What Are Your Beliefs?

[trisherina]

I happened to be reading a book today that said not once, but twice, that one good reason for studying research methods is that there are limits to science and that generalizations are always based in part on a "leap of faith."



It made me very queasy. Not the first part (of course there are limits to science, dammit, it's done by highly compromised humans, see above), but the leap of faith part. Probably it's just a matter of bad writing/interpretation about how scientific inquiry is carried out, but I resisted the urge to be disdainful and went on a muddling frenzy. So I got to wondering, what were they really thinking about, with this leap of faith business? The evaluative step? What? How can you require a leap of faith when new data will get you to change your mind and your perspective in a heartbeat, and happily? That's definitely not what they ask the people I see being baptized to do: "Do you accept Jesus as your personal saviour, until you find that this doesn't quite fit where systems are either extremely large or extremely small?"

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, and this is where people like Paul (above) really chill mah blains. Uh, the very process of shining light on evil dynamically transforms the nature of evil itself? Show me! Let's see... that could work with a laser scope aimed at the forehead of a despot... now, let's see... was it the blazing light of global awareness, or the 101st Airborne that dynamically transformed the nature of the Reichstag? hmmmm I am so sorry but I can't stop myself