tagdefining science

JP Moreland and CS Lewis on the Sciences

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The simplistic “scientific method” we were taught in school is a phantom. C.S. Lewis noted, “Strictly speaking, there is, I confess, no such thing as ‘modern science’.  There are only particular sciences, all in a stage of rapid change, and sometimes inconsistent with one another.” (Christian Reflections, 1945) It follows logically that the methods of these particular sciences differ. The historical sciences, for example, cannot replicate how a fossil was buried. Cosmologists cannot repeat the origin of the universe or the formation of stars. The assumptions, methods, and inferences in many sciences do not follow Francis Bacon’s recipe of observation, hypothesis, and testing. Much of science today is done with models, which are simulations of reality, not reality itself. Some can be tested and refined, but others cannot.