1. The art of the soluble

Comment #95654 by dutchb0y on December 8, 2007 at 11:12 pm

The "closed system" of sciences' tautology is not closed because the questions are carefully considered, to my mind, or closed at all. Science asks careful questions to make sure the answers (for or against) hold a precise meaning about a precise hypothesis, they need to be rather narrow and definitely testable. What science does right is *keep asking questions*.

Religion asks questions, but do they really shed much new light? Do the conclusions reached often become accepted? In some cases, yes. What is the basis for such decision? Fiat? Focus Groups? Charisma of a religious leader? What is the basis for rejection? Blasphemy?

Science can't "bury" God conclusively, but it doesn't have to. Science is intellectually honest enough to admit that you can't disprove something by it's mere lack of proof of existence. That doesn't mean that it exists, it's much closer to 99.999999% improbable than probable. If people want to live in that 0.000001% it's a personal decision, of course, but I surely hope they don't choose to kill each other over it.