Empirical evidence cannot fully explain reality.
ranagrande Send a noteboard - 01/12/2010 03:28:41 AM
Empirical evidence must be augmented by logical analysis to provide a full explanation of reality, of course, but that's not the issue here. Without evidence as an objective standard, there is no way to distinguish the relative accuracies of any worldviews. I could say "evidence of extraterrestrial life shows that the universe is a giant house cat, and it creates life so that it will have mice to chase," and without some standard for comparison, that would be just as legitimate a statement.
Logic, empirical evidence, and the scientific method are undoubtedly useful, and they can explain our immediate surroundings quite well, but they are inadequate when taken to the extremes.
For instance, you can follow a trail of evidence back through time to the Big Bang, and then it breaks down. What caused that explosion? Where did it come from? The cyclical universe theory can push back further, but there must at some point have been a beginning.
If there was a beginning, what caused it? If not, what was there before? There are really only three possibilities. The first is that the universe came into being out of nothing, in violation of the laws of physics. The second is that the universe itself is eternal and has always existed in one form or another. The third is that it was created by a higher power.
There is not, and I suspect that there never can be, any empirical evidence to prove or disprove any of those possibilities. No matter what sort of reality you choose to believe in, you believe in it by faith.
Since you're free to place your faith in anything you wish, you could of course choose to believe in the eternal house cat that is the universe, and that would indeed be just as valid a conception of true reality as any that you can reach through evidence alone.
Is NASA set to reveal on Thursday signs of possible extraterrestial life within the solar system?
30/11/2010 03:49:40 AM
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photsynthesis using arsnic hmm I am going to have to check this out
30/11/2010 05:07:22 AM
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If there is life in the solar system then it is likely a natural development in the universe.
30/11/2010 05:12:38 AM
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Re: If there is life in the solar system then it is likely a natural development in the universe.
30/11/2010 05:18:05 AM
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Seems to put atheists in a bit of a catch-22 there.
30/11/2010 05:54:25 AM
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Bwa?
30/11/2010 06:45:33 AM
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Well, I don't actually agree with the first part of your Catch-22. At least, not entirely.
30/11/2010 02:43:13 PM
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Using anthropomorphic terms to describe the universe only reflects on you, not on the universe. *NM*
30/11/2010 07:31:04 PM
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What an arbitrary and meaningless statement. *NM*
30/11/2010 07:52:13 PM
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Anthropomorphizing concepts is a cognitive bias.
30/11/2010 11:19:23 PM
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Only given a certain metaphysical framework.
01/12/2010 12:18:09 AM
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Mind dumbing that down a bit?
01/12/2010 12:43:47 AM
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I think he is saying
01/12/2010 01:26:34 AM
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In short, demanding that everyone use your particular worldview is unfair.
01/12/2010 02:21:26 AM
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Those worldviews are unsupported by empirical evidence.
01/12/2010 01:41:27 AM
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Empiricism is unsupported by empirical evidence. *NM*
01/12/2010 02:21:52 AM
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Empirical evidence is the only objective standard.
01/12/2010 02:59:18 AM
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Empirical evidence cannot fully explain reality.
01/12/2010 03:28:41 AM
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Re: Question (use google now!): what's the net energy of the universe?
01/12/2010 03:35:57 AM
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Time does not exist separately from space, as Einstein demonstrated almost a century ago.
01/12/2010 03:36:56 AM
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I have my own theories about time, but they're not ready for presentation yet
01/12/2010 03:56:38 AM
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Re: I have my own theories about time, but they're not ready for presentation yet
01/12/2010 04:30:44 AM
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Hey, there's a name I recognize, "Iron Lisa"
30/11/2010 09:25:01 AM
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WE'RE ALL GONNA DIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
30/11/2010 02:33:30 PM
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I, for one, welcome our new alien overlords. *NM*
30/11/2010 02:35:04 PM
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"I, for one, welcome our new INSECT overlords"!
01/12/2010 12:40:27 AM
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but we don't know if they're insects yet!
01/12/2010 12:55:52 AM
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I'll not bow to any mere Bacterial Overlords, Eukaryote Overlords only!!! *NM*
01/12/2010 01:02:20 AM
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So you're prejudiced against the nuclearly challenged?
01/12/2010 01:09:57 AM
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It's this kind of blind adherence to political correctness that is tearing us apart!
01/12/2010 01:28:39 AM
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They had better have a green man *NM*
30/11/2010 10:45:56 AM
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Because you need somebody to attack Aginor and Balthamel? *NM*
01/12/2010 01:04:23 AM
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Oh no you didn't *NM*
01/12/2010 01:14:55 AM
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