"Yes, sorry I misspoke; what I meant to say, was the the role of the earth's magnetic field and the extent of it beyond the earth was vastly underestimated until recent times; and that electro-magnetism was likewise understimated as a factor in celestial mechanics."
Fair enough. It wasn't until the age of space exploration that the earth's magnetic field could be measured much beyond the earth.
"Showing the history of the discovery of magnetic phenomena illustrates that fact that scientific knowledge is imperfect."
Of course it is not perfect. If it were we would have nothing further to discover, no more projects for PhD students, no more Nobel Prizes in sciences related disciplines to be handed out, no more diseases to be conquered and so on.
"You keep referring to supernatural things as though I am arguing for faith in them."
My apologies if I have given you the impression that I think that you were. I was arguing that religion deals with things of faith - among other things like morality - whereas science does not deal with faith.
My point is that the results from morals and values can be observed in the same way we look at scientific phenomena.
Our beliefs about what is worth keeping in the religious beliefs and what is not, with respet to morals and behavior,
can be evaluated objectively by the results.
I have been arguing that this is not true.
Here are a few examples to illustrate my point:
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Murder. The impact of murder is there for all to see yet there little agreement on what constitutes murder in the justified sense.
Many agree that it is noble thing to kill for your country and there are times that countries make is obligatory to train to kill. The anti-Vietnam War protests demonstrated that there was no universal agreement on the sate's decision to wage this war and to kill.
The death penalty is strongly supported by many as a just "eye for an eye" retribution against murderers. Other see the death sentence as extracting revenge in a state sponsored blood lust to counter violence with violence.
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The impact of blasphemy is there for all to see.
Some see blasphemy as a capital crime against a God, and others see at as a constitutional right to free speech.
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The impact of adultery is there for all to see.
Yet there is little agreement on what adultery is.
Some see adultery as sex before marriage.
Some see adultery as sex with another chap's wife.
Some see nothing wrong with sex between two consenting adults
On a lighter note, some think that the command: thou shall not commit adultery, should read: thou shall not admit adultery.
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In all these cases the decisions on what should be kept and not kept boils down to opinions and not on some correct or incorrect assessment because correctness or otherwise can't be assessed in the face of opinions.
