Creationist Bunko

The Best of Den Beste Mirror Posts

USSClueless
by Steven Den Beste

Science and Engineering (andWhy Creationism is Bunk)

At it's most fundamental level we can define science as two different activities: the collection of facts about the universe, and the attempt to create explanations of how those facts relate to each other. The scientific enterprise has been going on as long as humans have existed, but science as we now use the term dates from about the fifteenth century, which is where it finally got onto the right track, and also when it finally started developing procedures which work.

Engineering is easier to describe, though no easier to carry out. The goal of engineering is to create useful devices. For every scientist, there are probably 10-20 engineers. (Science doesn't make money. Engineering does. We engineers are a lot more profitable to hire.)

The "collection of data" part of science is pretty easy to understand, but the "tie it all together" part is widely misunderstood.

There are three words in rising order of importance: conjecture, hypothesis and theory.

More...