(September 22, 2013 at 3:52 pm)Lion IRC Wrote: Different sentient beings have differing degrees of perception of the outside world. I'm not going to tell someone who has a metaphysical experience that they did NOT perceive anything.
John Locke conceded that you cant argue with or against metaphysics. You can try to keep it separate from other, more easily measured modes of defining reality, but metaphysics is virtually unassailable by our primitive empirical tools of science. (telescope, microscope, durometer, cash register...)
If 500 people claim they saw a miracle, how can science prove they did not? If my dog claims to hear voices which are inaudible to me, or thinks she can see stuff which I cant see (at night) is my dog going insane? Deluded?
I think you are confusing "metaphysical" with "supernatural."
Regardless, science can, and does, deal with perception and miracles. Miracles can easily be disproven by showing them to have a natural explanation, and circumstances can be recreated to test whether or not the senses were being deceived. There may be an instance where we can't scientifically prove whether people actually saw a miracle, but that does not mean that science can't deal with such claims. Science deals with how the natural world works, and a miracle is a claim of natural law being violated, which is something science can test.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
