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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: koan who wrote (222369)	4/21/2013 11:47:03 AM
From: cosmicforce	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 545097

Scientists don't include "believe" in their vocabulary in the same way lay people do. In the movie "Contact" the character played by Matthew McConaughey, asks Jody Foster's character if she believes her father loved her. She says yes, and is then asked to prove it. This is to show that some propositions are not subject to proof. I can not prove what minerals are stable near the core of the Earth because I can't go there. Maybe one day but today it is unknown, and largely speculative based upon what we know from meteorite fragments and indirect mineralogical and seismic study. SETI is based upon a type of faith - there is no evidence that drives us to monitor radio beams from space looking for intelligent life. It is a belief that because there is life here that life is probably elsewhere. If you are to ask me about alien life - I'm agnostic - I don't know so therefore until there is evidence of absence, that is not the same as absence of evidence. It is entirely reasonable to expect that the universe is populated but I don't believe it or not believe it until the matter is settled. In my opinion it is less reasonable to believe in God because I have not seen Gods here, let alone filling the universe. My bias is that having life in hand opens the door to life being elsewhere, but does not necessitate it. Having penguins in Antarctica does not necessitate them in Arctic regions. Having no God here doesn't prohibit it from existing in a form that we don't comprehend. There is no probability function that governs either mental orientation. There are mental models (biases) that govern the choice of what to "believe" (meaning scientifically to be more likely than not). The Black Swans nullify the belief that nothing but White Swans exist. This is how science is different than religion. Every scientific belief must be nullifiable.