\u201cPursuit\u201d (1952), by Boris Anrep, is part of a series of mosaics of the Modern Virtues located in the entrance hall of the National Gallery in London. It depicts the astronomer and physicist Sir Fred Hoyle as a steeplejack climbing up to the stars.
Hoyle (1915-2001), was an atheist but, as his career went on, appeared to have Doubts.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it true, as some devotees of scientism who like to denigrate religious faith insist, that science limits itself entirely to rigorous extrapolations from known and objectively verified facts?<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll cut directly to the chase:<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
No. \u00a0It\u2019s not.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
There are lots and lots of illustrations of this truth, but, for right now in this blog entry, I\u2019ll limit myself to some quotations from Roger Trigg, Beyond Matter: Why Science Needs Metaphysics<\/em> (West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press, 2015), from which, in any case, I need to extract the passages that I\u2019ve marked in it for my collection of notes. \u00a0At the time this book was published, Dr. Trigg was professor emeritus of philosophy at the University of Warwick in the United Kingdom and a senior research fellow at the Ian Ramsey Centre of the University of Oxford:<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
A philosopher of science, Richard David, comments that \u201cthe increasing detachment of theory building from empirical confirmation may be taken \u2014 and indeed is taken by many \u2014 as the dawn of a serious crisis in fundamental physics.\u201d \u00a0He notes that even \u201cat the meta-level of theory assessment\u201d there is \u201ca shift of the balance between empirical and theoretical elements.\u201d \u00a0Additionally, he states that many scientists \u201coften have a high degree of trust in their theories despite the lack of empirical confirmation.\u201d \u00a0He gives string theory and cosmic inflation as prime examples of this. \u00a0For instance, testing in standard particle physics cannot substantiate the claim of string theory that extra space-time dimensions exist but are so small that they have to be invisible to humans. \u00a0All this touches a vital nerve in science. \u00a0It cannot progress unless theory outstrips empirical testing. \u00a0We have already mentioned the discovery of the Higgs particle in 2012 as a good example of how a theory that has long been entertained can finally obtain empirical confirmation. \u00a0Yet this itself illustrates the problem. \u00a0Technology in collider physics cannot keep pace with theoretical predictions and will perhaps always be outstripped by it. \u00a0Does that mean we ought not to entertain such theories? \u00a0(87-88)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Science without contraints can, and does, result in exciting speculation, but if it is not properly grounded in empirical work, its status as science must be suspect. \u00a0(89)<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Is it true, as some devotees of scientism who like to denigrate religious faith insist, that science limits itself entirely to rigorous extrapolations from known and objectively verified facts? \u00a0 I\u2019ll cut directly to the chase: \u00a0 No. \u00a0It\u2019s not. \u00a0 There are lots and lots of illustrations of this truth, but, for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6645,71,6648,6642,6639,5168,6651,2195,6654,243,2037,3901],"class_list":["post-80238","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cosmic-inflation","tag-cosmology","tag-crisis","tag-empirical","tag-empiricism","tag-evidence","tag-metaphysics","tag-physics","tag-roger-trigg","tag-science","tag-string-theory","tag-theory"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>