Philosophy of Science: Scientific Investigation, Research, Methodology
Thursday September 4, 2008
There are significant disagreements over the nature and process of scientific research which involve disputes between atheists and theists. There is a strong movement, for example, to undermine the methodological naturalism which constitutes a primary basis by which scientific investigation proceeds. Some Christians see this methodology as antithetical to their theistic beliefs and a barrier to the introduction of those beliefs into school science classes.
Read Article: Philosophy of Science: Scientific Investigation, Research, Methodology
Comments
Good points on scientific naturalism, Austin. One point might be usefully added. Science is not inherently necessarily atheistic. The reason that scientific naturalism is justified is that there are no documented cases of gods, spirits, etc. showing up to affect natural processes. If there were, we could perhaps take this into account. But under the circumstances, it looks as if there is a god or gods, he, she, it or they are not in the habit of showing up and mucking around with physical processes. Hence, until and unless we have good reason to do otherwise, we assume naturalism. This assumption, of course, is justified in part by the results. Scientific endeavors have yielded tons of useful knowledge. To inject gods, spirits, etc. without any good evidence both makes it impossible to come to conclusive research results. And one wouldn’t want to get nicked by Occam’s razor.