Originally Posted by egan
Originally Posted by CTD
I would like to point out that "learning from history" is essentially the same thing as employing the "scientific method".

How do we know what happens when alcohol is prohibited? The experiment's been done. It's found in history. How do we know why governments erect walls, or ban weapons? These experiments have been done, and the results can be found in history.


Well it's not an exact parallel. The scientific method is definitely more accurate than history. The fact that historical records can be tampered with notwithstanding, there's also the numerous factors of any given scenario which one must take into account. What happens when alcohol is prohibited? We can see what happens when it's prohibited in the United States during a certain era but that does not mean prohibiting alcohol will produce the same affect each and every time. Conversely, in the realm of science combining two chemicals together will always produce the same effect. Legalizing marijuana, for example, may work in some countries and not in others. Unfortunately, it's just not as cut and dry as the scientific method. Cultural and geographical factors will play a large part in what works in one place and not in another. The new implementation of a certain law may be wildly successful in one region of the globe and yet result in disastrous consequences in another. It's not as simple as carbon dioxide + water = glucose + oxygen.
I disagree. Some subjects can be understood to a higher degree of precision; so what?

Why can't meteorology tell me what the exact temperature, humidity and precipitation will be a year from today? Medical science can be fairly imprecise as well. Even your chemistry example depends on temperature & pressure considerations.

And in case you haven't read the earlier parts of the thread, I should point out that you wouldn't even have other sciences without history. One has to have reliable reports of observations and experiments, and these must come to us via history unless we witness them ourselves.

Dark Matter + Dark Energy = Dark Truth

"We find that such evidence demonstrates that the ID argument is dependent upon setting a scientifically unreasonable burden of proof for the theory of evolution." - Judge Jones Kitzmiller case
http://www.talkreason.org/articles/Falsify.cfm

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