What is science?

This article is intended for those for whom the term "science" is not clear enough. Therefore, the explanation presented here is an intuitive explanation, formulated in easy language and does not include difficult concepts. It is not the intention of this article to formally define what science is. Therefore, if I sinned lightly here and there, I did so only to fulfill the mitzvah

Chaim P.

Direct link to this page: https://www.hayadan.org.il/whatisscience.html

This article is intended for those for whom the term "science" is not clear enough. Therefore, the explanation presented here is an intuitive explanation, formulated in easy language and does not include difficult concepts. It is not the intention of this article to formally define what science is. Therefore, if I sinned here and there with superficiality, I did so only to observe the commandment of simplicity.

My name is Navon, and I am Jewish. I have a Muslim nanny and a friend named Alon who is the son of a Christian pastor. We have many other interesting neighbors: an astrologer, a numerologist, a coffee reader, a graphologist, a card reader and a tarot artist. Also among our neighbors is a Indian Maharaja and a follower of Hari Krishna, a science editor is also there, on one of the floors.
My father, a cantor in the synagogue, taught me, of course, Judaism. This is how I learned that the Jews are a people of choice, and that Christianity and Islam draw their roots from Judaism. I also studied the Bible and Mishna and Talmud.
All these neighbors were kind people, who liked us and did not hide from us the truth in which they believed. This is how both Alon and I learned from the Muslim nanny who explained the teachings of Islam to us. The Torah of Islam is also a consolidated Torah with reams of laws. The priest, Avi Alon, taught me about the Holy Jesus, the Son of God, about the miracles and wonders he wrought and the sacrifice he made.
So I met the astrologer and he offered me his teachings - the influence of distant stars on the destinies of earthly people. It didn't take long and the numerologist also joined the circle of acquaintances. He introduced me to the world of numbers and their influence on our lives. I learned, of course, also a few chapters from the theory of the card department. So I didn't understand why she doesn't have affection for the reader in the cafe.
Everyone offered us their wares. No wonder I was embarrassed, as some of them contradicted each other's words. Was Jesus really the Son of God as Christianity says, or a lying eyewitness as Judaism and Islam believe? And what about Muhammad? So is it allowed to eat meat in milk or not? Do I have to sip 4 glasses of wine (Judaism) or am I not allowed to touch an intoxicating drink of any kind (Islam). Do the stars influence my life or should I not mess with star workers and zodiac signs? Is all this stuff with the cards true? Maybe it's better to leave everything and go into meditation with the Maharaja?
The more I thought about these matters, the more my thinking developed, the more my embarrassment increased. Because yes they contradicted each other sometimes directly, sometimes indirectly. Little by little the realization began to ripen in my mind: there are wrong statements here. Meaning: despite the good intentions, at least in some cases I'm just being told nonsense. Actually, maybe everyone is talking nonsense? Who the hell am I supposed to trust? What should I do?

Of course there was continuous communication between me and my friend Alon, these questions also disturbed his rest. And one day, when we sat together and discussed these questions, he made the following suggestion: Next we will open a personal diary. This will be a notebook in which we will only write down clear and distinct facts about the world. And not just facts, but facts that we personally witness. for example:
The sun always rose in the east. (although I've never seen anything else)
The sun always set in the west.
When we dropped balls, they always fell to the ground.
When we lit dry wood - it always caught fire and turned to ash.
People reached the age of 100 at the most. We have never heard of an exception.
Electric charges of the same type - always repel each other.
and so'
It should be noted that all these sentences are worded in the past tense. And indeed these are personal testimonies about events that happened in the past! They cannot testify to events that have not yet occurred! That is why we must say "the sun always rises in the east", which is a reliable personal testimony, and we must not say "the sun always rises in the east".
This is already speculation.
I asked my friend, how in his opinion should we behave if we receive testimony from another person about some fact? This is undoubtedly a difficult dilemma, because seemingly if we don't believe them - we create a severe discrimination: they are liars and we are trustworthy? This time I was the one who found the answer: no! This is not a question of discrimination! We do not ask that they believe us more than others! It's just a question of what we write in our notebooks, and it's definitely our private matter. We will only accept such testimonials if we have the opportunity to test them! For example, if a person comes and claims that in all the experiments he did - water flowed from a high place to a low place, we will take advantage of the tip he gave us, and go out to check if this is indeed the case. If in the experiments we do we find that his words are true - we will write in notebook number 1 that "in the experiments we did - water always flowed from a high place to a low place (including full details of each and every experiment)".
"But", my friend asked, "what would we do if a very reliable person testified that yesterday at 11 at night a bright meteorite fell north of Moshav Margaliot? We won't be able to check his words!"
"True", I said. "We cannot be completely sure because a meteorite fell at 11 o'clock at night. Although if we do not receive such evidence, we will lose quite a few real facts. On the other hand, we will gain a great deal: we will be able to be confident that everything written in the notebook is unquestionably true. Only facts without beautifying and covering up".
My friend looks very thoughtful.
"You know", he said, "all religions claim that there is a God".
"This is not true. Some atheists claim not. But that is not the point. Even if you and I personally believe there is a God, we cannot testify to it! We never ran into him, never talked to him. This notebook is intended, simply, only for our personal testimonies, not for our thoughts. that's it. point. No!"
"In that case, we'll call her the evidence notebook"
"Excellent", I agreed. This is an excellent name. We have a notebook of evidence, it is the first notebook.

