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Recent content by Febble

  1. Febble

    The Flat Earth Myth

    And the "cornerstone" of everything they disagree with is an erroneous 19th century belief that in the 15th century, people thought the earth was flat? It makes no sense to me whatsoever.
  2. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Well, no, not in my view, but I think bad theology is to blame for attempts to render incomprehensible what science has elucidated, and continues to elucidate, magnificently. I'd have more faith in a God who created the awesome edifice that science is continually revealing, than one who created...
  3. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Well, I guess it's possible that the universe makes no sense, it just looks as though it does. Odd trick of God to pull, though.
  4. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    This conversation is becoming a little bizarre. The reason Neptune came up at all was simply as an example of a body whose existence was inferred, in the 19th century, from its gravitational effect on other bodies, and then found, optically. In the same way Dark Matter is inferred from its...
  5. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Perhaps someone would try to say what they mean by "same state past". It's not a concept I'm familiar with.
  6. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Experienced, but ever-hopeful ;)
  7. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    No problem :) Although inevitably, when scientists are 99.99999999999% confident of something, they may be tempted to use "certainly" colloquially. Nonetheless, your point is well taken, and any scientists worth her salt would agree.
  8. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    No indeed :) I'm glad we agree on that. Neptune came up in the first place because you asked me for an example of something that was hypothesised to solve a problem, and later confirmed by direct observation to exist. I pointed out that Neptune was hypothesised to solve the problem of the odd...
  9. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Actually, incredibly powerful. You and I wouldn't be having this conversation without the results of applications of just that scientific method.
  10. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    It still doesn't alter the facts that: Neptune was inferred in the 19th century from observations of the orbit of Uranus, and then confirmed by direct optical observation. It was named in the 19th century after the ancient god of the sea; it was not worshipped by the ancients as a god.
  11. Febble

    Hawking vs God

    Yes indeed. We do. That's why scientific claims generally come with "p values" - which are estimates of the probability of finding the result in question if the hypothesis is not, in fact, true. Our claims also come with "confidence intervals". These are never zero. So we go much better than...
  12. Febble

    Is science compatible with Jesus' teachings?

    And very nice it was :) Yeah. I bought it for quite a while, though. The I realised I could see no point. If I have a referent for the God word still, it doesn't refer to a creator of the universe. More like the universe itself, and what we, as part of that universe, strive to be.
  13. Febble

    Is science compatible with Jesus' teachings?

    I'm not sure a simple God is a useless God, but it's a fairly useless answer to the question "why does anything exist?" It's just another way of asking the question. And not answering it.
  14. Febble

    Is science compatible with Jesus' teachings?

    Yes indeed. I don't think it's an issue science can answer, because science is all about contingency. Although I guess we may be able to figure out whether existence is somehow necessary. It could be that non-existence turns out to be necessarily unstable.
  15. Febble

    Is science compatible with Jesus' teachings?

    So in both cases, you are saying that "God" is the answer to the question "why is there anything at all?" I'm not sure that any scientist would disagree (or agree) with that. I don't think the question as to whether matter results from energy or energy results from matter sheds any light on...