Post by Inquirius on Mar 31, 2010 13:21:49 GMT -5
I see there are multiple definitions of science. Obviously this is not as clear a thing as you all seem to think; I know there must be one, common, uniting feature between your ideas. Indeed, one central tenet that all sciences, whether it be biology to geology, share in common. A system or a method, so to speak? Anyone care to indulge me in answering this? Elaborate specifically on this, and I believe to we can come to some conclusion on science.
I think I'll use Enig's example to illustrate the scientific method that you are so subtly trying to goad us into mentioning.
Something spiritually discerned is something which requires the Holy Spirit to understand. These are things which come from God directly. An example would be someone who reads the Bible and finds it nothing but a convoluted series of folktales. Someone who has the Spirit is able to read it and understand it.
I Corinthians 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
Pretend I'm a scientist. The above comments make me extremely uncomfortable, because I have read the Bible and I think it's foolish. I must not have access to the Spirit. I don't know what it is, where it is, how much of it I need, and who I can get it from. These are all questions that I would need to answer individually.
Let's start with the first one. What is the Spirit? To answer this, I would have to consult many religious people who claim to have access to the substance, and I would need to ask them many questions and run a battery of tests (the utility and limitations of which will have already been established) to try to find out the nature of the Spirit. Suppose I hypothesize that the Spirit is inside or communicates with the human brain while the person reads a holy book. My test would then include a group of Christians who claim to have this spiritually enhanced understanding of the Holy Bible, a group of non-Christians (Hindus, perhaps?) who think the Bible is not truth, and a group of athiests who think the Bible is foolishness. They will be removed, as much as possible, from outside stimuli and will be instructed to read the same passage (or chapter, or book) from the Bible while their brain activity is monitored. They will be instructed to try to understand what they are reading as best they can. The test will be repeated with different groups of people, during different times of the day, and all other efforts will be made to remove error and unnecessary variables. If Christians have problems with the way the tests are being run, any concerns they have will be addressed to make the tests more objective and less error-prone.
Conclusions will be made based on the brain monitors, and the limitations of the tests will be taken into consideration. For example, comprehension of language is handled by Wernicke's area in the parietal and temporal lobes of the brain, and visual information is processed in the visual cortex in the occipital lobe. If I see any enhanced activity in this area when the people are reading, it is nothing new. If there is more or less activity in the Christian brain than in the Hindu or athiest brain, then we have interesting results.
The results would be published and hopefully would catch the eye of other researchers, who would then try to falsify my conclusions or build upon them in the hopes of understanding what the Spirit is. The goal is to pinpoint the nature of the Spirit and be able to communicate that concept in clear, objective terms to anyone who wants to understand it. Science does not acknowledge the supernatural. There is only nature.