It does a little more than that. It points to a specific class of hypotheses where we have evidence that in similar contexts such mechanisms can have an impact. The real problem here is that without any ability to replicate the event, we’re not going to be able to get substantially farther than that.
Yeah, it’s not really an explanation so much as an expression of where we’d look if we could. Presumably the way to figure it out is to either induce repeat performances (difficult to get funding and review board approval, though) or to study those mechanisms further. I suspect that’d be more likely to help than reading about ghost-emperors, at least.
Quite. Seems to me that if we’re going to hold science to that standard, we should be equally or more critical of ignorance in a cassock; we should view religion as a competing hypothesis that needs to be pointed to specifically, not as a reassuring fallback whenever conventional investigation fails for whatever reason. That’s a pretty common flaw of theological explanations, actually.
It does a little more than that. It points to a specific class of hypotheses where we have evidence that in similar contexts such mechanisms can have an impact. The real problem here is that without any ability to replicate the event, we’re not going to be able to get substantially farther than that.
Yeah, it’s not really an explanation so much as an expression of where we’d look if we could. Presumably the way to figure it out is to either induce repeat performances (difficult to get funding and review board approval, though) or to study those mechanisms further. I suspect that’d be more likely to help than reading about ghost-emperors, at least.
Quite. Seems to me that if we’re going to hold science to that standard, we should be equally or more critical of ignorance in a cassock; we should view religion as a competing hypothesis that needs to be pointed to specifically, not as a reassuring fallback whenever conventional investigation fails for whatever reason. That’s a pretty common flaw of theological explanations, actually.