I stopped studying science in high school as I decided to major in economics, rather than engineering — plus I rather sucked in physics and calculus. However, I do remember the concept of “explanatory power”.
I will copy and paste from Wikipedia:
“Explanatory power is the ability of a hypothesis or theory to effectively explain the subject matter it pertains to. The opposite of explanatory power is explanatory impotence.
In the past, various criteria or measures for explanatory power have been proposed. In particular, one hypothesis, theory, or explanation can be said to have more explanatory power than another about the same subject matter
- if more facts or observations are accounted for;
- if it changes more “surprising facts” into “a matter of course” (following Peirce);
- if more details of causal relations are provided, leading to a high accuracy and precision of the description;
- if it offers greater predictive power, i.e., if it offers more details about what we should expect to see, and what we should not;
- if it depends less on authorities and more on observations;
- if it makes fewer assumptions;
- if it is more falsifiable, i.e., more testable by observation or experiment (following Popper).”
This is pertinent to this website, as I make many non-consensus arguments. I take observations from this world, and link them to prophecies found in the Bible, and make arguments as to why the two are connected. The strength of the arguments are very much governed by this concept of explanatory power. Predictive power is key to the arguments made on this site, as the end game is the realization of End of Days prophecy.
For example, this site argues that the Anti-Christ will pose as the secular Jewish moshiach (aka messiah). This argument is well supported in the second chapter of 2 Thessalonians. It also explains why so many Jewish activists and organizations are so focused on the pursuit of their political agenda — we have argued that the political agenda of the Beast (as found in the Book of Revelation) is almost indistinguishable from the political agenda of those who are working for the return of the Jewish secular moshiach. This argument not only has great explanatory power, but it can then predict the behavior of the Jewish activists.
Also, in our argument that global warming will serve as the hand of God, we have made predictions about how global warming will progress, how severe it will become, and also the time frame. Time will tell if our arguments are correct.
Given the seemingly radical nature of our arguments, we can only pray that God has blessed us with His truth — and that He gives us the strength to endure that which is coming.