I ask particularly in light of evolution. Evolution is both a fact and a theory, as elegantly explained by the late American biologist Stephen Jay Gould: "Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape-like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
About eight years earlier, the influential geneticist Theodosius Dobzhansky said, "Let me try to make crystal clear what is established beyond reasonable doubt, and what needs further study, about evolution. Evolution as a process that has always gone on in the history of the earth can be doubted only by those who are ignorant of the evidence or are resistant to evidence, owing to emotional blocks or to plain bigotry. By contrast, the mechanisms that bring evolution about certainly need study and clarification. There are no alternatives to evolution as history that can withstand critical examination. Yet we are constantly learning new and important facts about evolutionary mechanisms."
Finally, American scientist Neil A. Campbell (M.A. in zoology, Ph.D. in Plant Biology), whose textbook, "Biology" has been used by half a million high school and college students a year since 1987, wrote, "Today, nearly all biologists acknowledge that evolution is a fact. The term theory is no longer appropriate except when referring to the various models that attempt to explain *how* life evolves... it is important to understand that the current questions about how life evolves in no way implies any disagreement over the fact of evolution."
Despite the clear acceptance among biologists of evolution as fact -- it is a process that really happened and happens, still -- a large percentage of Americans do not "believe" in it. For various reasons, including confusion over the colloquial meaning of the word 'theory', misinformation campaigns by religious factions, ineffective classroom teaching, and simple incredulity, one of the most well-supported principles in science is accepted by just over half of Americans (a 2005 Gallup poll revealed that only 55% thought it was "definitely" or "probably" true).
Those who argue that it isn't true are certainly not debating the merits of one *theory* of evolution versus another; they are saying it's not a fact -- even that it's a lie or a fabrication! (Very little else in science is so disputed by the public, demonstrating the profound effect on learning by religion.)
This got me wondering... how often has scientific FACT been found wrong, while a large segment of the public got it right? Honestly, I can't think of a single time. I can think of plenty of cases where the *public* or the church was wrong, disputing a scientific finding, perhaps for centuries, until the science was finally accepted. And science is a self-correcting process which has generated countless *hypotheses* which turned out to be wrong. But can anyone cite a case where a principle so well-accepted by science as to be considered FACT was later shown -- by science -- to be wrong... and a good portion of the public knew better?How often has science been wrong, and popular opinion right?
You are wasted on us. A long, intelligent submission without any spelling mistakes? You must be very new to R%26amp;S.
Science is necessarily elitist: the general public cannot be expected to keep up, and have to rely on the popularizers to help them. This is fine unless said popularizers have axes to grind, which is clearly the case when it comes to evolution: so a lot of scientifically illiterate people have been bamboozled by the creationist mob who are trying to protect their Dark Ages view of the Bible. It doesn't help that they are theologically illterate as well.
The public can never know better than real science, almost by definition, but scientists can drop clangers, there are even a few charlatans among them, and sometimes, just occasionally, they will be exposed by the general public. One example of this was the 1987 child abuse scandal in Teesside, northern England. A new diagnostic tool was used, according to which a lot of parents were abusing their children as young babies. This led to court orders, children being taken into care, and a great deal of distress.
In view of the blameless background of some of those charged with this terrible offense, some began to question the techniques that had been used; and eventually there was an admission that they were "not always" reliable, so cases were dropped and loving parents reunited with their children. And the general public said: we told you so. So there's an example of science getting it wrong, the public knowing better, and the experts themselves having to backtrack. But the crisis blew up in the first place because the "self-correction" mechanism you refer to wasn't allowed to function properly. The necessary checks on the abuse detection technique had clearly not been carried out. This is very much the exception that proves your rule.
Incidentally, thanks for the compliments, though I tried to be unbiased by them!
I liked what several people had to say, especially jarrett and sosoniki. Jarrett, you are absolutely right: "scientists are out to learn the truth with no agenda. and creationists [have a strong agenda]."
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How often has science been wrong, and popular opinion right?Speaking of agendas, '...Full Armor of God', I genuinely wanted to see those videos, but my computer is without sound. Nonetheless, given the title of one: "Skull Fossils - As Empty as the Evolutionary Theory" it is already clear that science was forsaken. I have little patience for propaganda.
