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Re:Lies We Tell Kids by brlewis on Tuesday May 13, 2008 @11:07AM (#188602)
"When something is not falsifiable it should be considered false, in most contexts."

Is the above sentence falsifiable? How do you examine the "should be" question with science?

If it is not falsifiable, should it be considered false, or is it an exception? How do you pick exceptions?

My two assertions about your sentence: (1) It is not falsifiable. (2) You consider it very useful.

Re:Lies We Tell Kids by mynameishere on Tuesday May 13, 2008 @11:21AM (#188623)
Notice I tacked on a weasel phrase "in most contexts." I don't think there is a consensus about falsifiability, and I wasn't the one who brought it up. The person who did seemed to understand it backwards. Since Aristotle and Newton operated without the concept, I'm willing to shelve it.

Grandma going to heaven can be reduced to absurdity, and isn't very important, except as a typical line of bull.

Re:Lies We Tell Kids by Retric on Tuesday May 13, 2008 @12:02PM (#188687)
It is falsifiable if you can find a single non falsifiable thing that would be useful / treated as true.
Re:Lies We Tell Kids by randallsquared on Tuesday May 13, 2008 @10:03PM (#189199)
"Life has meaning."
Re:Lies We Tell Kids by randallsquared on Wednesday May 14, 2008 @07:46AM (#189476)
Actually, this doesn't fit here, because "useful" implies "for a goal", and if there's no ultimate goal to life, then nothing is useful. So "life has meaning" is just another example of something that is only useful if true. Ah, well.
Re:Lies We Tell Kids by drunkencop on Monday September 08, 2008 @04:40PM (#298767)
"Grandma went to heaven" is a statement of fact about a very specific matter that is either true or false.

The person uttering it has not seen, heard, smelled, or touched a single piece of evidence to verify this supposed fact.

Indeed, they're saying it either because they're sincerely repeating a myth they've heard since they were credulous children, because they want to mollify a grieving child's anguish, or both.

If you make a claim about the physical location of a human being, yet you have absolutely no evidence to bolster your claim, then you're making a claim that is not falsifiable and should be considered false.