Supernatural and Atheism

[Anomalocaris]

Scientific theory is only of value if it accurately predicts something otherwise unknown.     To say the theory is fact merely because it seems to have worked as well as can be expected upon what is already known doesn’t exactly guaranty  its on-going value.     Whether the theory would work as well in a new place where one previously have not looked can and should always be doubted and then tested.      To assert that just because a theory worked in all cases hitherto tested therefore it is an all encompassing fact everywhere else as well is frequently the beginning of folly.

That our World is approximately 4.5 billion years old is a fact; such will never change, and it is unreasonable, in my opinion, to conclude otherwise.

The probability that future discovery will invalidate the supposition that the earth formed 4.56 billion years ago seems very low, but it is not nonexistent.    It is unreasonable to count on the world not being 4.56 billion years old.    But it is equally unreasonable to deny in principle the possibility that discovery can yet be made that explain why the world is not 4.56 billion years old and yet present the appearance of being 4.56 billion years old to tests we’ve hitherto been able to conduct.   Suppose for example it is discovered in the future that certain “constants” of physics in fact varied through time, so the rate of radioactive decay unstable atomic nuclei had indeed not been constant…..

To not doubt when occasion arise that should call for doubt to be entertained and tested is the beginning of a particularly pernicious kind of folly called faith.