God Arises
The Method of Argument
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chaotic. But the perceived facts and the
inferred facts together make up a definite
pattern.
A fact is said to be ‘explained’ when we are
able to show how it fits into a system of facts;
when we are able to recognize it as part of a
regular, orderly, inter-related whole (p. 51).
Further to this he says:
Another way of saying that we have
explained a fact is to say that we have
discovered its meaning. Or we may say we
explain it by discovering the cause and
conditions of its existence. All this comes to
the same thing: we have fitted that fact into a
definite pattern of facts; we have recognized
its necessary relationship to other facts; and
we have ascertained that this particular fact is
only an instance of some universal law, or
part of the universal order (p. 52).
In the above examples, the law of gravitation, in
spite of being an accepted scientific fact, is in no
way observable. What scientists have observed with
