Objectivity in Science

There is a common myth that scientists is that they are totally objective but it is not true. First of all scientists human and are subject to human flaws that prevent total objectivity. In addition ones philosophical assumptions will always influence ones conclusions no mater how objective you try to be.  Furthermore just knowing something about the topic will inevitably causes a person to form opinions about that topic such that you can only be totally objective if you are totally ignorant. 

Take a look at the following video and notice how the blue ball moves.

Most likely you concluded that the gravitational attraction of the larger ball or some other physical force was pulling on the blue ball making its path bend. If you did you have just let your own preconceptions about the real world cloud you thinking about an animation video. The real answer is that I drew the frames of the video to make it do that.

Information Theory

Basic Information Theory

Basic Concepts of Information Theory

Information Theory: The branch of applied mathematics involving the quantification of information.

Information: A message that consists of an ordered sequence of symbols, or the meaning that can be interpreted from it.

Claude E. Shannon first developed Information theory as part of his research into the fundamental limits or signal processing in 1948. This research was a purely statistical study that did not consider the content or meaning of the information. It also produced what is now the standard measurement of information called the bit. The full concept involves a source of information that produces the message which in turn is converted by a transmitter to a signal. During transmission noise can enter the system and degrade the signal which causes information to be lost. Eventually the signal can be picked up by a receiver where the message is then sent to the destination.

These basic concepts of Information Theory make much of what we take for granted to day possible including computers, the internet, cell phones, and thing we don’t even notice. Information is an important part of life in the 21 first century and in the form of DNA information is absolutely necessary for life to exist at all.

History and the Philosophy and Historical sciences

The further on looks back in history the more information has gotten lost about the events that occurred. It is also harder to know the credibility of available information.  This means that some means is needed to test credibility of source material and to fill in gaps in our knowledge. As a result the philosophical assumptions of a given historian play a major role in his testing of credibility and filling in gaps. This is why philosophical assumptions play a major role in studying History.

A perfect example of the influence of philosophical assumptions is an historian who holds to the philosophical assumption of absolute naturalism. Such an historian would automatically discount any historical reference to a supernatural event. Such an historian would automatically dismiss much of the Biblical account regardless of any other supporting evidence.

What is Sience?

The single biggest problem in science  is defining science it self. The main idea of science is that conclusions are made on the basis of empirical evidence. The evidence comes from experimentation and observation.

The basic process of science is often described in what is known as the Scientific Method. It needs to be noted that is a basic description not an absolute methodology, but it is a good basic description.

It starts with an observation made of some aspect of the universe followed by a tentative description is made, called a hypothesis that is consistent with what is observed.

This hypothesis is used to make predictions that are tested by way of experiments of further observations Modify or abandon the  hypothesis as needed in the light of results.

Repeat steps the previous paragraph as many time as needed until there are no discrepancies between theory and experiment and/or observation.

There is more to science than this, but it makes a good basic description.

Meridiani Planum Mars’ Largest Water Spill

Opportunity landed in the Meridiani Planum region of Mars to be greeted by a sight that was strange even by Mars’ standards. Studdying it from both a local and global perspective clearly shows an area of catastrophic flooding and not the long standing sea proposed by JPL. Meridiani Planum forms a clear splatter large zone across the surface of Mars. The rocks there show clear evidence of being exposed to and eroded by concentrated sulfuric acid making the environment more like that of a car battery than an habitable sea. This shows that Martian geology has a largely catastrophic make up and not a uniformitarian one as seen Part one: Catastrophic Martian Geology

Catastrophic Geology on Mars

As amazing a place Mars as is the uniformitarian claims of form JPL on Martian geology are shown wrong because evidence show that it has a clearly catastrophic nature. Mars’ largest impact basin called Hellas is on the opposite of Mars from the Tharsis plateau with its massive volcanoes. In fact the center of Hellas is exactly opposite Alba Patera’s caldera, Alba Patera has the largest diameter of all of  Mar’s volcanoes  this implies that the Hellas impact triggered the formation of not only Alba Patera but the other Tharsis volcanoes as well, The ash from their eruptions ultimately forming the Tharsis plateau,

Another smaller impact basin called Argyre seems to have been responsible for ripping open Valles Marineris.  In fact the dominant distribution of craters on Mars suggests that they came largely from the same direction suggesting a short period nearly unidirectional  bombardment rather than a longer period of occasional random impacts.

This shows that Martian geology has a largely catastrophic make up and not a uniformitarian one.

Happy Thanksgiving

Remember to give thanks to God our Creator on this Thanksgiving.

Remembering that Jesus being God is our Creator and Redeemer.