with.  That includes the pressure to conform.  Why conformity?  If you’re a knowledge institution, there are two things you don’t

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