For instance, does the available evidence support the conclusion that this new thing causes cancer? Yes or no, please.
Which new thing?
As I said, humans are fallible, we have disagreements about factual matters. If we were all perfect judges of evidence, then all scientists with access to the same information would agree on how likely it is that some thing causes cancer. Sometimes making judgments of evidence is hard, sometimes it’s easier. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a right answer in each case.
Right. It’s not that there isn’t always a yes or no answer, it’s just that it’s sometimes difficult for us to work out what the correct judgment is.
It’s possible that religion is such a case, but most of us here agree that the state of the evidence there is easier to judge than, for instance, the latest carcinogen suspect.
Which new thing?
As I said, humans are fallible, we have disagreements about factual matters. If we were all perfect judges of evidence, then all scientists with access to the same information would agree on how likely it is that some thing causes cancer. Sometimes making judgments of evidence is hard, sometimes it’s easier. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a right answer in each case.
Any one of many things whose safety is disputed. The point is that it’s not so simple as right and wrong in science
That’s what I mean. Even with the same evidence available, scientists don’t all come to a the same conclusion.
And so I think that while in the case of the age of the earth it clearly does, but in many cases we just can’t tell.
Right. It’s not that there isn’t always a yes or no answer, it’s just that it’s sometimes difficult for us to work out what the correct judgment is.
It’s possible that religion is such a case, but most of us here agree that the state of the evidence there is easier to judge than, for instance, the latest carcinogen suspect.