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by abusoufiyan 3038 days ago
>It is repeatable and testable

Except when it isn't and when it isn't.

A vast majority of articles published right now will never even be reproduced and yet we take nearly all of them as if they are gospel.

>If the meaning of life exists, it must be possible to find it with science. I see no contradictions here. If you see, you are welcome to reveal them if you will.

Science is based on some kinds of assumptions taken on faith (like every thought system). Here are a few (there are more surely).

1) Everything is observable to us as human beings.

2) Everything scientific will be reproduced and confirmed by someone else despite there being very few financial incentives for anyone to undertake all this costly reproduction and confirmation.

For (1), we know that there can be multiple dimensions, yes. A 2d figure can never really experience and observe the third dimension. He can only wonder about it, ponder about it, conjecture about it, but never know it because his physical senses will not let him understand that third dimension. Observations are powerful but they are limited by our observing senses. For (2) there have been countless hoax papers snuck into scientific journals, I don't need to cover this too much. Most scientific work is not reproduced, but posting it online will make most people think it is true.

You also forget that the meaning of life may exist and yet operate in a way we cannot sense. Just as there are planets we cannot see and may never be able to confirm.

2 comments

>we take nearly all of them as if they are gospel.

No we don’t. You are projecting. Look up “projecting” if you don’t follow what I mean.

Science is not what you seem to think it is. Anyone who says science operates on faith is mistaken and ignorant.

Many such people like you are insanely overconfident about their knowledge and refuse to consider that they might be utterly wrong.

>Observations are powerful but they are limited by our observing senses...

omg this is so wrong I don’t know where to begin. There is such a thing as tests which can be devised to go way beyond our senses while still giving us the ability to falsify theories...

> A vast majority of articles published right now will never even be reproduced and yet we take nearly all of them as if they are gospel.

First of all, who is "we"? I certainly do not take them for granted. Any other responsible scientist doesn't as well. Science is not always perfect, like everything in life. Testability and reliability are just its goals. When they are reached, this is the success of science. When not, we should push further and better.

> Science is based on some kinds of assumptions taken on faith (like every thought system). Here are a few (there are more surely).

>1) Everything is observable to us as human beings.

Not true. Quantum wave function [0] is not observable. But it works reliably nevertheless.

>2) Everything scientific will be reproduced and confirmed by someone else <...>

There is no such assumption in science, too. One just does the research which _can_ be reproduced. Due to the lack of infinite resources, only selected things are in fact being reproduced.

> his physical senses will not let him understand that third dimension.

What is 'understand'? This is not even a declared goal of science. No one 'understands' quantum mechanics [2], but it is tremendously useful nevertheless.

Upd: by the way, some scientists say understanding is just nonsense. Everything is just mathematics [3].

> Observations are powerful but they are limited by our observing senses.

Not true. We created many devices which allow us to observe what our senses cannot. An obvious example is X-rays.

> posting it online will make most people think it is true.

This is not a problem of a restriction of science. This is the nature of humans, which goes against science in general.

Upd2:

>You also forget that the meaning of life may exist and yet operate in a way we cannot sense. Just as there are planets we cannot see and may never be able to confirm.

Sooner or later we will reach those planets. There is nothing preventing us to fly there in principle.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wave_function

[2] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Richard_Feynman#%22If_you...

[3] https://arxiv.org/abs/0709.4024 via https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15637074