Madam, - The headline "The 'delusion' that science can explain everything" (Rite and Reason, August 28th) is a classic example of a straw man argument.
Science cannot explain everything and no one who understands the scientific method is deluded into thinking that it does.
What science does is attempt to explain everything for which an explanation exists. For things which can't yet be explained science openly admits as much.
An example is the question: "What happened before the big bang?" The scientific answer is, "We don't know". The more mysteries that science takes on the bigger a body of work it becomes, making it difficult for people to follow. This is one reason for the rejection of science in favour of easy answers, whether they are true or not.
Some people also demand answers to questions for which there is no answer. "Why is there something rather than nothing?" is one such example.
- Yours, etc,
CIARÁN FARRELL, Bray, Co Wicklow.