Are there limits to scientific knowledge?
There are probably two answers, one for modern science and one for what was considered “science” a few centuries ago. Science (or natural philosophy) spent a good deal of its history without very clear bounds on its subject matter or conclusions. A priori reasoning was valued above experiment and critical analysis. The modern scientific method requires testable hypotheses, which limits the possibilities. “Intelligent design” is an example of the older approach; as it presents no hypothesis which can be tested, but merely piles up opinions as to what can or cannot develop without a guiding intelligence, it never manages to come within the bounds of science. Similarly, claims by “evolutionists” to have proven the nonexistence of God by establishing the theory of evolution are a throwback to the older model. The theory is well established; its relevance to questions about God, however, extend the reasoning into nonverifiable territory. All that can be proven is that particular creation my
