McLean V. Arkansas
The epistemic conception of the miraculous does not agree with the definition given in the famous McLean v. Arkansas case. In this case (McLean v. Arkansas Board of Education, 529 F. Supp. 1255, 1258–1264) (ED Ark. 1982), brought in Arkansas, the judge, William Overton, gave a clear, specific definition of science as a basis for ruling that 'creation science' is religion and not science. His judgment defined the essential characteristics of science as being
-
- guided by natural law;
- explanatory by reference to natural law;
- empirically testable;
- tentative in conclusion, i.e. not necessarily the final word;
- falsifiable.
However, an epistemic explanation of miraculous events would satisfy at least the first two definitions.
Read more about this topic: Epistemic Theory Of Miracles
Famous quotes containing the word arkansas:
“...I am who I am because I’m a black female.... When I was health director in Arkansas ... I could talk about teen-age pregnancy, about poverty, ignorance and enslavement and how the white power structure had imposed it—only because I was a black female. I mean, black people would have eaten up a white male who said what I did.”
—Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933)