Extra Nos - Why I Am Sceptical of Science and Scientists

 Dr. Lito Cruz used this as his profile photo
and fooled me. Kurt Godel.
"I do not believe in empirical science,
I only believe in a priori truth."

Extra Nos:



"Why I am sceptical of science and scientists

You might think this strange because if you know me I work in academia most of the time and since I dabble in mathematics you would think that I should not be negative towards science, for after all isn't mathematics a part of science?

In large science faculties, it is true that mathematics is part of the science faculty but I do not think mathematics is part of science. Science deals with observations of phenomena in our world. From, particulars it abstracts to the general. Science deals then with induction.

Mathematics does not deal with induction, it does not look at particulars and then infer to the general. No, mathematics deal with deduction, from the general we go down to particulars. In this regard, I think really that mathematics should be part of philosophy.

We do not sample every triangle we could find, measure their internal angles to be a total of 180 degrees and assert that all triangles have an internal angle of 180 degrees. We use logical proofs starting from axioms.

Today science enjoys a celebrity status. If you want to gain the trust of people just tack on the word "science" into what you are doing. So we have library science, meat science, dairy science and game science and what not. The field I work in my consulting is "Data Science". Funny but I went to a conference last month and a leading practitioner in the field, a professor himself, complained that there is no "science" in data science.

The world has evolved to the point that science is operating like a religion. What is awful is that it is operating like a cult as well. In the age of the Internet, things have evolved and it is easy to be arrogant and know it all. Because the Internet gives one a capacity to be semi-anonymous, people are happy to be rude and insulting to those who disagree with them. It is easy now to express without hesitation one's disdain for a fellow who might be slow in catching one's level of knowledge.

Here are my reasons ordered by importance

1. It does not always work. The reason is that when scientists observe, they are only observing a sample of a phenomenon and when one produces generalisations from these, it by default left out some parts of the phenomenon. Today the approach taken by computer scientist in doing Artificial Intelligence (AI) is to abandon the idea of deterministic certainty, but embrace and live with uncertainty and work on probabilities. Ask yourself, does the science you believe in behave in an arrogant certainty?  AI computer scientists have chucked the idea that something can be determined with certainty from the world. So the models they create for a phenomenon using AI are probabilistic.

2. Most scientists today have no training in philosophy. I worked for a while in computer science and the computer scientists I have encountered have no appreciation of the role philosophy plays in their craft.If they are not scared of it, they either consider it as useless or indifferent towards it. The same is true in physical science. Steven Hawking said philosophy is dead. No offence but I think Hawking and I will be long gone and philosophy will be around. This is bad science and bad scholarship. The reason why we have this situation of science acting like religion is that philosophers have allowed them to roam, be arrogant and unchecked.

For example, the issue of causality vs correlation. When I went back to statistics, my colleagues and textbooks reminded me that correlation does not imply causation.

This is illustrated in a Chinese saying:
Do the flowers blooming bring about spring? Or does spring bring about the blooming of the flowers? You might think it is the latter for sure - but think and pause for a moment. It is an epistemological question - meaning - how to we know something is true or real..

Also this - is there only one way of explaining a physical phenomenon? Should we entrust our lives and our view of the world into the what scientists say?

 Dr. Lito Cruz and his wife Lynn.

Here is one quote from a philosopher of science about science...

Even though some scientists and many pseudo-scientists voice their allegiance to that (scientific) method, no modern philosopher of science would be unaware of at least some of its shortcomings. Modern developments in the philosophy of science have pinpointed and stressed deep-seated difficulties associated with the idea that science rests on a sure foundation acquired through observation and experiment and with the idea that there is some kind of inference procedure that enables us to derive scientific theories from such base in a reliable way. There is just no method that enables scientific theories to be proven true or even probably true.

                                                      ---- A. F Chalmers (What is This Thing Called Science)

Maybe I am influenced too much by the mathematician I admire and respect who said...

I do not believe in empirical science, I only believe in a priori truth.
                                                            - Kurt Godel

Later I will add more, like my thesis that scientists are not altruistic people who are also influenced by personal agenda using science to advance their goal.
Please remind me."