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How often has science been wrong, and popular opinion right?'JC Rules', ignoring your nonsensical tangents on aspirin and the economy, no scientist claims to have "all knowledge and wisdom." That, in fact, is what many god worshippers believe of their deity. So I'll return your question... Why in the hell is your *god* letting you suffer?
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'Just me', you better "check" again... and perhaps *read the question* next time. Your comment, infused with the wisdom of a bratty child, sums up the stubbornness and irrationality of many of the people I talked about who--when presented with evidence and information--choose to remain ignorant.
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Science is about truth based on verifiable facts. Evolution is a fact and the people that don't accept it are religious nuts.
Any time a scientist's mind was tainted by the superstitions and myths of religion, he got it wrong.
You need to first understand a few things about science.
First of all science does not deal with "facts" it deals with "theories" and scientific "theories" are never promoted into scientific "laws" and are not based on "facts" but rather previous experimentation. This is very important, so I will say it again: scientific "theories" are never promoted into scientific "laws" and are not based on "facts" but rather previous experimentation. In science there are no "facts" only testable "theories". If you cannot test it then it's not science.
Some may regard gravity as a "fact", yet what we understand here at the macroscopic level breaks down at the atomic level and visa versa. What some regards as the "facts" of gravity no longer hold true at atomic level and the theory breaks down just as the "facts" of quantum theory are equally as meaningless at the macroscopic level. Science does not deal with facts. Only theories, which are imperfect (yet hopefully increasingly accurate) models which aim to depict reality. Again, this is very important to understand.
In the English language the word "theory" if often considered synonymous with "hypothesis" or "hunch". E.g people say "I have a theory". In science, however, "theories" are used as the basis for further experimentation and are often modified or abandoned entirely in light of new evidence to the contrary. Scientists do not talk about the "Law of Gravity" as being a "fact" but rather discuss the "theory of gravity" and perform many experiments based on that theory. A "law" is just a general statement that tends to hold true, but not necessarily under all circumstances. The law of gravity "What goes up must come down" or the law of thermodynamics tend to hold true for the most part but not always. At any rate both of the aforementioned "laws" are based on well tested "theories", not not "facts". Most arguments coming from both sides related to this topic tend to get this wrong.
This is one of the most misunderstood aspects of science that gets so many people in an uproar. When someone says "It's only a theory" related to the whole evolution debate, you can safely say to yourself that you are dealing with someone who is either being intellectually dishonest or has very little understanding of what science does or both.
As a side note; evolution does not preclude creationism and science does not preclude religion. There is nothing in the Bible that states HOW God created Man, only that he DID. Who is to say that either God or the Flying Spaghetti Monster didn't create Man through the process of evolution? Even the Catholic Church tends to see things this way.
My question is why people have to get into such an uproar? It's not that difficult.
If you look at the history of psychology, you will find that a lot of things that were mainstream science back then are now considered to be plain silly. In many of these instances popular opinions were right. No doubt a large portion of present day science will also turn out to be silly. The problem is we don't know which part that will be. But a good scientist will take popular opinion seriously.
Let me start out being upfront, I do not believe in God. I am not religious, both of these statements are about to be abundantly clear. In recent memory, scientists have tools that they use to ask the questions that over the past few thousand years people have just written off as acts of God. They have figured out how and why most everything does what it does. They have found bones of dinosaurs and with carbon dating, they can tell the exact time that dinosaur lived, 64 million years ago. but still people believe that the earth is 7,000 years old, it was created in a day, with 2 humans, able to sustain life. those same people also believe noah had dinosaurs on his ship, they believe that there was a noah and an ark. these are the people who believe that in the course of 7,000 years the entire earth was populated, wiped out, then repopulated to the tune of 6,000,000,000 people. they believe that a man could be born to a virgin, walk on water, turn water in to wine, and rise from the dead.
