DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SCIENCE & MYTHOLOGY

• Science is not inherently a body of factual knowledge - Science is a process of inquiry.
• Difficult to define a unified scientific method
• There is a minimum protocol conforming with virtually all science philosophies.
• Scientific line of inquiry begins with a HYPOTHESIS - testable speculation to explain a witnessed natural phenomenon.

THEORECTICAL HIERARCHY

• Hypotheses
• Theory
• Theories may be elevated to general statements when widely accepted by the scientific community.
• Law
• Fact

Science is a Building Process

• When a hypothesis is generated, certain valid selection criteria must be used to develop the hypothesis to be tested.
• The selection of valid selection criteria is most often abused by non-scientists.

Valid Selection Criteria

• Multiple Working Hypotheses.
• The principle and the null hypotheses are a minimum to be presented. Therefore, the hypothesis can not be a priori favored.
• Objectivity
• where a hypothesis is not accepted due to preconceived notions or a refusal to examine the evidence.
• Presentation in a positive fashion.
• Presentation seeks knowledge, not a presumption as to the outcome.
• Falsifiability
• Subject to falsification and tests devised to place such risks of falsification.
• The hypothesis must be susceptible to adverse data or scientific developments.
• Scientists are constrained to the present known opposing views.
• Occams (Ockhams) Razor
• The most parsimonious should be considered the best.
• Hypotheses should be logically valid.
• Logical fallacies should be avoided:
• Factual error; complex questions and spurious correlations; False assumptions; & Anachronisms
• Others include: irrelevant data, innuendo, failure to specify, appeal to authority, argumentum ad hominem, etc.

What Distinguishes Science?

• Scientists do not invoke the "supernatural" to explain "the natural world"
• Science is constantly open to new ideas
• Science employs first principles very different from those of religion
• There is a real world independent of our perceptions
• The world is structured
• We can understand most of the structure using inquiry
• There is historical and causal continuity

Historical Geology is a SCIENCE based upon empirical and experimental data

• The information that will be presented during the development of this course has been derived utilizing testable hypotheses that have been validated and re-validated.

GE142