Which kinds of questions can be answered by science?

Question

Do ghosts haunt old houses at night?

How old is the earth?

Should I follow the advice of my daily horoscope?

Do species change over long periods of time?

Should I exercise regularly?

To be scientific, it must be falsifiable. What else though? How would you answer the first question?

Answer 1

I believe all questions can be answered by science - people just choose not to believe it.

I would answer no to the first question then:

About 4.6 million years

No

Yes

Yes

Answer 2

you have too big of an imagination!!!

Answer 3

<< Do ghosts haunt old houses at night? >>

What is a ghost? Why only at night? Why only old houses? There are few more questions to be answered first so I think the answer to this one is "not yet"

<< How old is the earth? >>

Science already has a good answer for this one, so yes.

<< Should I follow the advice of my daily horoscope? >>

You can if you want to, it will probably do no harm, your decision. The advice is usually fairly vague anyway. Don't make any important decisions based on what your horoscope says. Try reading different horoscopes in different papers to see if they agree.

<< Do species change over long periods of time? >>

Yes, some species change over short periods of time.

<< Should I exercise regularly? >>

Probably, but try not to overdo it.

<< To be scientific, it must be falsifiable. What else though? >>

Replicable and able to provide testable predictions are very important too.

Answer 4

The scientific method has been one which is observable, consistent, reproducible again and again. While what are theories can be proved to be fact later on there are still some things which are not properly quantifiable and reproducible over time. So if you categorize your question, the age of the earth is at best only a surmise. The ghosts  as also horoscopy are not provable and the question of exercise is an advice for better health observed in others and should be applicable to you also (providing you are a normal human of course). The problem in philosophy is that you should precisely define each and every word you ask and there in lies the problem - some can be argued out of existence.

Answer 5

All sorts.

Answer 6

a   most

b   yes

c    4,000,000,040 years. (i was told 40 years ago that the earth was 4 billion years old so it has aged a further 40.

d    no

e    yes

f     yes

g    dont know

Answer 7

Ghosts could haunt any houses, whether it be good, spiritual ghosts or evil spirits.

Answer 8

Its like in Dr Who things that can't be explained r just undiscovered scientific theory. So science can explain more then say religion as it gives multiple outcomes until that problem is solved. Where as religion gives one outcome and when the out come is solved religion is either wrong or right.

Answer 9

Most questions i should imagine can be answered by science ithink these days with all the clever people around the world we have and all the amazing technology out there.

Answer 10

2,4,5

Answer 11

yes - don't know - no - yes - everyday -

Answer 12

Debatable (No)

Yes (4.57 billion years)

Yes (No)

Yes (Yes)

Yes (Yes)

For it to be scientific, it must follow the scientific method (see the sourced link below)

Answer 13

It depends on what you mean by "answer". By definition science is empirical, meaning the data is a result of experiment and/or observation. Some methods are more direct than others. The constant of gravity can be determined by either dropping different masses or rolling them down an inclined plane. The age of the Earth can be determined by methods such as the calculated ratio of uranium-lead produced by radioactive decay.

Questions like exercising regularly and other issues like how intelligent someone is (intelligence quotient a.k.a.. I.Q.) lie in statistical analysis. Based on statistical models like Bell curves and working definitions, groups and categories can be based on variable dependants.

There are questions that are outliers in the scientific method. Do species change over time and how did the universe begin? Until we have time travel we can only go by what amounts as circumstantial evidence.

Now we get to ghosts. This is the hardest of all. We don't have an operational definition. Ghosts in the western world are defined differently than other cultures. What makes a ghost a ghost? Dark matter? Quantum bioholography? Scalar EM? Without a definition we cannot formulate an experiment and are left with antedotal evidence.

One more problem: Let's try a thought experiment. You claim to be able to see the future. To prove this you claim to foresee an archeological dig in three months that will discover a pyramid. We go out three months early and discover the pyramid. Does this prove you saw the future? Couldn't it be equally plausible you saw 12,000 years in the past and by proving precognition we are unwittingly testing retrocausation?

Even with all the science we currently know there are still things that have unknown aspects. How do we make a fusion reactor? We know how fusion works but our material science is lacking. We just need to work a little more.

What does this all mean? Simply that science is the approximation of truth. Precision is impossible but we have a system of answering a hypothesis as a theory which can be trumped any moment new evidence emerges. Science will never answer any question 100 percent. We can often get pretty close.

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Answer 14

there are many question science can answer,like what is science,it would be interesting to determine exactly when

is going to occur the next evolutionary change in any specie,

however Astronomy is very accurate in their calculation.and

in time science can give an answer to anything that can be

demonstrable