"The necessary precondition for the birth of science as we know it is, it would seem, the diffusion through society of the belief that the universe is both rational and contingent. Such a belief is the presupposition of modern science and cannot by any conceivable argument be a product of science. One has to ask: Upon what is this belief founded?" Lesslie Newbigin, Foolishness to the Greeks. Eerdmans, 1986, 71.
Rob: It's perfectly consistent: the belief that the universe is rational -- izable? -- is based on the observation that rationalization seems to work!
Kim: If when we started investigating the universe, it proved not to follow any patterns or the outcome changed each time, we would conclude that its not rational. But we don't find that. So we conclude that the universe is rational until the evidence points us in a different direction. Surely that's a product of science. Isn't it?
Jared: Rodney Stark does good stuff on this, esp. his book For the glory of God. interestinly he is agnostic, or in his own words "does not have faith" but is not an athiest.
Lachlan: But it doesn't actually say "rationalisable". It says rational.
I think Newbigin might be talking about the presupposition that the universe does and will behave rationally.
While we have seen the universe behave rationally in the past, there is no argument that can guarantee that it will continue to do so.
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