Popular belief will never disprove science because most everybody on this planet is still explaining the world's mysteries, the way our uneducated ancestors did; by opening up a book, reading a story of magic and hope, then putting the book down having faith in a fairy tale.
after going off on that tangent i seem to have lost touch with what i initially wanted to say. after racking my brain for a solid twenty minutes and even searching on the internet for a good 10, i could not find one instance where science was proved wrong by the every day average joe. I will admit, my searches were pretty broad and i didn't expect much to come up. but there was nothing. i could not find one thing. i applaud the fellow before me who stated the thing about the children in the UK. It does seem as though that is the exception. I'm sure there are more small scale issues that have the general public coming out ahead, but the things of real importance, the universe, and the history of the planet are being studied by scientists. they are the ones actually figuring out why the sky is blue.
The sad but true fact of the matter is; by rule scientists are out to learn the truth with no agenda. and creationists are out to disprove fact, with a serious agenda.
I know it was long and i rambled a ton but i just had way too much to say, i apologize.
good day to you my friend.
Of all the times I can think of where science disagreed with either the church or the populace at large science has always been right. I mean galileo had to recant and had to be under house arrest for saying that the earth revolved around the sun. Now we can go into space and see that it does. It's a fact. And to rebut someone who spoke earlier gravity is not a theory it is also a fact. A "theory of gravity" would be an attempt to explain that fact. this is what science attempts to do explain facts.
I agree that evolution is accepted in the scientific community as a fact. We've charted the human genome and can see where mutations occur, It's something we can literally watch. There are different theories to explain it, but the fact of evolution remains.
I'm off topic I already answered your question.. yeah, I cant think of a single time. I also notice with regard to evolution that the only people who argue about it are not scientists. fascinating.
Consider this
The Young Age of the Earth
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=鈥?/a>
The Origin of Man by Dr. Duane Gish
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3FZDysZK鈥?/a>
The Origins of Life
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=鈥?/a>
Creation In The 21st Century From Where did these Layers Come (From) 1 of 3 (Global Flood)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZyoXQJ5A鈥?/a>
Creation in the 21st Century - Overwhelming Evidence 1 of 3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o226umqLd鈥?/a>
Skull Fossils - As Empty as the Evolutionary Theory
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Yu5jN897鈥?/a>
Neanderthals - Smarter Then We Thought
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxL636n3w鈥?/a>
Dinosaurs: Those Terrible Lizards
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVvGByvp1鈥?/a>
Our Solar System: Evidence For Creation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=鈥?/a>
Birds and Flight: Evolved or Designed?
http://video.google.com/videosearch?hl=e鈥?/a>
Such a smart Question = can anyone cite a case where a principle so well-accepted by science as to be considered FACT was later shown -- by science -- to be wrong... and a good portion of the public knew better?
Energy, Most energy 's source were proven ,disproven, shunned,promotioned, off n on .
water' s ,wind, gas, the 'right' fuel at the right place , Science plus people's always juggleing their VALUE.
Science is about being wrong and trying found out why!?! ONe scientist worked on a theory he believed to be fact for 15 years.... another came to him and disproved it... what did this first scientist do? he thanked him and gave him praise... science so often wrong.... BUT with evidence provides truth....
A fact about something that we use science to explain is only good until a different scientific explanation proves to be more sensible. The issue with challenging scientific explanations with popular opinion and religious statements is that they are not science. Creation science, no matter how well accepted it is, cannot replace scientifically proven information or even the techniques to research them, because it is also so very tied to superstition and observational accounts that were NEVER meant to represent any type of scientific process.
Science never fully proves or disproves anything, it is a constantly changing library of theories which are made to interpret facts and data from the world. Science has been wrong many times (Newton), but if something is known to be wrong, a theory which accounts for it will usually be thought up to make science right again (Einstein).
I'm not sure if I really know the answer to your question, but that's just my thoughts on it.
Yes, but is aspirin good or bad for you? And with all the latest technology and mastermind scientists who have all knowledge and wisdom, why in the hell are they letting us suffer? obviously they have all the answers and know everything it is too obvious they hate us and want to see us suffer and die. We have far more advanced technology than that of the great depression well why the hell are we headed for another one with all their wisdom?
1Co:1:20: Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?
PRAISE JESUS !!! 鈥?/div>
uhh.. tiedye_d... said Evolution is a fact?
Last time I checked it was a theory and always WILL BE!
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