Ray Saintonge wrote:
Timwi wrote:
It's like with the milk and the lightning. People have observed that milk tends to go sour when there is a thunderstorm. They conclude from that that the thunderstorm causes the milk to go sour, because that would fit the picture. But the conclusion is false. In reality there is a third factor, namely humidity, which causes both the milk to go sour and a thunderstorm.
This kind of analogical argument is extremely unsound. In that investigation proposing the initial hypothesis that thunderstorms caused milk to go sour was perfectly valid. It was a hypothesis, not a conclusion. Subsequent experimentation showed the hypothesis to be false, and that was what science is all about. At best raising this issue is completely irrelevent.
OK, so as long as we regard the proposed results of the study as nothing more than a hypothesis, then we agree.
Timwi