A few days passed before I met my friend Alon again. It was he who opened and pressed:
"You know, we record personal testimonies endlessly and endlessly. Although they are all reliable and true, what's the point if we don't learn anything from them?"
"What do you mean don't study? Don't we know that in all the cases we examined - water flows from a high place to a low place. What's wrong with this knowledge?"
"Look", he replied to me. "I have a very strong feeling about the correctness of some basic rules. For example, that the sun not only always rose in the east, but that it would continue to do so. It will always rise in the east."
"But", I protested passionately, "this is speculation! Who guarantees this?". I was really angry. Didn't we expressly agree that we would only record personal testimonies, no rules, no speculations! You really can't trust people! Yesterday we agreed like this, and today he is already reflecting. That's not how you build a wall!
"In my opinion, under normal conditions, water will always flow from a high place to a low place."
Alon tried to bring another example. I did not answer. I was irritated and upset.
But my friend continued: "In my opinion, people will never live beyond the age of 100
Here I didn't hold back: "And what if in a year we hear about someone who passed that age without dying? Your notebook will lose all credibility!”
"No way? I'll use another notebook!” Ha! I was really surprised. I didn't think about that! This is how you build a wall!

The idea was clear: we will open a new notebook, in the structure of a folder. And if we have a good feeling that some rule is true, we will write it down on a page and put it in a folder! In doing so, we do not damage the evidence notebook at all! "We will call the new notebook (folder) the theory notebook" I happily suggested. "exactly. There we can come up with different thoughts"
We sat together and thought in silence.
"No", I said. "We won't just write down thoughts there." I tried to form my thoughts. "We will write there only consolidated rules concerning the facts recorded in the evidence notebook" "Yes", answered Alon. "This will be about rules whose role is to organize the information in the fact notebook."
Alon pondered for a while, then said: "I think you didn't express yourself well. It seems to me that we should write down in the theoretical notebook only rules that can be tested and verified or refuted"
I immediately understood what he meant. It was a shell idea! For example "the sun always rises in the east". It's a rule that can be tested every day (this rule has predictability!). We will write this rule down in the theory notebook. As long as the rule is correct (the predictions are valid), all is well and good. But if one day the sun rises in the north, we'll just mark a big X on that particular page. We note to ourselves that this rule is not true.
And if tomorrow we find a person at the age of 101, we will know that the person is capable of passing the age of 100, and perhaps we will update the rule, so that it will be recorded in the notebook "The person cannot pass the age of 101."

"Now we can also write in the theory notebook that there is a God" suggested my friend. I don't think so. I have thought about this problem before. "And how exactly do you intend to come up with an experiment or observation that might force us to the conclusion that there is or is not God?" "Perhaps we will pray to him that when we throw the dice - we will succeed," Alon suggested 6-6.
"This is not proof. If it comes out 2-1 you will reject the existence of God? What, are you threatening him? Does he have to listen to you? In my opinion, we have no possibility to check its existence using any fact from the evidence notebook, or through any experiment"
Alon tried to come up with various experiments to prove the existence of God, but slowly came to the conclusion that if there isn't one he enters the assumption through the main door, he sneaks it through the window. Thus, the question of God remained outside the first notebook and outside the second.

