Sárospataki Füzetek 14. (2010)
2010 / 1. szám - TANULMÁNYOK - Byl, John: Világnézetek háborúja: a keresztyénség és kihívói.
BYL, JOHN God is dead, we have killed him... science has killed him. . . science has killed Truth. Note that Nietzsche, who is an early fore-runner of post-modernity, asserts that sdence is to be blamed for challenging both God and truth. Since science is widely perceived to play a major role in attacks on Christianity, it is worthwhile that we briefly examine the nature of science. The Nature of Science How did science “kill” God? It was alleged that science had done so in two ways: (1) naturalist explanations of the world seemed to make God unnecessary and (2) science had made biblical miracles implausible, thus undermining belief in the Bible. It is a widely-believed myth is that science is factual, objective, and rational, whereas religion is mythical, subjective, and irrational. If science and religion are viewed in such terms, it is a foregone conclusion that, whenever the two conflict, science will always trump religion. The reality, however, is not so clear-cut. Philosophers of science now acknowledge that science, too, has a large subjective element. For example, in science we must always distinguish between the hard data—the things we actually observe— versus subjective theories that are devised to explain and extend the limited data. The difficulty here is that scientific theories are not simply derived from the data. In practice, the data always under-determine the theories. This means that many different theories can explain exactly the same set of data. Consider, for example, the observed fact that the tight from distant galaxies is reddened. The more distant the galaxy, the more the tight tends to be shifted towards the red. Why does this occur? Many theories have been advanced. It has been proposed that galactic red- shifts are caused by: • expanding space • motion through space • gravity • decreasing speed of tight • shrinking atoms • increasing mass of particles • tired tight Which is. the correct theory? Since more than one theory can explain the data, it is clear that the choice must be made on other, non-observational factors. The philosopher of science Carl Hempel writes: The transition from data to theory requires creative imagination .. . Scientific hypotheses and theories are not derived from observed facts, but are invented in order to account for them.3 The Hungarian philosopher of science, Imre Lakatos, goes even further. He asserts: 3 Hempel, Carl G.: Philosophy of Natural Sdence. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice Hall, 1966. 15. 28 SÁROSPATAKI FÜZETEK
