What are some things that are difficult or impossible to study scientifically?

Question

For example you can't study religion using science because religion comes from the past and the past is history and we learn about religion from history. You can't use science experiments to learn what the meaning of religion is.

Answer 1

psychic phenomenon can't be studied scientifically, as it is not a tangible thing. In fact no psychic activity can be.

Answer 2

Anything that is purely spiritual, like God or the soul or what happens to us after we die, are very difficult. Other than that, very few things are completely unapproachable by the scientific method. As long as something leaves *physical* clues of *any* kind, science can examine it.

It is incorrect to say that science can't know about the past. Science studies the past all the time. Everything from who committed a crime last night (the science called 'forensics'), to how life arose, to how the earth was formed, to how the universe began. All of these things left *physical* clues ... evidence ... and scientists have many, many clever ways of looking at them.

In fact, it is incorrect to draw a line between history and science. Historians use the scientific method all the time ... from determining who killed Kennedy, to whether Alexander the Great was in Macedonia on a particular date, to who built the pyramids (and how), etc. All of these are about piecing together evidence. History can be very scientific.

Answer 3

It might be easier to answer this question or understand the situation by thinking about it backwards. What CAN science study?

Science depends on observations. It can study anything that can be measured or counted. And the intent of science is to build models of how thing work - like the periodic table of the elements, evolution, the big bang, etc. These models allow us to predict how the world works. If we can predict things then sometimes we can control them, or protect ourselves from the consequences of what we cant control (like hurricane warning systems!)

An important part of doing science is that when you propose a new idea in science, you explain how evidence supporting the idea might be found, and you also explain what kind of evidence might be found that would prove your idea wrong.

OK, so thing that science can't deal with are: things that cant be measured, things that are truly random and unpredictable, and things where people will not accept any evidence that contradicts their ideas.

That would include, for example, love (no love-meters or measuring devices for love), art (no standard scale to weigh good art or bad art), psychic events, and religion (what evidence would a devout Christian take that Jesus was not the son of God?), etc etc

Answer 4

You certainly can study religion scientifically, but you're right, you can't learn the *meaning* of religion. You can study who is religious, why they're religious, if religion is associated with different attitudes and behaviors, etc.

Likewise, you can study morals, but not *what is moral*. (That is - you can study what people think is moral and why, but science can't determine by itself what is or isn't moral).

Likewise, you can study aesthetics, but you can't determine *what is beautiful*.

You are also wrong that you can't study things from the past. As long as the past event leaves evidence, it can be studied. For example, geologists can determine when volcanic eruptions occurred, even if no one witnessed them. Likewise, we know that the craters on the moon are due to collisions, even though we've never witnessed one of them being made.

Basically, the more difficult it is to get evidence, the more difficult it is to study via science. Things that aren't determined by evidence: meaning, morality, beauty, etc. - can't be studied at all.

Answer 5

It is currently scientifically impossible to study the ocean depths that we cannot get to yet, or even the ocean depths of Europa because we have not yet been able to land a probe on the distant moon of Jupiter--almost did, but not yet can science study the deep purported waters under miles of ice on that moon. It may be possible someday in the near future, just not today.

Answer 6

1. life after death.
2. evolution of man on earth even though the Bible answers it.
3. evolution of this universe.
etc.

Answer 7

love and or any emotion is very hard to measure.