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You did say astrology could be true:
but like I said I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out to have some actual correspondence to some unknown tangible cause unrelated to the stars
But really you just fell for the Barnum effect.
If you don't understand the difference between saying that something is true, and saying that there is a possibility of something being true, you offer no value in scientific discourse.
Says the person who thinks a single data point with no control is a "test", to someone who is a well published Doctor of Chemistry and has been practicing science for the last 15 years.
Yeah buddy, you go ahead and say I'm the one offering no value to scientific discourse. How many peer-reviewed papers have you published?
This guy's a nut job his whole argument is that 100% truth cannot be known while admitting that science is a great tool for knowing 99% of the truth he's actually proud of being 1% correct. 😅
Yeah, Newtonian gravity is 99% correct. It's extremely useful most of the time, but it's wrong. Forgetting that fact is a slippery slope to more damaging assumptions.
Bro, theories are rarely proven "wrong" it's more that they are built upon when studies come along that shed more light on a specific phenomenon. It's better to say that science tries to become more correct than to say it is proven wrong. I'm open to new empirical evidence changing my view but you only have your annecdotal story to back up your claims. I'm not forgetting that fact you are.
It's better to say that science tries to become more correct than to say it is proven wrong.
Exactly, or proven right. Science is the process of developing models which more closely approximate the world we see. It's a fantastic tool for doing that, and the best tool we have for improving knowledge overall. But it cannot support absolute declarations. There is always the possibility that a future theory shows inadequacies in the present one.
People like you seem to think that our present theories are fundamentally special, that we've reached the pinnacle of knowledge. What's the difference between you, and the highly educated scientists over the centuries who laughed at far-fetched theories that we use today?
Do I think astrology is a particularly useful or accurate model? No, not really. But once you start down the path of absolutism it slithers bit by bit into more and more uncertain topics. It's a troubling trend that turns otherwise intelligent people into fundamentalists.
Acknowledging the potential of a theory I don't personally believe is a small price to pay for mental hygiene.
Stop doing drugs.
Learn what science is.
You're way too worked up over this topic. Name calling that other guy and "I've done way more math than you."... Bro you need to get off the uppers. Look in a mirror.
If we're doing appeal to authority now, fewer than von Neumann, but he likewise believed that "Truth... is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations".
Since we're doing appeal to authority, fewer than John von Neumann, who had the humility to believe as I do that "Truth... is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations"
I approximate that astrology is bullshit based on nothing. So far the data backs me up and no one has found any positive data in it's favour. Astrology is conman crap, always has been.
Are you going to start telling me evolution doesn't exist, because it's just a theory next?
Buddy, I don't believe in astrology. I do believe in evolution. These are personal beliefs based on an overwhelming mountain of evidence.
However, I would never say astrology is absolutely false, or evolution absolutely true because, as I've said, that's brain rot. Absolute certainty is a poison. Sure, it seems justified with something like astrology, but once people get into the habit of declaring absolutes based on present evidence, that balloons into pernicious bullshit like astrology. It's bad practice.
I don't oppose tending towards the evidence, I overwhelming support it. I don't make decisions in my life based on astrology. What I do oppose is promoting bad cognitive habits like absolute declarations about reality.
Except astrology is absolutely bullshit. It has been proven time and time again.
And evolution is actually scientific fact, the theory is just about how it occurs, but the fact it occurs is 100% fact.
There are truths in science, the fact you are unaware of that shows why you don't know shit about science.
I'm sure you are an excellent chemist, and a successful scholarly author, but 100% fact is not attainable. 99.999%? Sure. But there's always a fraction of a percent chance that you're in a simulation, or hallucinating, or that some hyper-advanced entity is playing an elaborate trick on you. All vanishingly small, infinitesimal even, but non-zero.
100% certainty is incompatible with science.
It is.
Sorry to burst your bubble but science is just an explanation for our reality as we perceive it. It does not matter if we are in a simulation, or collectively hallucinating. In our perceived reality evolution is 100% fact. Gravity is 100% fact. Carbon having 6 protons is 100% fact. 2+2 = 4 is 100% fact. Hydrogen reacting with oxygen at high temperature to form water is 100% fact.
Dude, there are absolute facts in science, many of them.
2+2 = 4 is 100% fact because it's just mathematics, purely conceptual, and defined as such. Math isn't science. Carbon having 6 protons is a 100% fact because that's the definition of carbon, so if it doesn't have 6 protons we don't call it carbon. Definitions, even definitions used in science, are not themselves science. Those are human concepts, you can certainly have 100% certainty with man-made concepts.
Reality itself is not a purely human concept, we did not invent it. Extremely likely theories to explain reality with mountains of consistent evidence are the closest we can get to 100% certainty. I'd bet my life on an extremely likely theory with mountains of consistent evidence, but it is still technically a bet.
Consult your peers, see what they think about claiming 100% certainty. This conversation is going nowhere. I'm sorry for your mindset, and I hope it doesn't affect your work.
Every scientist I know and have ever met accepts there are 100% facts within science, including evolution and gravity among others.
Because as I said, science is a tool to explain our perceived reality, and things can absolutely rise to the level of fact. It does not matter if our reality turns out to be a computer simulation, because within that reality there are established facts that are true to said reality.
Evolution and gravity are both facts and theories, but they are still 100% facts in our current reality.