Quote:
Originally Posted by Devils'Advocate
So if I say "If I throw a ball in the air, gravity will bring it back to earth", I am being religious? I should not say that with certainty since it requires faith?
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Yes, if you are certain it will come down it is a statement of faith. If you were to state that based on the current understanding of physics and all experimental data gathered to date the ball will come down the you allow for the fact that we dont know everything about physics therefore their may be a situation where the ball doesnt come down.
A good example would be newtonian physics at the time it was believed if you applied a continuous force to an object that in the absence of other forces it would continue to accelerate for ever to an infinate speed. However this fails as the object approaches the speed of light.
So even though Newtonian physics worked in all experimental circumstances at the time it was not correct.