🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <73753@hydra.gatech.EDU>, cegtitd@prism.gatech.EDU (Tim Dodd) writes:
|> In article <1992Nov4.225441.22809@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU+ 
crb7q@kelvin.seas.Virginia.EDU (Cameron Randale Bass) writes:


|> +     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.

It's a minor quibble, but I thought the point of this thread was to convince 
readers that scientists can (and should) dispense with religion.  By your 
argument, that would place the burden of proof on you.


|> +     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.
|> +
|> 
|> 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.

Only by your definition, and according to your concept of reality.  Plenty of 
people (of whom I am certainly not one) believe that the "reality" that 
science studies is nothing but an illusion; for them, it is the fundamental 
tenets of science that are completely beyond the bounds of reality.  
Furthermore, there is another group of people (smaller, but more likely to have 
tenure at American universities) that holds that reality is nothing but a 
social construct, or that science is just one more text to be deconstructed.
And they're just as prepared to write off your beliefs as you are to write off 
theirs.

-- 
Steve Schaffner        sschaff@unixhub.slac.stanford.edu
	The opinions expressed may be mine, and may not be those of SLAC, 
Stanford University, or the DOE.