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(unindent) I think your opinion on black holes is based on a misunderstanding of the common statement: "'Black holes do not exist' is not falsifiable". Some would argue that this is true (I disagree), but this statement is an argument that falsifiability is not a good demarcation of science from non-science, not that black holes are somehow unscientific. There are serious problems with falsifiability alone. [[User:TaKess|TaKess]] 18:08, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
(unindent) I think your opinion on black holes is based on a misunderstanding of the common statement: "'Black holes do not exist' is not falsifiable". Some would argue that this is true (I disagree), but this statement is an argument that falsifiability is not a good demarcation of science from non-science, not that black holes are somehow unscientific. There are serious problems with falsifiability alone. [[User:TaKess|TaKess]] 18:08, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
:edit: I meant to say "'Black holes exist' is not falsifiable." Sorry! [[User:TaKess|TaKess]] 18:39, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
:: How would you falsify the claim that black holes exist???--[[User:Aschlafly|Andy Schlafly]] 18:55, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
::: That's the point. "Black holes exist" may not be falsifiable ''per se'', but that clearly doesn't mean it suddenly isn't scientific to state that, because obviously that is a scientific statement. This is one of the serious problems with falsifiability as a criterion.
::: Anyway, I'd say that if we do plenty of looking, especially where black holes are expected to be, and find none, that is close enough to being a falsifier. [[User:TaKess|TaKess]] 19:12, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
Surely this is all the wrong way round. The null hypothesis would naturally be that 'no black holes exist'. This is of course falsifiable if black holes are detected. From our understanding of the laws of physics and observations made, the only reasonable conclusion as it stands is that black holes do exist. [[User:RobertWDP|RobertWDP]] 19:22, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
: Exactly. In this sense, "black holes exist" needn't be falsifiable (in the absence of evidence, there's no reason to think it is true instead of the null hypothesis) in order to be scientific. [[User:TaKess|TaKess]] 19:33, 3 April 2009 (EDT)
==Could we just say scientists?==
I keep seeing references to "atheistic scientists", would it be more accurate to simply say "scientist"? Maybe even "secular scientist", although the former is preferred. There is no information on the scientists' belief systems who proposed various Moon Origin hypotheses, it would be misleading to call them all atheists. -- [[User:BMcP|BMcP]] 15:33, 18 June 2009 [EDT]