http://notesfromoffcenter.disqus.com/society and theology from the view of a Christian pragmatist.enMon, 11 Aug 2008 20:10:24 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/08/08/camp-offers-training-ground-for-little-skeptics-npr/#comment-1540169<p>It does confirm my suspicion that a skeptic is someone who mindlessly passes on non-sequiturs. When they run in herds, they congratulate each other on their bravery and intellectual astuteness for engaging in this activity. Somehow a camp makes perfect sense.</p>LooneyMon, 11 Aug 2008 20:10:24 -0000http://notes-from-offcenter.com/2008/08/08/camp-offers-training-ground-for-little-skeptics-npr/#comment-1540168<p>Thanks for posting on this. I heard this report and a bunch of red flags went off for me as a professional scientific researcher (and Christian). As you quote, the comment was made that "faith and the scientific method can not be combined in the same argument."</p><p>First, as you point out, faith and reason are not mutually exclusive concepts, whether you are talking about science or religion.</p><p>Second, if we are going to be honest about the scientific method there is an element of faith that has nothing to do with religion: it is the faith that the physical universe is orderly and that if you do an experiment the same way twice you will get the same result. As Christians we can attribute that to the Creator, but even without a creator scientists take this on faith whether they realize it or not. And it is no good to argue that "I did it ten times and it came out the same way every time." You can infer that the eleventh time will be the same, but without doing the experiment you can not be absolutely sure. We take it on faith.</p><p>(This does break down on a quantum mechanical level.)</p>SteveSun, 10 Aug 2008 23:31:46 -0000