Mark23

Ch'i,

I'm afraid I don't understand where you are coming from. If you are saying that you took 10 minutes to travel 3 miles, then you could quite possibly be using a bicycle, a scooter, jogging (albeit very fast), or even a tractor. I don't see what this has to do with modern science. Statistically there may be more chance of you having cycled, but this is not scientific. The only thing science can (and would) say is that you are travelling on average at a speed of 18 miles per hour.

It surprises me that you find many other equally fuctional possibilities as answers to ideas in modern science. I can find none, the reason being that as other possibilities are uncovered, they are tested and the best fitting solution is selected as the most probable answer. Of course, it's possible that better fitting solutions are available, but you seem to imply that they are readily available and easy to think of, and they are not.

Your example works because you don't supply us with any evidence about your means of transport, so many suitable hypothesis' exist. Bicycle tyre tracks left behind en route to your destination would help us to form a single hypothesis, specifically naming the bicycle as your mode of transport.

With regard to the question about faith, I would suspect that most people wish to ascribe a higher meaning to things that occur. I don't find the analogy of the lightening bolt reaching from the ground to the sky and visa-versa at all impressive, as it seems to imply some kind of godly reciprocation of the faith his followers have. There is certainly no evidence for the existence of god, nor is there any against his existence, but it is important to realise that the two are not on some kind of equal footing. There are a infinite number of different things we cannot disprove, yet most of us don't believe in the vast majority of any of them, so why is god any different from say, the existence of leprechauns?

I suspect the answer has something to do with comfort, and fear of death. Humans are, and always have been, arrogant, self-centred and have placed far too much importance on the role they play in the cosmos. Hence the reason why the majority of religions have notions of a paradise afterlife and attribute a great sense of purpose to human beings. It is important to remember that just because something appears nice and comforting bears no reflection on whether it is true or false; this is something that a lot of people don't seem to realise.