Introducing a page on Scientific Objectivity

Scientific Objectivity

There exists a common misconception that scientists are totally objective but this is nothing but a myth and one that is easily busted. Not only are scientists human and subject to all human flaws but ones philosophical assumptions will always influence conclusions no mater how objective you try to be. Furthermore knowing something about the topic will inevitably cause a person to form opinions about that topic.

Introducing a page on Science and Politics

Science and Politics

When ever science and politics interact science is more often than not the looser. This does not mean that all interactions between science and government are negative but the overall affect on science is negative. The video on this page describes the interactions of science and politics including the benefits and problems.

Introducing a page on Methodology of Science

Methodology of Science

The methodology of science includes the scientific method and aspects of scientific activity.  The Scientific Method is a general description of how science works. The video on this page describes the Scientific Method and it imperfection in describing science as a whole.

Introducing the Genesis Science Mission page on the Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of Science

This article is a discussion of the Philosophy of Science which deals with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. It contains a video discussion that introduces the basic concept of Philosophy of Science. 

A look at Science the Search for Knowledge

Science the Search for Knowledge

This page provides a description of science and what it really is. Most of the content is in an embedded video. This is a page on the Genesis Science Mission creation science web site that describes the nature of science.

Knowing what science is and is not is critical to understanding the issues raised by science. This page shows that there are those who try to make science a search for purely naturalistic explanations rather than a search for knowledge. When science is forced into this naturalistic box it becomes a slave to a particular philosophical world view rather than pursuing genuine knowledge.

The discussion on this page seeks to provide a description of science that is frees from that is not bound to a particular world view.

Scientific Proof that the Supernatural Exists

It has been repeatedly claimed that there is no scientifically valid evidence for the supernatural; however this claim has been in the absence of a scientific definition of supernatural. It a previous article (A Scientific Definition of Supernatural ) I made the case that a supernatural event would then be any event that has a caused out side the Universe.

Based on this definition there is a scientifically recognized even that without question has to be a supernatural event. The prime evidence for this event it the fact you exist to read this article. The supernatural event I am referring to is the beginning of Universe. The fact that the universe had a beginning is a well established scientific fact.

Now regardless of how the Universe actually began it had to be started from outside itself. This is evident from the fact that until the universe existed there was no inside the universe and so the cause that started the universe had to be out side of it.

The fore the beginning of the Universe by definition has to be a supernatural event.

Declaration of a Scientific Definition of the Supernatural

Is science capable of considering and studying the supernatural? Answering this question requires there to be a scientific definition of supernatural. Unfortunately no official scientific definition of supernatural has ever been established. The reason this is the fact that there is the desire on the part of the scientific establishment to keep any consideration of the supernatural out of science. 

To find a scientific definition of supernatural it is necessary to start with a standard dictionary definition of supernatural.  According to The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language the primary definition of supernatural is “Of or relating to existence outside the natural world.”

Since the natural world consists of ther entire universe, it is logical to rephrase this definition as “Of or relating to existence outside the Universe.” This makes for a perfect scientific definition of supernatural.

So here is a perfect scientific definition of supernatural.

Supernatural: Of or relating to existence outside the Universe.
Supernatural event: Aany event that has a caused out side the Universe.

Now while this definition allows for an influence by a supernatural intelligence such as God, it does not intrinsically require that there be any intelligents involved an would include totally mechanistic causes from out side the universe.

Reference Science and the Supernatural

Observation: Viewing and Recording

Observation is the act of viewing and recording an event.
Viewing and recording are simply watching a phenomenon and recording the observations including written records, photographs or other recording devices. Observations are not always accurate because real world observations some times miss stuff. A critical event may occur when observations are not being made. 

A critical event may occur outside the range of the observer’s sight. As a result such observations can rather subjective since it is too easy for an observer to see what he wants to see because the observer is looking for what he wants to see So patterns resembling what the observer wants to see are more likely noticed. It is too easy for an observer to not see what he does not want to see because the observer is not looking for what he does not want to see and patterns not resembling what the observer wants to see can be over looked. Knowing of such problems helps avoid them.

In conclusion observations are an important scientific tool but it does have its limitations and pitfalls. Being aware of those limitations helps one to avoid them.

The Facts About Repeatability in Science

Repeatability is the ability of a scientist’s experiments and results to be replicated by other scientists. The concept is that because physical laws are the same every place an experiment conducted by one scientist should work for any other scientist it is a way of double checking results. Repeatability is not to be confused with replicating passed events which is done to show the possibility or feasibility of that event which is a totally different from the repeatability being discussed.

Repeatability is at its best with experiments were variables can be controlled and hence replication can be as complete as possible. It does not work well for all situations. Those situations where there are difficulties in controlling variables are not easily replicated. The degree of repeatability varies from field to field.

In conclusion repeatability is important to science but it is not an absolute principle and some fields are more repeatable than others.