Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
dinosaurs was probably connected with the development of warm-bloodedness,
which requires insulation to combat the loss of heat, but had the unrelated, but
important, consequence of permitting the subsequent development of flight.
Thus the universality of the intentional stance does not mean that supernatural
beliefs are necessarily correct, only that they may originate naturally in the cogni-
tive systems that all humans use to interpret the world. This hypothesis amounts to
saying that, while supernaturalism tells us something about what goes on inside the
human head, there is currently no convincing evidence that it also tells us what goes
on outside the human head. So we have to be alert to avoid being victims of our biol-
ogy, especially today when we find ourselves living with a stone-age mentality in a
space-age world that is changing much more rapidly than our brains are evolving.
Uncertainty
The third distinctive feature of science is illustrated in Fig. 2.8.
The provisional
nature of scientific knowledge is the aspect most commonly misunderstood by non-
scientists.
Often when science is mentioned in the media, the impression is given
that scientific knowledge is absolute and certain. This is not the case.
Fig. 2.8
If we ask what science is, it is not a set of data, it is not a set of techniques,
it is a set of ideas (Fig. 2.8). These ideas are based on reason applied to data and
techniques, but data and techniques do not on their own constitute science - it is
the ideas that constitute science. These ideas are based on the best evidence avail-
able at the time, but they are not sacrosanct - they are always open to change to
