Re: Science Struggle

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Article #188

#188

From: Alan McGowen
Date: Fri, 24 Sep 1999 00:00

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Starbuck wrote:

> >>>A circular argument.  God exists because only he could explain how God
> exists
> given all the
> problems with that idea.<<<<
>
> I didn't put that forward as a rational argument FOR theism, only as an
> admission of the limitations of theism as a rational world view.
>
> Granted, it's a circular argument.
>
> But then, even scientific materialism can be used circularly.  It begins
> with the apriori assumption of the laws on uniformity, and lack of
> supernatural intervention, and then argues itself back to the apriori
> assumption that it began with.  We all learn something along the way... but
> it isn't an air-tight argument, just a useful one.
>

Sorry, but "laws of uniformity and lack of supernatural intervention" are
*not*
an a priori assumption of science.  They can be disproved: e.g. if evidence
mounts up that some nonuniformitarian process (such as an asteroid collision)
has made a difference in geology and the history of life, then uniformitarian
expectations have to give way.

Likewise, if you could produce a similar body of hard evidence for
supernatural
intervention,  atheistic expectations would have to give way. But you can't.

You are still trying to evade the burdern of proof.

--
Alan McGowen

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From: Alan McGowen <amcgowen@cup.hp.com>
Subject: Re: Science Struggle
Date: 1999/09/24
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