“But not all facts are scientific facts – the claim that I was in Oxford
last night, unseen by anyone, will occur in no scientific paper, but it
is a hard fact. So it is with the miracles of Jesus, with the creation of the cosmos and with its end……….The interesting question is not whether religion is compatible with
science, but whether there are important factual questions – and some
important non-factual questions, too, such as moral ones – with which
the physical sciences do not usually deal.”
The claim that gravity still occurred last night on top of Ayers Rock will not appear in any journal either, but it is still a hard fact – as we use the word ‘fact’. In fact(!) it is far more likely that gravity happened on Ayers Rock than it is that this Author was in Oxford, because we know how insanely reliable gravity is, and how unreliable personal accounts or claims are.
The issue is really about HOW we can know things. I would suggest that where there are a multitude of answers, we have overstepped.
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion? Feel free to contribute!
This is an interesting article. One point though:
“But not all facts are scientific facts – the claim that I was in Oxford
last night, unseen by anyone, will occur in no scientific paper, but it
is a hard fact. So it is with the miracles of Jesus, with the creation of the cosmos and with its end……….The interesting question is not whether religion is compatible with
science, but whether there are important factual questions – and some
important non-factual questions, too, such as moral ones – with which
the physical sciences do not usually deal.”
The claim that gravity still occurred last night on top of Ayers Rock will not appear in any journal either, but it is still a hard fact – as we use the word ‘fact’. In fact(!) it is far more likely that gravity happened on Ayers Rock than it is that this Author was in Oxford, because we know how insanely reliable gravity is, and how unreliable personal accounts or claims are.
The issue is really about HOW we can know things. I would suggest that where there are a multitude of answers, we have overstepped.