Yes, Snail, I'm aware of Prof. Karl Heinz Popper's contribution to the philosophy of science - but I certainly couldn't have quoted that passage by heart (if I'm honest I probably haven't fully understood it, nor thought through all of its implications; I wonder how many practising scientists have?). Mind you I can live with:

" ... scientific theory, and human knowledge generally, is irreducibly conjectural or hypothetical, and is generated by the creative imagination in order to solve problems that have arisen in specific historio-cultural settings."

When I think about "falsifiability", though, I seem to end up 'chasing-my-own-tail' - which probably means that I don't understand it(?)


Nevertheless, I see the primary point of this thread, and its predecessor, to be about challenging the Creationist world view. And that should be challenged not primarily because it is ascientific (which it most definitely is!) but because it poses profound dangers to freedom - freedom of thought and freedom of action; it's a narrow-minded (understatement of the year!), deeply restrictive and deeply unimaginative view of the world. Because it is so appealing to certain politicians in the West (particularly in the US)it poses a great danger to us all. I suspect that a world dominated by a Creationist world view would be a profoundly oppressive one.

It seems to me that obsessing about the philosophy of science (are there alternatives to Popper's conclusions by the way?), in this particular context serves only to give succour to the enemy!