'via Blog this'

***

GJ - These are important issues. I am glad that Dr. Cruz, who is also a Lutheran minister, raised them. I will write more about this myself.

Three Presidents of Failing ELCA Seminaries

 Robin Steinke moved from the failing Gettysburg Seminary
to become the president of Luther Seminary - a merged school.

 Louise Johnson, modeling the Mark Jeske twisted smile,
moved from the failing Philadelphia ELCA Seminary to become the
president of Wartburg Seminary in Iowa.

Greetings from Wartburg Seminary! THANK YOU! It is clear God is calling Wartburg Seminary to be BOLD for the sake of the church and we are deeply grateful for partners like you who are willing to step out into the future with us. In 2012, we launched the 5 year $22 million Engage God's People campaign which comes to a close in just 4 days. There's still time to be a part of this campaign's success! Give today in celebration of how God is leading us into a bold new future of innovation and creativity in theological education.

With thanks,

Rev. Louise N. Johnson, President

 Theresa Latini, a Presbyterian, was called to be the new president
of the failing, merged Gettysburg and Philadelphia Seminaries:
United Lutheran Seminary.

Elizabeth Eaton, the new ELCA presiding bishop,
is three for three in creating leadership jobs in her sect.
The quota system must have been replaced
with another set of goals - 100%?

Build Up Gardening Self-Esteem with These Seeds and Plants

Adults and children can have fun with these easy growing seeds and plants. I picked the most productive, fast-growing, and reliable ones.

Sunflowers - They are great companions for any rose garden or food plot. They are enormous bases for many insects and food for many critters. They like rich soil and plenty of mulch. They may not grow fast at first, but they explode in development later.

I buy plants where I can, because the rabbits and squirrels
harvest seed and seedlings for themselves in our yard.
Shasta Daisy only needs the flowers pruned now and again.

Radishes - I have little desire to eat radishes, but the seeds are fun and convenient. They sprout so fast that they are used to mark rows of plants and break up hard soil in the process. They mature in a month but can be left to go to seed. Those seed pods are edible and milder than the roots. Later season buys for radishes will offer a lot of seed for relatively little. The same is true of many other seeds and plants.

 Borage, like many herbs, grows easily.
I like the mints as much as the pollinators do,
but I only plant the clumping mints.

Borage can come in tiny packets or 500 at a time. Shop and compare. They can be sown rather than planted. They love bright sunlight and improve the beneficial insect rating in the yard. The tiny flowers can be eaten directly or added to salads - pink and blue. They flower and seed so fast that new borage will start growing the same summer. Bees love the flower so much they are called Bee Bread.

 How can anyone dislike dill?

Dill seeds smell like dill pickles, for good reason. I like large numbers of Giant Dill to sow in the garden. A member of the carrot family, it attracts good insects without poisoning the gardener - an important factor in buying and using a member of that naughty clan.

Peas and Spinach are great for cold weather planting. Bored of shoveling snow? Plant peas and spinach as early as possible and listen to the neighbors marvel at your density. Both crops love the cold - just like lettuce -  and hate the heat. I joined the lunatic fringe in planting spinach late in Minnesota, covering the tiny plants with autumn leaves, and uncovering them as soon as the ice began to melt in the Spring. They were lacking any insect damage, crunchy, simply perfect. That was one of the coldest winters ever in New Ulm. Peas can be planted in the very early Spring, as soon as the seeds can be pushed into the ground. They are shallow-rooted, so it is easy to push them into the ground. I read of one fanatic who drilled the holes in the frozen soil, and that worked too.

Vines are a lot of fun, but they normally take time - years to produce. Zucchini vine plants are easy to obtain at Walmart or a gardening center. Plant a few near a chain-link fence - instant vines with produce. Warty gourds are just as fun.

 The squirrel used the bird swing to reach the
sunflower seeds. The birdbaths below are used each day
and cleaned. The Butterfly Bushes, Poke, Chaste Tree,
Gooseberry, Clethra, and Helianthus have grown up since then.