Tuesday, July 05, 2005
Common Sense about Science and/or Faith
Nice essay today by NYT Science Editor Cornelia Dean, headlined "How Quantum Physics Can Teach Biologists About Evolution."
If that headline makes you nervous, no, you don't have to understand anything about quantum physics to appreciate the essay. It's not really about quantum physics in any way. Rather, it's about how the science of physics was overturned by the science of quantum physics. And thereby, suggests Neal, hangs a cautionary tale for biologists:
If that headline makes you nervous, no, you don't have to understand anything about quantum physics to appreciate the essay. It's not really about quantum physics in any way. Rather, it's about how the science of physics was overturned by the science of quantum physics. And thereby, suggests Neal, hangs a cautionary tale for biologists:
Science looks to explain nature through nature (the works of God rather than the words of God, as Darwin himself is said to have put it), and its predictions can be tested by observation and experimentation.She concludes:
Scientists form hypotheses, devise ways to test them, analyze the data that they collect and then decide whether the results support or undermine their hypotheses.
This process has produced centuries of useful knowledge and fascinating discovery.
But it is messy, a mixed-up dance of two steps forward, one step back; dud ideas; blind alleys; and things that turn out to be not exactly what they seemed.
It is possible to believe in evolution and believe in God. Plenty of biologists do. But their deity is not a creator or intelligent agent at work in the material world in ways that transcend nature and its laws. That would be a matter of faith, not science.Exactly so. To argue otherwise is truly no more than argument.
