Re: Verifying the unobservable

[Stevil]

Science shouldn't use induction, we shouldn't seek to justify theories as they can't be justified by induction.  All we can do is find theories that highly falsifiable but all attempts to falsify them have so far failed, i.e. they are highly corroborated.  So how many times you've verified them isn't important, what is important is that so far you haven't falsified them.   

I disagree.
Scientific models don't necessarily describe reality, what they do is to present a conceptual model which accurately fits observations and helps to predict future events. So they certainly include an aspect of past, present and future. There are certain models and observations that were true hundreds of years ago and are still true today, nothing fundamental (with regards to characteristics of reality) has changed (over time) to invalidate these models.
Thus we make an assumption that the characteristics of reality do not change over time. I think this is a fair enough assumption as all our observations and models are consistent with this. If, however, something does fundamentally change then we will no longer be able to make this assumption.

With regards to theories that are highly falsifiable, this may be a very important constraint with regards to determining truth.
It would disqualify all supernatural theories which don't present any measurable, observable, consistent events.
So does this mean that supernatural theories can't possibly be true or does it merely mean that it is impossible to evaluate the truth of such theories?

If it is impossible to evaluate the truth of such theories then how can a person gain any knowledge on the topic?
Reading the twilight books a person gains knowledge of Stephenie Meyer's imaginary world of vampires but there is nothing to show that anything Stephenie conceived of, represents any truth with regards to real Vampires. Thus in my opinion the reader of her books has gained no actual knowledge of vampires.

Maybe Stephenie is right, maybe their skin sparkles in sunlight, but we can't determine that this is correct, we can't validate it, thus we can't claim knowledge.

So how do we (with an open minded and honestly inquisitive intent) gain knowledge of the supernatural?