Christopher Hitchens, God is Not Great. Twelve Books, Hachette Book Group, 2007. 307 pages, $24.99 Preamble: If you find my reflections on this book to be somewhat perplexing, it will be because I don’t subscribe to the ancient view that categorizes everything in the world into Good and Evil. Regrettably, this book which is so…
One of the principles governing the scientific description of the world is this—of different possible explanations of a phenomenon, the simpler one is to be preferred. This rests on the belief that there is an element of intrinsic simplicity in the behavior of nature. Already in the 14th century William of Ockham enunciated a principle…
Murray Gell-Mann noted that “A successful new theoretical idea typically alters and extends the existing body of theory to allow for observational facts that could not previously be understood or incorporated. It also makes possible new predictions that can some day be tested.” Often in science, any significant contribution uncovers some serious flaw in a…
When a hypothesis is introduced, and it is accepted without any consideration of or regard to its consequences, it becomes a dogma. In its original Greek meaning, dogma signified something that seems to be good. In Christian theology the word has taken on special technical connotations, referring primarily to revealed truths, as enunciated in the…
Any theory in science is based on certain fundamental assumptions which one agrees to accept provisionally. These assumptions constitute the hypotheses of the theory. Thus, a hypothesis is invariably the starting point of a theory in science. The term is derived from the Greek, hypo: under, and tithenia: to put. So the word means that…
The word theory is derived from the Greek theoria: a speculation or view. It is used in both technical and ordinary language in a variety of meanings. Thus one speaks of Plato’s theory of ideas, Kant’s theory of knowledge, Cantor’s theory of sets, Hobbes’ political theory, the impressionist theory of art, and music theory. In…
There are some fundamental logical difficulties in accepting science-derived laws of nature as being the intrinsic or eternal characteristics of the physical universe. To begin with, whatever physical laws we hold to be true, we have become aware of them only through our experiences on this planet; and, since recently, on some other celestial bodies….
Kepler’s laws of planetary motion which specify the nature of planetary orbits (elliptical) and their quantitative aspects (rate of motion and time periods) were arrived by generalizing data of observations which had been carefully collected by another astronomer (Tycho Brahe). Boyle’s law of gases which enunciated the relationship between the volume and pressure of a…
David Sloan Wilson, Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s theory can change the way we think about our live, Delacorte Press, 2007, $24.00. Everyone (who can read) has heard of evolution. Many even know that its origins may be traced to the writings of Charles Darwin. There is also the general impression that in a nutshell the…
The notion of laws of nature such as we use in today’s science began with the emergence of modern science in the seventeenth century. In its infancy it was linked to the notion that these laws were ordained by the Almighty Creator of the physical universe. The first law of nature to be discovered in…