"Paul Schlyter" wrote in message
...
In article ,

BTW, Einstein asserted there was no aether. Was his statement
"illogical?"
Was it (ir)religious belief?

take care,
Rockett Crawford

Basically it's a beliefe, yes. But you're allowed to use a belief
when constructing a new theory, if you're willing to abandon your
belief in case it should be contradicted by that theory, or by some
other evidence.

I agree. Your use of "belief " is different from the unfalsifiable
(religious) belief that was asserted in the earlier post. I don't like the
word "belief" myself for this reason. I prefer assertion or opinion when
talking about non-religious matters, but I would go along with your use of
the word here with the stipulation that the belief is falsifiable.

So Einstein built his theories of relativity on the assumption of the
non-existence of the aether. That assumption was not contradicted.
Of course that doesn't prove the non-existence of the aether, it merely
proves that the aether is not necessary to explain the physical phenomena
we can observe.

Agreed. Call it an assumption, a falsifiable belief, a position, an
assertion, an opinion. It doesn't matter.

It's the same with the "god hypothesis": the existence of god is not
necessary to explain the phenomena we can observe - but that doesn't prove
that god(s) do not exist.

I completely agree. That's my point exactly. Nobody is trying to prove
the non-existence of a god. The Atheist simply does not believe in any gods.
The Atheist is of the opinion that there are no gods, not denying anything,
not unfalsifiably believing in a negative, etc...

take care,
Rockett Crawford