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AnthonyL · 22-07-2020, 12:53 PM posted to uk.rec.gardening

On Tue, 21 Jul 2020 13:20:29 -0000 (UTC), (Nick
Maclaren) wrote:

In article ,
AnthonyL wrote:

When I hear them arguing and disagreeing with eachother the thought
that immediately comes to me is "You are scientists. If there is not
a proof there that satisfies all then shut up and go seek it".

It somewhat reminds me of what I learnt as an engineer "Safety factor
is simply ignorance factor".

The former shows your misunderstanding of complex issues - why do you
think there IS a single, explicable, complete answer? There very
often isn't - and, in some cases, there are questions that are quite
simply unanswerable in such terms.

So they may as well believe in a god and argue about that? They may
theorise one thing and it is in pursuit of theories that more becomes
known but to argue that one belief is better than another is the
anathama of what I understand science to be. What's the point in
believe a heavy stone will fall to the ground faster because it is
heavy?

And the second is effectively ********. You cannot design for all
possible events - ships are designed only against (say) 'once in
a millennium' storms, not the worst possible storm, let alone such
things as Cumbre Viejo or the Storegga shelf collapsing.

That is not how engineering builds in safety factors. At least not in
the aviation (airframe and engine) environment I started off in.

--
AnthonyL

Why do scientists need to BELIEVE in anything?