Independent Thoughts [alnaim.com]

Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity. -- Thomas J. Watson, Sr.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Darwin Under the Microscope: The Origin of the Man and His Theory

posted by Abdulaziz Alnaim @ 1:35 PM    

5 Comments:

  • At 1:17 AM , Deemza said...

    The issue of who we are and where we came from is not more important to people than whether the Earth revolves around the sun.
    The first two questions are what philosophy is all about …
    Philosophers starting with Aristotle have been producing theories on the topic ages ago... and that in my opinion what Darwin’s evolution theory is… a theory not a scientific FACT.

     

  • At 2:17 AM , Abdulaziz Alnaim said...

    "The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn't know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty darn sure of what the result is going to be, he is in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress we must recognize the ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty -- some most unsure, some nearly sure, none absolutely certain."

    --Richard P. Feynman

    Basically, he's saying that the term "Scientific Fact" is an oxymoron.

     

  • At 3:35 AM , Deemza said...

    Well I beg to differ …. There are scientific facts … ….if not we would not have lived our lives the way we do …
    Not every outcome of a scientific research is a fact…That is true... but we have to agree on the basic elements of science… or every scientist would have to start from nothing just to prove anything!!!
    That would cancel the cumulative quality of sciences.

     

  • At 4:06 AM , Abdulaziz Alnaim said...

    just because something isn't a "fact" doesn't mean it can't be used or built upon. It's only that in science you always have to remember that even the basic theories/principles CAN be wrong. History is filled with scientific "facts" that were agreed on for centuries but discovered to be false later on. Just think of Newtonian Mechanics. How would the world be different if 20th century physicists never questioned Newton? I'm sorry, but nothing is really an undisputed fact, it CAN be considered a "fact-given-what-we-know", but nothing is really unquestionable.

     

  • At 6:29 PM , deemz said...

    :) I rest my case after all Albert Einstein said that “only daring speculation can lead us further, & not the accumulation of facts”.

    who am I to argue Einstein!

     

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