The Ownership of Science

[Pat Mustard]

This is a really fucking stupid question.  Science is simply a way of describing reality, in fact it is by far the best and most accurate one that humanity has found to date.

Agree. It's like doing a poll to say "Who should use Maths". It actually doesn't make any sense.

The problem I see is that even though theists will point to science, they don't use science empirically because they start with the outcome they are trying to substantiate, and then work backwards, cherry picking those pieces of science (or cherry picking those pieces of science that they perceive to be lacking) that support their argument. 

Science doesn't work that way. To truly "science" one needs to start with no preconceived expectations and iteratively follow the evidence, whilst inviting, and in fact expecting to pivot on previous findings when new evidence comes to light. 

I have found theists do not employ scientific method or approach, rather defining "Science" as "human knowledge about the world at a point in time" and then gleefully using arbitrary questions that today can't yet be answered as proof that there must be a creator or higher being to fill in those gaps. That is not science.

It's one of the few things that I use when the sentiments in my sig get me down too much.

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One of the primary characteristics of hoaxers and promoters of pseudo-science is to accuse everyone else of being a shill for something they don't trust.  Just sayin'.

Gamers are the worst about this. There is an online card game I play, so (of course) there are theories flying around about the broken/rigged shuffle algorithm. But anyone who scrutinizes those claims or questions them is a "fanboi" or a "shill." Like... I never once gave a fuck about the integrity of this card game or the shuffler. I was just questioning claims.

If anthropologists want to learn about the origins of religious beliefs, all they need to do is create an online card game with a working shuffler. Then observe forum posts about that game. I think an unknown causal chain + apophenia are the primary ingredients for religious belief.

Every time I boot up my copy of Civ 4, I pray a small, short, heart felt prayer to Random Number Geesus:

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What no sarcasm smiley? That's unpossible. Plus we also need a hug smiley featuring US Grant

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