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A Modest Thought Experiement

Barry Arrington
October 24, 2015
Intelligent Design
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Assume the following facts for the sake of a thought experiment:

  1. There are two competing explanations for a particular phenomenon, which we shall call “Explanation A” and “Explanation B.”
  1. Explanation A indubitably qualifies as a scientific explanation.
  1. Just as indubitably Explanation B does not qualify as a scientific explanation.
  1. Explanation A is false and Explanation B is true.

Would our materialist friends prefer Explanation A or Explanation B?

Comments
Neil at 1: Assume the scientific answer is both false and useless and the non-scientific answer is both true and useful. Now how do you answer.Barry Arrington
October 24, 2015
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Meanwhile, over at "The Skeptical Zone," Neil knows what a "code" is but claims to not know what a "real code" is. Code Denialism Pathetic.Mung
October 24, 2015
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There can be non-scientific explanations that are useful. There can be scientific explanations that are useless. So much for Neil's pragmatism.Mung
October 24, 2015
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It's impossible to answer without the details of the explanations. There are good scientific explanations that are technically false (but still very useful). And there can be non-scientific explanations that are useless, even it technically true.Neil Rickert
October 24, 2015
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