With Mars mission and rover Curiosity, NASA hunts building blocks of life

[Dave Lane]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

The wheel. Written language. There were a whole of lot things that REALLY moved society into the future long before the advent of science. Science rides on the coattails of truly monumental changes.

The guy who "invented" the wheel was a scientist.

sci·ence [sahy-uh ns] noun

1.a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.

2. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.

3. any of the branches of natural or physical science.

4. systematized knowledge in general.

5. knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study.

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by Dave Lane

The guy who "invented" the wheel was a scientist.

sci·ence [sahy-uh ns] noun

1.a branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws.

2. systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.

3. any of the branches of natural or physical science.

4. systematized knowledge in general.

5. knowledge, as of facts or principles; knowledge gained by systematic study.

Talk about overly broad definitions of science. Systematized knowledge in general? Come on....

You know as well as I do that things such the wheel, written language, agriculture, etc are pre-scientific. You are being disingenuous if you claim otherwise.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

Talk about overly broad definitions of science. Systematized knowledge in general? Come on....

You know as well as I do that things such the wheel, written language, agriculture, etc are pre-scientific. You are being disingenuous if you claim otherwise.

You cannot possibly be serious with this. There is no such thing as "Pre-scientific". You were just given the definition of science for crying out loud...

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by Fish

You cannot possibly be serious with this. There is no such thing as "Pre-scientific". You were just given the definition of science for crying out loud...

Using your definitions the Heliopolitan religion of the Nile is "scientific."

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

Using your definitions the Heliopolitan religion of the Nile is "scientific."

I don't think you understand what it means at all.

Science is not an era. It's not a frame of time. It's not a theory to be applied. There is no point in time where a switch flipped and shit got scientific. Nobody invented science.

It's simply the application of observation and experimentation to better understand the world. A caveman finding a round rock, and noticing that the round rock rolls down the hill better than a square pointy rock, would be considered science. So yes, I'm certain we could find some aspect of Heliopolitan religion that would be considered "Scientific".

[Fat Elvis]

Originally Posted by Fish

I don't think you understand what it means at all.

Science is not an era. It's not a frame of time. It's not a theory to be applied. There is no point in time where a switch flipped and shit got scientific. Nobody invented science.

It's simply the application of observation and experimentation to better understand the world. A caveman finding a round rock, and noticing that the round rock rolls down the hill better than a square pointy rock, would be considered science. So yes, I'm certain we could find some aspect of Heliopolitan religion that would be considered "Scientific".

I completely understand what it means, and I believe I understand what you think it means. I don't think you understand my criticism of what you purport it means. You've turned "science" into something so overly broad to the point to where it has seemingly lost all substantive meaning.

I'm not "anti-science."

We're just going to have to disagree on this.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Fat Elvis

I completely understand what it means, and I believe I understand what you think it means. I don't think you understand my criticism of what you purport it means. You've turned "science" into something so overly broad to the point to where it has seemingly lost all substantive meaning.

I'm not "anti-science."

We're just going to have to disagree on this.

But science is overly broad by its very nature. That's not a negative at all.

You started this by saying the wheel and written language weren't science, and they were before the time of science. Like "Science" was late to the game. But that's completely false. If you understood, you would realize that both of those things were created according to the very definition of science. Just because science covers an insanely wide range of different uses, that doesn't mean it has lost any substantive meaning at all. Why on Earth would you think that? Science has branched out and diversified and evolved in countless ways. But at its roots, it's still just observation, documentation, and explanation of the world around us.

I don't see any other less broad ways to define it in which it would still retain its root meaning.

Why is it that you would think the invention of the wheel is not something scientific? How would you explain it?

[-King-]

Originally Posted by Fish

I don't think you understand what it means at all.

Science is not an era. It's not a frame of time. It's not a theory to be applied. There is no point in time where a switch flipped and shit got scientific. Nobody invented science.

It's simply the application of observation and experimentation to better understand the world. A caveman finding a round rock, and noticing that the round rock rolls down the hill better than a square pointy rock, would be considered science. So yes, I'm certain we could find some aspect of Heliopolitan religion that would be considered "Scientific".