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What is Science? - Test

Answers to Test Questions
1. Adam observed, compared, contrasted, classified and named the animals in the Garden.

2. Adam could speak directly with God in the Garden and ask Him questions about the things he saw in the Garden.

3. In science human experience:

a. is made systematic, directed by the intention to learn about the natural world,

b. is made efficient by planned methods of research, and

c. is often aided by instruments which enlarge the powers of our natural senses.

4. Science is human experience system systematically extended (by intent, methodology and instruments) for the purpose or learning more about the natural world and for the critical testing and possible falsification of all ideas about the natural world.

5. No.

6. No, for a correct definition of science says nothing about the beliefs of scientists. Furthermore, science can neither prove or disprove the existence of divine purpose, plan, design or goal in the universe.

7. a. No, they have no such proof.

b. No, such proof is not possible for science.

c. Obviously not.

d. Therefore, the basic reason so many scientists and other scholars reject as "unscientific" any belief in divine purpose, plan, design or goal in the universe, is their personal belief system which has no place for God or at least for God inside of His universe.

8. Science can study only the natural world, the empirical(observable) world. Science cannot study the supernatural.

9. A scientific hypothesis is an attempted explanation for certain observed data, framed so that it can be tested by new observations or experiments.

10. A hypothesis in science must be empirically(i.e., by observation or experiment) testable, and it cannot contain references to any supernatural influence or activity.

11. Every supernatural being is a personal being. That which is spiritual cannot be observed or measured with the tools of science. And the supernatural, being personal, is possessed of will and therefore cannot be counted upon to react to experimental procedures the same tomorrow as it did today. In other words, God cannot be subjected to experimental control and study with scientific instruments.

12. No. According to a correct definition of science, there are no restrictions on what a scientist may or may not believe. Therefore, a scientist is free to believe that the Bible is the Word of God, and that what He has revealed to us about the world He created is absolute truth. A scientist's faith in the God of the Bible will only make him "unscientific" if he makes the mistake of trying to include God or God's activities inside of his scientific hypotheses. This would make his hypotheses untestable and therefore unscientific.

13. Scientific knowledge is knowledge which can be gained by application of the scientific method to the study of the natural world.

14. No. This is because many of the truths revealed in the Bible about the natural world cannot be discovered by the method of science.

15. Christians believe in the divine special creation of all things, first of all, not because of scientific evidence, but because of their faith in Jesus Christ and in the Bible as the divinely inspired and inerrant Word of God.

16. Science cannot discover absolute truth, because all scientific observations, interpretations and theories are always open to reevaluation, correction or rejection on the basis of new scientific data and new understanding of the facts.

17. Pasteur's hypothesis was a good scientific hypothesis because it was designed to be experimentally testable. Even though inspired by faith in the Creator God, his hypothesis made no reference to God. After the experiments were completed and supported his hypothesis, Pasteur pointed out that they supported his faith in God.

18. The definition of science requires that all ideas in science be continually and forever open to criticism, retesting, and possible correction or replacement.

19. Since any theory in science is open to being disproved, it is also open to being replaced by a better theory. Competition of ideas is essential to this openness of science. Furthermore, competition of ideas is a kind of testing of the old ideas.

20. No. Because the origins of things in the beginning were not observed by humans and cannot be repeated experimentally, theories of origins are really not experimentally testable. They generally cannot be empirically falsified, even though they may be false.

21. By "circumstantial evidence" is meant the fact that the evidence is subject to more than one interpretation, depending upon the assumptions and beliefs of the interpreter.

22. No. Since science can neither prove or disprove theories of origins, since faith is an important element in believing any theory about origins, and since Christians are as free to hold their faith in God the Creator as are non-Christians to reject God and trust instead in "dumb atoms," Christians are not "unscientific" in making their biblical faith the most important basis for their believing in creation rather than in evolution.

23. Darwinian evolution is by definition a totally materialistic, unplanned, unguided and purposeless process. In contrast, theistic evolution is by definition a process which is divinely guided to achieve divinely pre-ordained goals. These are two mutually contradictory theories.

24. One cannot logically at the same time hold two mutually contradictory ideas.

25. W.R. Thompson pointed out that Darwin made personal beliefs, assumed possibilities and imaginations into supposed proofs or arguments for his theory. Such argumentation, he said, is without scientific value, since it cannot be verified.

26. Popper said that Darwinism is "not a testable scientific theory, but a metaphysical research programme--a possible framework for testable scientific theories."

27. Even as evolution is an idea grounded in a belief system, so at the level of science creation also is an idea grounded in a belief system. Neither evolution or creation is a testable scientific theory. Neither was observed and neither can be reproduced experimentally. Consequently, both evolution and creation are metaphysical concepts, matters of philosophy and religion. However, much proper scientific hypothesizing and experimentation has been done by both evolutionary scientists and creationist scientists. Their hypotheses have been designed to be testable, even though they may be related to the untestable belief in either evolution or creation.

28. In the tax-funded educational institutions the subject of theories of origins should be taught in a way which protects the constitutional rights of all students. In particular:

a. All dogmatism in curriculum materials should be properly identified and qualified, so that students learn to distinguish between opinions and facts,

b. All theories of origins should be subjected to criticism, in the light of the scientific evidence of their weaknesses and failures,

c. Students should be free to introduce and discuss or debate anti-evolutionary ideas, and

d. A correct philosophically neutral definition of science should be taught.

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