The way of science

Years passed. Most of the days we learned what science is and what the scientific method is. And it turns out that our two notebooks - the evidence notebook and the theoretical notebook - are the ones from which science is built: observation and investigation. We discovered that we actually followed the path of the scientific method.
Our conventional science is not fundamentally different from what we did. In deep thought it can be seen that every person who organizes his thoughts about the world must arrive at a similar method. In the evidence (facts) notebook, only facts will be recorded as they are, facts that I have witnessed with my own eyes.
In the theory notebook we write down theories that are supposed to explain what is written in the fact notebook. Zero, these are only theories that can be tested. It is impossible to write there "a positive electric charge attracts a negative charge because it likes it".
Although this claim purports to explain the electric attraction, this claim is untestable. That is, it is impossible to invent any experiment that would prove to me that it is love that attracts them and nothing else.

In real science, it is difficult to expect that each and every scientist will perform all the experiments performed by the other scientists. Sometimes scientists have to rely on an experiment performed by other scientists. Zero, an old and well-known scientific theory will never be changed based on a single experiment or a single observation, but based on a series of experiments and/or observations confirmed by different scientists. It is impossible for every bar tishhurt to announce "yesterday I checked the theory of relativity and it is not correct at all".

The basic requirement for extreme strictness on the reliability of the facts - this is a very important and necessary requirement. Because it will be impossible to advance science anywhere if everyone comes up with untested "facts", which, if accepted, will result in the rejection of good scientific theories. Failure to meet this requirement is the greatest source of vanity science. If a person hears a rumor that there is a sorcerer who turns a bird into a dog, and treats the rumor as if it were verified and correct, the result will be that that person will lose the correct and balanced view of the reality around him. Unfortunately, religious education is a powerful source of unreliable, unverified, incorrect "facts" and it doesn't have to be that way!

A scientist cannot treat the story of a dove that stayed in the fish's gut for three days - as a fact. This story cannot be recorded in the first notebook! (Those who want, can open additional notebooks and organize as they wish. Zero, please don't forget: science only consists of the first two notebooks!!)

I would like to emphasize an important point regarding theories: a scientific theory is a theory that helps me organize facts from the fact notebook, and it also has the ability to predict events before they occur. If these predictions do not come true, one of the theory's fate: to the trash can. For example, the theory "the sun only rises in the east" is a theory that "explains" why in all observations to date the sun has risen in the east. This theory also predicts that tomorrow (and the next day...) the sun will continue to rise in the east. This is a prediction that, if disproved, will prove the theory to be incorrect.
Of course, there is another theory that has more information: "The earth is a sphere that rotates around its axis". This theory not only explains why the sun always rises in the east, but it has many other predictions, for example: where does the sun disappear at night?
In the same matter: here is an even more complex theory than the previous two: "The earth is a sphere that rotates around its axis every 24 hours, and also orbits the sun once a year." This theory is already more detailed, it predicts many more things. Another refinement of the theory: the Earth's axis is at an angle of 23 degrees to the Earth-Sun plane. Now the seasons and the changing length of day and night are already explained...
Sometimes there are predictions where we didn't think of them. For example, when you enter your dark room, and reach out and press the power switch. What do you expect to happen? Right! You made a prediction that there would be light! And the prediction does not disappoint! This is what science looks like at its best.

Many people make the mistake of thinking that if a theory has changed, then the science is not good! They may be confusing the fact notebook with the theory notebook. While the fact notebook should not change (unless an error was found in the experiment), the theory notebook contains, by its very nature and definition, temporary theories that may
change tomorrow
In any case, theories should not be taken lightly, even if they are temporary: the older a theory is, the more facts it explains that are added to the facts notebook every day. Such a theory is becoming more and more "credible". The simple fact is that the extreme caution with which science was conducted - has paid off for us. We have electricity, medicine, computer, abundant food, air-conditioned houses and a comfortable life.

Last and last: every theory * that can be tested * is a scientific theory with equal rights. This, even if it has a strange origin. Even if it is brought from the world of astrology, numerology or from the Kabbalah Research Institute.

