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A comment on Wild Ideas. Parent comment

Re:Wild Ideas by Xcelerate on Tuesday August 06, 2013 @02:30PM (#6168290)
Could you give an example of a case where science explains something without making a testable prediction?
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Re:Wild Ideas by bumbledraven on Sunday August 11, 2013 @07:07AM (#6194667)
No, I can't. Scientific theories should be testable, but they should also be explanations, not merely predictions.

This came up at Galileo's trial. The Church was happy to accept his theories as mere predictions of astronomical observations. What they wouldn't accept was that the earth actually DID move around the sun. But Galileo was adamant on explaining what as actually out there. "According to popular legend, after recanting his theory that the Earth moved around the Sun, Galileo allegedly muttered the rebellious phrase And yet it moves." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_yet_it_moves‎)

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