It’s worth noting that even if a correlation is untestable in itself, it can still lead to other predictions which ARE testable.
If the Greeks, Indonesians, and Mayans all believed in a lost island, you might start looking for a lost island somewhere. If you believe Nostrodamus predicted World War II, you might expect some of his other predictions to come true in the future. If Varuna and Uranus are the same god, that must imply something about the Greeks and Hindus. The correlation doesn’t just exist in a vacuum by itself. At some point it will lead to something testable in the real world.
A correlation is a starting point for knowledge, not knowledge in itself. If it leads to a testable prediction, it’s helped you increase your knowledge. If it doesn’t lead to any sort of prediction, you don’t have any more knowledge, you just have a story.
It’s worth noting that even if a correlation is untestable in itself, it can still lead to other predictions which ARE testable.
If the Greeks, Indonesians, and Mayans all believed in a lost island, you might start looking for a lost island somewhere. If you believe Nostrodamus predicted World War II, you might expect some of his other predictions to come true in the future. If Varuna and Uranus are the same god, that must imply something about the Greeks and Hindus. The correlation doesn’t just exist in a vacuum by itself. At some point it will lead to something testable in the real world.
A correlation is a starting point for knowledge, not knowledge in itself. If it leads to a testable prediction, it’s helped you increase your knowledge. If it doesn’t lead to any sort of prediction, you don’t have any more knowledge, you just have a story.