{"id":124,"date":"2008-05-08T21:52:55","date_gmt":"2008-05-08T21:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/05\/08\/extended_comment\/"},"modified":"2008-05-08T21:52:55","modified_gmt":"2008-05-08T21:52:55","slug":"extended_comment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/2008\/05\/08\/extended_comment\/","title":{"rendered":"Extended comment"},"content":{"rendered":"

(I started replying to Rus Bowden’s comment<\/a> , but decided I shouldn’t waste the opportunity to create a new weblog post. I think we scientists can gain an insight into the gulf, at least):<\/p>\n

\nFun with ideas is (views the end of the sentence and chokes back the panic) fun.<\/p>\n

\nHowever, in a place like this there’s no point in writing something unless you try to make yourself understood by the other person. When people are calling you a troll, or thinking “What the blazes are you trying to say<\/em>, man?”, there’s a problem.<\/p>\n

\nIt’s called ‘communication’. Poetry is not communication in this sense \u2014 it does not invite dialogue. Not here on NN (and I disagree slightly with the sentiment that the audience should only be scientists).<\/p>\n

\nBut the rest of Rus’s comment deserves a civil response.<\/p>\n

\nScientists tend not to talk about ‘truth’. They prefer to think of things as ‘correct’, or ‘consistent with the evidence’. Evolutionary theory is consistent with the evidence, and is consistent with the philosophy of a rational, understandable Universe. It’s pretty difficult, these days, to think of an alternative to evolution that is scientific<\/em>. <\/p>\n

\nAt least out-and-out Creationists don’t claim to be doing science, or have scientific backing for their (appalling) theology. I’ll grudgingly respect that position, as long as they don’t try to defend it scientifically.<\/p>\n

\nScientists do not<\/em> study “the world poets have bequeathed to us”. Poetry is not amenable to measurement, to testing of hypotheses. Do we ask ee cummings to test his thankfulness? Since when did trees have leaping green spirits that could be observed with a microscope, or a LHC?<\/p>\n

\nThe thing, the real thing about science as a system is that it works<\/em>. It makes predictions that can be tested, and gives us technology that does what we designed it to. The earth goes around the sun in a predictable fashion. All this talk of ‘dogma’ in context of something you don’t like probably reflects a failing of the public school system to get across the point that science is not about facts<\/em>, but rather process<\/em>. Talking about an “Age of Evolution” probably reflects a further failure \u2014 one of scientists to effectively engage poets (and sometimes the two come together in the one person).<\/p>\n

\nI am not one of those who believes that science is the be-all and end-all. It is no substitute, and can not inform the things, the messy, sticky things like love and justice that make us human. <\/p>\n

\nScience tells us how things work. Poetry (literature, faith) can tell us who we are<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(I started replying to Rus Bowden’s comment , but decided I shouldn’t waste the opportunity to create a new weblog post. I think we scientists can gain an insight into the gulf, at least): Fun with ideas is (views the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/124\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occamstypewriter.org\/rpg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}