A Skeptic's Guide
Awareness of the fundamental laws of nature is essential to any skeptical endeavor. These principles are presented so they can be understood, and explained to others, without assuming specialized prior knowledge.
by Zoran Pazameta /Skeptical Inquirer Magazine /Sep-Oct 2000
Anyone who has studied physics (the science of the laws of nature) knows how daunting the task is of learning the philosophical and mathematical formalisms needed to fully comprehend, express, and apply natural laws. Complicating this situation is the fact that some of these laws are still "under construction"-being debated by the scientific community.
Moreover, today we
have two fundamental approaches to studying the natural world (quantum theory
and Einsteinian physics), built from completely different basic assumptions
(Sachs 1988). Fortunately, in the macroscopic ("real") world, the subject of
this article, physics has revealed to us definite rules by which nature always
operates-rules for establishing what isphysically possible and for eliminating
the impossible. We have confidence in these laws because with all the
observations and experiments that have been (and continue to be) performed, no
exception to them has yet come to light; that is, they constitute the best
explanation of the natural world available to us today. At this point, one
could ask: Why do these laws exist in the first place? The answer to this
question is beyond the reach of science; all we know is that we can identify
natural laws, observe them in action, and use them to explain and predict
natural phenomena. This is what Einstein meant with his famous statement, "To
me, the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is
comprehensible" (my emphasis).
Arguably the most fundamental of these laws is one due to Einstein himself,
though it isn't a law about the behavior of nature but, rather, a law about
natural laws themselves.
...
Full article: http://csicop.org/si/2000-09/laws.html
