The Problem of the Implied Superstition within Empirical Science.

Empirical Science operates via the inductive method which includes a process of observation, hypothesis, testing, verification, development of the hypothesis into a theory, and further testing of outcomes. The inductive method has served to enable man to attain many insights into nature. Yet the inductive method is subject to superstition. Superstition occurs when a man falsely attributes a cause to a thing or act that the thing or act does not have. For example, I clap my hands and the door opens. I attribute the door opening to my clapping hands, when in fact the door opened via a force from the wind.

If a scientist proposes a theory to account for an observation, that theory may well be at least in part a superstition. In fact, the inductive method implies the inevitability that several, or many theories are at least in part superstitious. For the inductive method says several theories may be proposed to account for the same observations. If for example, we propose several explanations for gravity -

1) Gravity is caused by the attraction of the masses.

2) Gravity is caused by the bending of the space-time continuum.

3) Gravity is caused by the motion of a vortex.

4) Gravity is caused by space acting like a fluid that causes a pressure variability.

Let us assume 1) is true, then 2)-4) are all false. If the academy promotes 2)-4) the academy does so when in fact gravity is assigned to a cause(s) that is not real but thought to be real. By assigning false causes to gravity, the academy has legitimately acted within the inductive method to unwittingly promote a superstitious understanding of gravity. In fact, because the inductive method does permit the academy to promote many theories, no theory is ever known to be fully true, and all theories may be false. Therefore, there is always contained within the inductive method a propensity for superstition to abound. Therefore, those who embrace the modern error of scientism, which claims all knowledge is attained through the empirical sciences, will inevitably end up with a worldview that is at least in part superstitious, mixed in with truth.

Just as I attribute the clap the of my hands as the cause of the door closing is a superstition, the scientific attribution of bending of the space-time continuum, vortex and the fluid of space as causes of gravity are also superstitions under the current example given above.