Values and Science
Fundamentalism "emphasizes a return to literal
interpretations of the scriptural texts.”
(Capps, 1990 in Giddens 1996, 289).
In Christian Fundamentalism “the Bible is seen
as a workable guidebook for politics, government, business, families, and all
over the affairs of mankind" (Capps, 1990
cited in Giddens 1996, 289)
Some people do not
yet understand that Science is different from this ideological doctrine.
There should not
be a Problem since Scientific logic and ideological belief can coexist.
·
The logic
used in belief and in scientific inquiry are different
·
Scientific
logic cannot be applied in an ideological belief system, and vice versa
Examples:
·
Disprove
evolutionism with creationism (TX)
·
Determining the number of Angles
fitting through the eye of a needle (Vatican)
QUESTION: What is a value free statement?
Example 1
A:
"The medical service of abortion should be legal and readily
available"
B:
"The medical service
of abortion should be illegal and not available"
Example 2
In historic times or
other cultures where abortion is illegal
In example 1 we tell people what to do
=> tasks for politicians?
In example 2 we inform people and let it up to their own evaluation what they should do.
=> task for sociology
Correlation and Causation
Correlation:
co-occurrence of two or more events
Causation:
one event is a necessary prerequisite for the other
Causality:
the relationship between a cause and its effect
Correlation or Causation?
Example
1: Someone uses the legal drug
alcohol and the illegal drug marijuana
Example 2:
Someone uses the marijuana and heroin.
Example
3: A study has shown that student who
use marijuana have a higher IQ than other students.
Disclaimer: The documents linked to other sources on the WWW, others than http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider/ , http://www2.tltc.ttu.edu/Schneider2/ and its subdirectories, do not necessarily express the views of Texas Tech University or Dr. Schneider. @Copyright 2007 Andreas Schneider