🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Nov4.225441.22809@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU+ crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass) writes:
+In article <73642@hydra.gatech.EDU+ cegtitd@prism.gatech.EDU (Tim Dodd) writes:
++In article <1992Nov4.182157.17016@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU+ crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass) writes:
+++In article <1992Nov4.171314.22145@ugle.unit.no+ kim@Lise.Unit.NO (Kim Gunnar Stvringyhus) writes:
+++++      Why do certain people have such difficulty with the proposition
+++++      that there are domains which 'science' and 'logic' can never reach?
+++++                                 dale bass
++++Because it's a false proposition.
+++
+++     Prove it false.
+++
+++                             dale bass
++
++Ah, this is backwards here!  If I claim that "X exists", and you say you
++see no evidence for X, the burden of proof lies upon me, not you.  I have
++no problem with the proposition that there are domains unreachable by rational
++thought.  (Suppose I ask you what it is like to be nonexistent?)  But I am
++unconvinced that such domains have anything to say about reality (by
++definition!).
+
+     It is not backwards.  Where the burden of proof lies is a matter
+     of taste, especially in propositions that are not provable.  You may
+     well claim that 'X exists', but you will never be able to 
+     'prove' X's existence.

Where the burden proof lies is not a matter of taste.  If you are trying
to change someone's mind about some assertion they hold to be true, you
are the one who must offer reasons for them to reconsider.

+     As far as 'reality' goes, if you may define it as you wish,
+     just don't expect everybody else to share the definition, especially
+     outside of science.
+
+                             dale bass

If a concept is defined in such a manner that it cannot in principle
ever be shown to pertain to a component of reality, that concept is by
definition meaningless.  Science deals with reality; the fundamental tenets
of religion are completely beyond the bounds of reality.  They are *defined*
that way.

Tim
-- 
Tim Dodd, Research Scientist, Georgia Tech:  cegtitd@prism.gatech.edu