Hijacking Science – Everybody does it
Today I’d like to try to instill a sense of skepticism about lay-people’s interpretation of scientific or mathematical results. I don’t think it’s any big secret that the popular media outlets tend to fail miserably at accurately reporting on the meaning of scientific discoveries, and instead focus on the hype factor. And it’s also not a big secret that the opinions that float around the internet (including mine) are just that: opinions. I think researching and interpreting things for yourself is a wonderful thing – but it’s important to remember to take everything with a certain degree of skepticism.
I’m reminded of a recent exchange I had regarding the Borde-Guth-Vilenkin result in cosmological physics. In short, it states that inflationary physics models do not mathematically permit infinite-past universes. Now, this is a great example of a result that is very easily adapted to whatever conclusion you’ve got in mind. There are a couple of ways to interpret this result, like this one: “That’s EXACTLY what we’ve been saying! There had to be a definite beginning, so therefore God is real!” And then there’s another interpretation that would go something like this: “This poses a problem for inflationary physics. If it’s true that there was a definite beginning to time, what does that mean? We can’t very well ask what happened before it to cause that, because there was no ‘before’ to talk about…”. And then on the complete other side of the gamut we have this: “Inflationary physics must be wrong. All scientific theories need to be improved as we gain more information. Thus, we just don’t know enough yet, but I KNOW that the universe did not have a beginning.”
Personally, I’m somewhere between the second two. Frankly, I find both the idea of the infinite and the finite to be perplexing when we talk on a universal scale. It’s hard to imagine a universe that has absolutely no end… you can go farther and farther and never reach any boundary. But then, it’s just as hard to think of a boundary. What’s on the other side? No, wait, that doesn’t mean anything. What if I push through it? I can’t? What if I push reeeeeally hard?
But this kind of result is always going to be twisted. William Lane Craig, whose website name has some unintentional resemblance to mine, is happy to discuss his feelings on the matter. I don’t think that he does a terrible job of researching and thinking about his answer to this question, which is a compliment to him. I don’t necessarily agree with him, but that’s another matter entirely. But what we need to be careful about is people finding this answer and calling it scientifically proven that God created the universe. (In his defense, his final point is that you are not outside of mainstream science to believe in a definite beginning to the universe.) Treat it with the same skepticism as anything else. If only my audience had more overlap with his, I would be reaching the people most likely to make this mistake.
![[del.icio.us]](http://images.del.icio.us/static/img/delicious.small.gif){kind=small}
downloading music for free…
[...]we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
Gerber Babies…
[...]internet by linking sites that we feel benefit the internet[...]…
Travel Offers…
[...]The subsequent sites are numerous sites that attracted our management, therefore make sure you have a look at them[...]…
ICICI Money to India…
[...]what follows are some links to websites online which I link to since we feel they’re truly worth checking out[...]…
Get Money With Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]what follows are some listings to internet websites which we link to for the fact we feel these are well worth browsing[...]…
Online Kasper Suits Petite…
[...]below are some listings to websites online which we link to seeing as we feel they’re worthy of checking out[...]…
cheap backpacks…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
Money for College-Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]the following are a few web page links to websites which I link to seeing as we think they really are worthwhile browsing[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]listed below are several url links to online websites I always connect to seeing as we believe there’re worth visiting[...]…
Apply for Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]right here are a few references to online sites which I link to since we feel they will be definitely worth checking out[...]…
Phen…
[...]below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
Money for College-Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]following are a handful of web page links to web sites I always connect to since we believe they’re definitely worth visiting[...]…
Alexis Lewis…
[...]The insurance companies will provide the many of the offer to the customer were the premium must be pay them regularly[...]…
ICICI Money to India…
[...]right here are a handful of urls to webpages which I connect to because we feel they will be worth visiting[...]…
sesli chat…
sesli chat…
Travel Offers…
[...]The following web-sites really are numerous online sites that intrigued our own management, and so I highly recommend you have a look at all of them[...]…
Get Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]these are a couple of links to websites online which I link to seeing as we believe they are really worth checking out[...]…
Service AC / HVAC…
[...]while the sites we link to below are completely unrelated to ours, we think they are worth a read, so have a look[...]…
[...] we like to honor other sites on the web, even if they aren’t related to us, by linking to them. Below are some sites worth checking out[...]…
[...] below you’ll find the link to some sites that we think you should visit[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]the following are a couple of listings to websites online I always connect to as we feel they will be definitely worth visiting[...]…
Get Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]listed here are a couple of web page links to websites which we connect to for the fact we feel they really are seriously worth checking out[...]…
Franklyn Carrillo…
[...]this in turn can confuse the buyer in more ways than one i.e. to get the conservatory prices of conservatories[...]…
Review Site…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
London Escort Agencies…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Phoebe Mercer…
[...]Generally one product has realese in several times include so many thing of it[...]…
online casinos for usa players…
online casinos for usa players…
The Best Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]the following are a handful of urls to webpages I always link to for the fact we believe they will be truly worth checking out[...]…
ICICI Money to India…
[...]what follows are a few web page links to internet pages I always connect to as we believe they are really worth visiting[...]…
Trackback…
[...]take the time to read or visit the blogs we have linked to after the[...]…
Trackback…
[...]At the bottom of this page you will discover a few of unrelated blogs,however I belive are wonderfull websites worthy of a visit[...]…
airsoft m14…
[...]the time to read or visit the content or sites we have linked to below the[...]…
Escorts in London…
[...]here are some links to sites that we link to because we think they are worth visiting[...]…
Trackback…
[...]Top story; reckoned I could include some unrelated info, although still worth looking[...]…
Get Money With Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]in the following are a few url links to websites we link to seeing that we think they are truly worth browsing[...]…
Online Kasper Suits Petite…
[...]listed here are a handful of hyper-links to webpages that we link to seeing as we believe these are truly worth checking out[...]…
M1 BlackBerry…
[...]we managed to find these blogs which were really pretty. Hey, we even know their admins![...]…
Get Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]below are a few urls to internet sites we connect to as we think these are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Face Wrinkles…
[...]smoothed out with hydroxatone’s patented formula[...]…
eReaders…
[...]Nook, Kindle and iPad can hold thousands of eBooks[...]…
Free Glucose Meter…
[...]delivered to your door free of charge[...]…
Prevention of Diabetes…
[...]symptoms of hypoglycemia include shakiness[...]…
Top internet sites…
[...]I always like to pay a visit to similar web sites over the web for useful information. Have a look at the website down below[...]…
Get Money With Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]right here are a handful of urls to web sites which I connect to seeing that we feel they really are worth browsing[...]…
puff…
[...]Found by way of lisa after working with various experiments for more than seventeen years[...]…
OpenOffice Download…
[...]here are a handful of web links to web sites which we connect to since we think they’re worthwhile browsing[...]…
Things You Should Know About…
[...]I operate a pretty hot celeb chitchat web site, and to stay on top of things, I use marketplace pulse tools.Your URL has been burning up certain Alexa triggers, and I figured I’d check it out and discover if I could understand what all of the buz…
Get Money With Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]here are some url links to websites online which we connect to as we believe they’re really worth browsing[...]…
Online Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]here are a couple of references to sites which I link to seeing that we believe there’re seriously worth checking out[...]…
rats as pets…
[...]just below, are some totally unrelated sites to ours, however, they are definitely worth checking out[...]…
Online Scholarships for Minorities…
[...]following are a few links to web-sites that we link to seeing that we think they will be worth checking out[...]…