Moreland 7 Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is scientific realism?
realism is the view that things exist outside us in the real
world such that statements can be made of them that are true
All statements are not a
matter of interpretation
We can describe things as they are apart from us
science deals with reality as it exists, not just with how we see things
How has realism been used against theology?
to imply that science is the proper way to
describe the world
religion or theology is a private thing
What does rational realism hold?
Scientific theories are true or approximately true
terms of a mature scientific theory genuinely refer to things of this world
rationality is objective
aim of science is a literally true picture of the world
What is the correspondence theory of truth?
the view that a statement is true if it
describes the way the world is
What is rational non-realism?
scientific descriptions can be rational in that they make sense
they are not true in the sense that they can reveal the deep structures of the world
PHENOMENALISM
Science is about what we can sense
If we perceive it that we cannot know it scientifically
Scientific terms are no more than
handy ways of talking about things we observe
OPERATIONALISM
Similar to phenomenalism except that scientific descriptions are handy ways of talking about operations of science
Science does not describe the world as it is
PRAGMATISM
Science does not aim to describe the world accurately, rather, it aims to give us theories that work
Solving problems has little or nothing to do with truth
CONSTRUCTIVE EMPIRICISM
Science does not give us true descriptions of the world,
only descriptions that account for our observations
NONRATIONAL NONREALISM
Science is not a rational enterprise
According to Moreland, could someone be a realist in one field (such as geology) but a nonrealist in another field (such as quantum physics)?
yes
What warning does Laudan make that Moreland agrees with?
We should not wed our ideas too closely to contemporary scientific theories
In what way is the following statement self-refuting, “only what can be known by science or
quantified and empirically tested is rational and true”?
it is a statement about science not of science
What is one reason for thinking that Adam and Eve could not have lived millions, or even
hundreds of thousands of years ago
even allowing for gaps in the biblical
genealogies, biblical chronology would not allow for more than 50,000 years
Why is the theory of the prebiotic-soup a myth?
there is no evidence that there were pools in which chemicals could concentrate
the chemicals would have been too diluted
the atmosphere of the early earth was the wrong type
In what way does the fossil record not fit evolution?
the fossil record shows life beginning all at once, not gradually
the millions of transition forms between species that are
predicted by traditional evolution are absent
species in the fossil record change very little and show no ancestry or progress to another species
What is the problem with traditional evolution’s view that species develop through small
changes?
many biological mechanisms are useless until they are fully developed.
