I was talking with Joey Lawrance during Professor Paul Cull's "coffee hour" today. We got off on the subject of what science can and cannot prove. It came up during the discussion that axioms, by definition, cannot be proved. A scientist must simply accept them to be true. In a certain sense, this is an act of faith--the scientist must believe in something they cannot prove. So, even a so-called "rationalist" must have some kind of faith.
Ironically, rationalists will claim that they don't know anything for certain, and therefore they don't trust anything. But to cope with day-to-day life, rationalists act on their beliefs with certainty. Essentially, they become trapped by philosophical skepticism.
I find this paradox interesting. Skeptics act with faith, but will not admit that it is faith. And, although skeptics can not prove their strong faith in science, they still trust it for answers.
Posted by enigma at February 20, 2004 09:42 PM