Hi Paul,
What I am looking for is really a short sharp example or two.
I really want to get across what 'falsifiable' means.
I have started by saying that Genesis 1:1 for the positivist historian is a meaningless statement because it cannot be verified or falsified. Religious staements are meaningless so they are not a part of positivist history.
I wanted to give an example that most of the class could relate to. The evo-creo debate comes up a lot so I wanted to say that the statement 'the theory of evolution proves that creatures evolve' is not a meaningless statement because the statement can be falsified. Evolution can be disproven, all anyone would have to do to disprove evolution would be to..........
It really will take up no more than a minute of the course time, so it doesn't need to be too indepth. Something like finding a T-Rex on the same strata as a dwelling built by humans may do (I think, I am not even sure that it would LOL, now you see why I went into theo- archaeology rather than biology or physics!), but I wanted to make sure that I wasn't making an arse of myself!
The course is theology, Old Testament and genres of history within the Old Testament, the evolution example would be a simple one off statement. But I need something very simple, something that the average man in the street could understand.
I think that giving the TOE as an example of what is 'faslifiable' would really interest the students as they really do seem quite keen on it.
Thanks for your help here, and yours too Rox
Brian.