Introduction
In today’s Western cultures we tend to consider science or the scientific method to be our sole or at least our most common way of gaining knowledge about the world around us. This tendency grew out of what we call “The Enlightenment” or “The Age of Enlightenment” in the 17th and 18thcenturies.
What’s fascinating is that we are conditioned by our society to hold this view intellectually while simultaneously understanding viscerally or intuitively that there are other ways to gain knowledge. For example, what scientific tools do I need to run the experiment that proves that my wife loves me? What is the chemical composition of love?
Most of us get right away that the previous two questions are nonsense. They are a category error because they aren’t in the category of what we can know by the scientific method. Dr. William Lane Craig hammers this point home when he lists 5 things not proven by science in his debate with atheist/materialist Dr. Peter Atkins.
1. Logical and Mathematical Truths
Logical and mathematical truths are not discovered by the scientific method. Science presupposes (assumes) them. They are the base foundation upon which science is built. Science is how we study the material world. Logic is an immaterial reality that sets the foundation for our scientific study.
Mathematical truths are the manifestations of logical truths throughout the physical universe. For example, we know that there exists a certain geometric shape in the universe that has exactly three sides. It has a certain set of logical relationships between the length of the sides, the size of the three angles, and the space that it occupies. We didn’t invent this shape. Yet our understanding of it allows us to “do science” in such a way that we can build things with it.
Sports
To use and imperfect analogy, logic and math are to science like the rules are to sports. Sports have physical players, fields/courts, equipment, etc. However, they are defined by the non-physical idea of what the sport is and how it should be played. We call this the rules of the sport.
When we play or watch a sport, we are watching the physical movements and plays in the physical world. The goal of both basketball and football is to outscore the other team. But what makes basketball and football different from one another? The rules. Rules determine ball size and type, playing surface, boundaries, number of players, movement of players, amount of time, etc.
Logic and math are what you might call the “rules” of science. They aren’t discovered by science. They are brute facts that must be in place to do science. You may have guessed by now that logic and math must come from a mind in the same way that rules for a game or sport also must come from a mind. We intuitively know that football didn’t just pop into existence from nothing. Neither did the world that we study through science.
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2. Metaphysical Truths
Metaphysical truths are the base conceptions of reality that we are all rational to hold. Craig uses the examples that “there are other minds than my own, the external world is real, etc.” These are truths that we can’t prove but not accepting them would cause us to throw away the very idea of gaining knowledge. We couldn’t know anything, even about ourselves. We would call that irrational. Yet these are a set of truths that must be in place for us to consider doing something like science.
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3. Ethical Beliefs
Ethical beliefs are an entirely different kind of knowledge than scientific knowledge. Science can only tell you what IS in the physical world. Ethics are about what OUGHT to be. We discovered through science that we COULD produce energy by splitting the atom. Science, however, couldn’t tell us whether or not we SHOULD have dropped the atom bombs on Japan.
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Ironically, science assumes ethical behavior by the scientist. When we make decisions based on scientific studies there is an underlying assumption that the data was taken and analyzed truthfully. We assume those paying for and conducting the studies aren’t doing so with conflicts of interests or with financial ambitions that would cause them to compromise the setup or outcome of the study. These ethical truths aren’t discovered by the studies. They must be present at the outset for the studies to have any validity.
4. Aesthetic Judgements
We have tried many times to measure beauty scientifically. However, we all know from experience that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. We can’t explain through science why one non-material mind prefers a certain color pattern or flower over another. Aesthetics is yet another kind of knowledge that is a different category than scientific knowledge.
5. Science
Science can’t be justified by the scientific method. The statement, “We should believe only what can be scientifically proven” can’t be proven by science. It’s not a scientific claim but a philosophical one. Philosophical arguments are in a different category of knowledge than scientific knowledge.
Science is only one way that we gain knowledge and it’s supported by unprovable assumptions that we must hold. The example the Dr. Craig gives is the speed of light. We can’t measure it so we must assume that its speed is constant in one direction. The scientist moves forward with his/her experimentation with the FAITH that this is true.
Forensic Science
When we talk about science, we typically think of empirical science in which we conduct repeatable experiments. However, another branch of science is forensic science. Forensic science is used to investigate things that typically happen once and do not repeat. The solving of crimes using forensic science comes to mind.
However, this is also what we use to study the past, including the study of origins. This method of gaining knowledge is heavily dependent on theories and assumption. Because we cannot go back in time to observe what happened, we are left to make assumptions that then allow us to formulate a theory of what happened.
Conclusion
Science isn’t our only way of knowing about the world. It can only test the material world. It has nothing to say about the immaterial truths that we all know and experience every day. We can’t scientifically measure reason, morality, or love. Yet they are very real. Science isn’t bad, it’s just limited to explaining one type of knowledge. We also need to use philosophy and faith to gain knowledge that science cannot speak to.
Blessings
1 thought on “5 Things Not Proven by Science”
“Put that in your pipe and smoke it!”