Religion and science
In my conversations with Alon, we came to the conclusion that at the base of every religious Torah is the assumption that there is a God, and He requires us in one way or another to perform various tasks. For example: "Remember the Sabbath to keep it holy", "Thou shalt not murder". The claim "There was God" cannot be registered in the fact notebook, because God is not observed, nor touched.
And if you say "It is impossible that there was no God" - says that this is a logical consideration. The facts notebook is intended for facts only.
The theoretical notebook will not contain the statement "there is God" either. As I have shown, since this claim has no consequences that can be tested experimentally. Therefore, this question is outside the scientific study today.
However, it is possible that in the future some scientist will discover a logical or experimental method to test if God exists. By the way, even if such a method is discovered, and even if the existence of God is proven, it will be necessary to prove that he requires a certain list of requirements from us, if at all.

astrology
Note: I can put my hands on any high school or academic physics book and say that it is a good physics book. The same goes for math books.
But with regard to astrology - it is impossible to do this. and in short:
1. Astrology does not have a central establishment that will manage the notebook of astrological theories and direct the astrological studies. (Why? Because the attempts failed? Because there is nothing behind the vanity?)
2. There is no notebook of solid and tested facts, such as "80% of Sagittarius born under such and such conditions become doctors"

That is why the war with astrologers is a Don Quixote war. There is nothing to fight for. If you manage to find a testable astrological claim, and manage to disprove it, you won't even have anyone to plead your case to. And on the Internet forums they will be quick to say that the claim does not belong to the world of astrology and the one who claimed it is a charlatan. (On the other hand, you won't find an astrological personality that everyone will point to as an authority figure)
In general, I am not aware of any astrology book that makes definite claims that can be tested, for observational confirmation. Fraudulent astrologers make vague and meaningful arguments "soon you will go on an adventure", "soon a happy event will happen to you", "this is a good week for starting business", "Mondays and Tuesdays are suitable for romance".
Here is an astrological forecast by "astrologer" Gil Farhi for Aries born on: 23/6/00 "Signals from the inner beard do not give you rest." You turn to the inner pole but to your surprise you may discover there, among other things, fears. Use the courage of the patch (=of the ram, H.P.) to enter the old fears that thrived in the recently opened locked room. A tendency towards isolation, self-pity and running away from real confrontation does not suit you. You have all the energy to go head to head with what you have turned your back on for a long time."
And now, how do you test these "predictions"? If we turn to the inner pole we may discover fears. Is it a prediction? And if it says that we may find joy there, is that a prediction? When you look at the entire forecast, you see that it actually doesn't promise anything! Not only is it unlikely that a scenario will occur that would disprove the forecast, but it is difficult to even imagine such a scenario!
In my opinion, since the astrological "predictions" cannot be checked - what is the point of having them at all? And if you say "to be successful in life", it means that there is a claim here that astrologers are more successful in life than others. And if they think so, I would advise them to make a written and strict follow-up of all the decisions they made based on astrological considerations.

others
The world is big and diverse and full of theories. Some of them are distinct charlatans that include deception and deception (reading in coffee), some - it seems that there is something real in them (Apokeptura, the Chinese theory of acupuncture). Additional fields: homeopathy, psychology (!)

Psychology adopted the ways of scientific research - using statistical tools to test and refute theories. Hence her success. Zero, naturally, the "factbook" of psychology is not as reliable as other sciences such as physics, chemistry, astronomy. (With no choice - the psychologists are forced to rely on the testimonies of others, not their own).
The Apocalypse - this Torah has a lot of confirmations. Millions of confirmations. Nevertheless, in my opinion, there is still no central Torah that binds all the ends, but a collection of interpretations for different cases and facts. Homeopathy - I do not know if there is a central global body that conducts concentrated scientific research on this common subject.
Healing - as above.
Other branches of alternative medicine - as above. Anyone who sees himself in need of their services - let him spy and check with seven eyes. One of the clear signs of a fraudster is wording in a vague, unclear manner, which can be interpreted here and there. And as a general rule, it is always healthy to start from the assumption that if a certain method has not been adopted by the scientific establishment, it probably did not deserve this adoption.

Chaim P

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