Quote:
Originally posted by lumberjim
without conjecture, there is no theorum, without theorum, there is no theory. without theory, there is no discovery. without....
you smell what i'm cookin?
|
You left out the first part there, observation.
So if there is a complete lack of evidence (e.g. you do not observe something), then why spend time with the rest of your thought process? The basis of science is observation and repetition. Religion (or more accurately faith) skips the first step (observation), and moves directly to conjecture.
One can apply this process to another field very closely associated to science; invention. But these two fields, while relying heavily on one another, are not one in the same.
While, "necessity is the mother of invention", inventors rely heavily on faith, which is the lack of evidence.
So yes, LJ you're on the menu, but you are trying to skip right to dessert.
Slart,
Local space-time can be distorted, bent and shaped by the objects on it, which is why we have gravity. In fact, space-time can be so badly distorted as to bend back on itself, which is what we think are black holes.
This is all on a local level; the whole of space-time (e.g. the universe) is flat. Think of it this way, if the universe is expanding from a single point (essentially, we can argue those semantics/theories another time), and the universe comprises
everything then what is causing the universe to bend back on itself?
I agree, speculation is not a bad thing, but to apply speculative theories (those that go against observation) is just bad science. We observe that the universe is flat, and it may not be flat, but since, what we observe is a flat universe, and our theories fit this observation, then why clutter the theory with bad science?
This may sound a lot like "here there be dragons" arguments of a flat earth from the 13th or 14th century, but remember, all you have to do to prove the earth is round is stand up. Watch the sun set over the horizon (not trees or a house, something like a beach is good), and as soon as it completely disappears, stand up. Check your math if you want to, but if the world was flat you would not be able to see the sun again. And, though I'm not 100 percent sure on this point, I think that section of geometry was around well before 1492.
*edit* I spell like a six year old