Re: Laws and Theories (was Creationists)

[Leigh Palmer <palmer@SFU.CA>]

> Karl Popper (a major name in Philosophy of Science - back in the 20th Century)
> coined the term 'Post-dictive' as opposed to Pre-dictive to allow
> himself to classify evolutionary biology (and cosmology) as science.
> This seems similar to your 'reactive' adjective.

Cosmology is science in the Popperian sense. The cosmic microwave
background radiation and the primordial elemental abundances were
predicted before they were measured. The H:He ratio was pretty
well known before it was predicted, but D and Li were not. Their
abundances are still being refined, as are those of H and He.

I predict (on purely emotional aesthetic grounds) that inflation
will be abandoned soon an observational grounds. Cosmology is
good science, and it is getting better.

Leigh