Nice at-a-glance. Post that in a science building hallway on a university campus today, though, and the local police SWAT squad will be on you like weasels on a chicken coop.
Persnickety
November 6, 2015 9:25 am
No one who could reasonably be called a scientist ever believed that the earth was flat or at the center of the universe. In fact it’s probably been thousands of years (not just since 1492) since anyone believed the earth was flat.
Much better examples could have been used. For example:
-carbs are good for you! carbs are bad for you!
-butter is bad for you! vegetable oil is good for you! OOps!
-dietary cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol!
-high blood cholesterol is the cause of heart attacks!
-General Relativity explains everything! (no, it doesn’t)
jamesthewanderer
November 6, 2015 11:51 am
Sorry, Persnickety.
“No one who could reasonably be called a scientist …(TODAY?) …ever believed …”
Aristotle? Pythagoras? Galen?
By today’s standards, perhaps – but then, today’s standards include Dr. James Hansen of the hidden and doctored climate databases fame, Dr. Steven Chu (who was SecEnergy during the Solyndra debacle) and Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, nominee for Surgeon General who is more concerned with gun control than Planned Parenthood’s nefarious activities. Who can reasonably be called a “scientist” in these politicized days?
Lysander
November 6, 2015 12:42 pm
What do scientists know? What they can observe and that’s it. Now all the sacred tenets of science in the last century are being challenged as completely wrong. Quantum Mechanics is fucked up. There was no Big Bang. Black Holes don’t exist, and Einstein fucked up some of his calculations.
But, by all means, continue to have the government subsidize these con artists and things will have to get better.
B
November 6, 2015 4:20 pm
Yeah, science doesn’t know shit! all those facts and experiments and shit. What has science ever done for us? We don’t need no stinkin’ science. We got opinons!
Archie
November 6, 2015 5:03 pm
I’m not really sure what you are saying James, but persnickety is correct. Plato and Aristotle theorized that the world was round. I quote:
“It’s (earth) shape must necessarily be spherical.”
Aristotle
On the Heavens, 297a8. Jowett translation.
jamesthewanderer
November 12, 2015 12:59 am
That’s possible, I was going from memory and my Dad’s copy of Aristotle is still at the family farm, a ways off from here. But the earth being flat survived in many minds until Columbus’s journeys sort of put the lie to it. Ramirez could also have added the “phlogiston” theory of heat, the “ether” theory in physics and that it took until Pasteur before germ theory of disease was accepted.
But if Aristotle knew the earth was round, why was Tycho Brae burned? Why was Galileo tormented by the Church? Surely all those “learned” men were knowledgeable of the Greek classics … well, maybe not, since the Bible held all truth within its’ covers.
If I missed on Aristotle, then consider the absolute statement I was attempting to refute. “No one who could reasonably be called a scientist ever believed … ” covers a lot of time, and a lot of people who didn’t make it to the top ranks of history.
Nice at-a-glance. Post that in a science building hallway on a university campus today, though, and the local police SWAT squad will be on you like weasels on a chicken coop.
No one who could reasonably be called a scientist ever believed that the earth was flat or at the center of the universe. In fact it’s probably been thousands of years (not just since 1492) since anyone believed the earth was flat.
Much better examples could have been used. For example:
-carbs are good for you! carbs are bad for you!
-butter is bad for you! vegetable oil is good for you! OOps!
-dietary cholesterol causes high blood cholesterol!
-high blood cholesterol is the cause of heart attacks!
-General Relativity explains everything! (no, it doesn’t)
Sorry, Persnickety.
“No one who could reasonably be called a scientist …(TODAY?) …ever believed …”
Aristotle? Pythagoras? Galen?
By today’s standards, perhaps – but then, today’s standards include Dr. James Hansen of the hidden and doctored climate databases fame, Dr. Steven Chu (who was SecEnergy during the Solyndra debacle) and Dr. Vivek Hallegere Murthy, nominee for Surgeon General who is more concerned with gun control than Planned Parenthood’s nefarious activities. Who can reasonably be called a “scientist” in these politicized days?
What do scientists know? What they can observe and that’s it. Now all the sacred tenets of science in the last century are being challenged as completely wrong. Quantum Mechanics is fucked up. There was no Big Bang. Black Holes don’t exist, and Einstein fucked up some of his calculations.
But, by all means, continue to have the government subsidize these con artists and things will have to get better.
Yeah, science doesn’t know shit! all those facts and experiments and shit. What has science ever done for us? We don’t need no stinkin’ science. We got opinons!
I’m not really sure what you are saying James, but persnickety is correct. Plato and Aristotle theorized that the world was round. I quote:
“It’s (earth) shape must necessarily be spherical.”
Aristotle
On the Heavens, 297a8. Jowett translation.
That’s possible, I was going from memory and my Dad’s copy of Aristotle is still at the family farm, a ways off from here. But the earth being flat survived in many minds until Columbus’s journeys sort of put the lie to it. Ramirez could also have added the “phlogiston” theory of heat, the “ether” theory in physics and that it took until Pasteur before germ theory of disease was accepted.
But if Aristotle knew the earth was round, why was Tycho Brae burned? Why was Galileo tormented by the Church? Surely all those “learned” men were knowledgeable of the Greek classics … well, maybe not, since the Bible held all truth within its’ covers.
If I missed on Aristotle, then consider the absolute statement I was attempting to refute. “No one who could reasonably be called a scientist ever believed … ” covers a lot of time, and a lot of people who didn’t make it to the top ranks of history.