faith, and induction as an argument

I declare this to be on topic, because so many arguments on s.r.m so
often include the assertion of the idea that starting with conclusion
is somehow wrong. (If for no other reason.)

http://www.dbhs.wvusd.k12.ca.us/webdocs/Equations/Conserv-of-Mass.html

Notice at the bottom of the page, the author points out that Lavoisier
did not arrive at the law of conservation by induction. He assumed that
mass was conserved, and then assembled data to show his assumption,
even throwing out data that did not match as "failed experiments".

I had a religion teacher at BYU, I forget his name, he's the one who
gave me a C in Book of Mormon, but one of his favorite theses was the
concept that science is approaching knowledge from the bottom, reaching
up, where as religion receives knowledge from above. Both valid
approaches, both necessary.

One of the topics that was covered in my computer science coursework on
problem solving was the question of how humans learn, and we always
started those excursions with the assertion that there are two primary
methods of learning (and of solving problems): one being to test all
alternatives until a solution is shown, and the other being to make
intuitive jumps, validating the conclusion after arriving at it. (And
the teachers seemed to always prefer to point out that there are
several classes of problems for which exhaustively checking
alternatives would consume more time than is available.)

>>From my point of view, faith is simply the determination to test an
intuitive hypothesis on the one hand and the patience to work through
the set of alternatives on the other.

JouDanZuki

.

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