Richard Dawkins in Dublin

[sauntersplash]

The difference between science and religion is science would never be happy with a handy cop out like that.

How about a "handy cop out" like there being 11 dimensions in M-Theory Physics? Sounds about right to me.

Science is happy with what "works". Its theory of truth is cohesionary.

Also, scientists are happy, when their theory is novel enough for it to allow them to put food on the table and send their kids to college.

[MauriceColgan]

though it seems odd that someone who uses the internet, etc doesn't have a mobile phone, its not an unreasonable assumption on behalf of the IT to assume that 99.999% of people either have a mobile phone or access to one.

It is also far easier for them to manage the allocation of free tickets via same so i see no reason why they should be compelled to provide alternate methods for people to obtain same free tickets if they won't have a mobile phone....

of course you could always use a email - sms gateway if it was that big a deal

Prior to January 1997 we never had a telephone in our homes. We are 68 and 67 years old my wife and I.

Pat Kenny attempting to contact me because of a letter I had sent to his Radio show, contacted our local Taxi company and hey presto we got his message to call him delivered to our door. We contacted his researchers from a neighbours house. He broadcast what I wanted the following day. I guess my message then reached hundreds of thousands and started an amazing story which continues to fascinate the media to this day.

Subsequently we had to get a telephone and computer. This lap top is my third! What's SMS?

However did we manage to live and raise two children to adulthood without a telephone. They are nearly 50 now. Their highly evolved atheistic children of course have mobile phones. They will be laughing outloud when they read this thread.

I did write to Madam anyway. We oldies have rights......... and, walking sticks! ;-)

[sauntersplash]

I'm often suspicious when people put the term truth in inverted commas.

Good.

How about the truth that the angles in a triangle always add up to 180 degrees?

Well its true.....but only in a "Newtonian" conception of truth. What if the triangle is drawn onto a ball? Here the sum of the angles is different.

One is a "Truth" and one is a TRUTH! But which one is which?

[Baron von Biffo]

I simply considered this argument to be a suggestion as to a "first mover" which is sorely lacking in the "Scientific" view.

Science also lacks a suggestion as to the creator of leprechauns gold but that lack isn't regarded as sore.

It's not a valid criticism of science that it doesn't say that the cause of everything is something that has no cause.

[Toland]

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[Baron von Biffo]

How about a "handy cop out" like there being 11 dimensions in M-Theory Physics? Sounds about right to me.

Science is happy with what "works". Its theory of truth is cohesionary.

Also, scientists are happy, when their theory is novel enough for it to allow them to put food on the table and send their kids to college.

It's not a cop out.

Scientists advance hypotheses all the time. Some of them stand up, most fail.

For scientists the ultimate accolades can come from exposing the flaws in previously accepted theories. There's a Nobel prize waiting for the first person to prove Einstein was as far out as a lighthouse.

For those who debunk religious orthodoxies the traditional prize is the stake.

[MauriceColgan]

Look where the state of scientific knowledge is now and how it progresses relentlessly.

When was the last time the religions took a giant leap for mankind? A rhetorical question.
Lepping statues are gallivanting chalk dust!

[sauntersplash]

Science also lacks a suggestion as to the creator of leprechauns gold but that lack isn't regarded as sore.

It's not a valid criticism of science that it doesn't say that the cause of everything is something that has no cause.

I know this, but it is a question that troubles people and worries people looking for a meaning to their difficult lives. And science cannot approach it. So, if science is all there is, what do these people do?

[Captain Con O'Sullivan]

Its an original and truly human maneouver. 'Science can't explain everything in the world at this time therefore I'll assume a chap with a beard in the sky did it.'

I see.