Can Science Ever Be "Settled?" 497
StartsWithABang writes "From physics to biology, from health and medicine to environmental and climate science, you'll frequently hear claims that the science is settled. Meanwhile, those who disagree with the conclusions will clamor that science can never be 'settled,' and then the name-calling from 'alarmist' to 'denier' ensues.
But can science legitimately ever be considered settled, and if so, what does that mean? We consider gravitation, evolution, the Big Bang, germ theory, and global warming in an effort to find out."
Re:Settled (Score:2, Funny)
Nice job of concealing your ideological looniness until the end of the post.
I'm sorry, you're looking for "Ad Hominem Attacks". That's three doors down, on the left. Cheerio! (Stupid git...)
Re:Settled (Score:3, Funny)
Ah, I see you've recently discovered a Philosophy 101 list of logical fallacies. Come back when you learn enough to understand what the bullet points actually mean.
Re:i interpret it to mean (Score:5, Funny)
A rare scientific law means it is settled. For most of them their are theories ...
The problem most people have is confusing Scientific Theory and pundit "theory" (mind the quotes). The two are not the same -- I even question Commander Data's overuse of the word theory in his many musings. I think he was sometimes a little slack in his application, but that's just a theory.
Re:Settled (Score:2, Funny)
Don't you have a cross to burn or something?
Hasty inference! Bingo! I win Fallacy Bingo!
Okay, I'm going back to work now. Have a nice weekend.
Re:i interpret it to mean (Score:4, Funny)
Feynman, in the first of his Lectures on Physics asked his reader to imagine that some cataclysmic event has wiped out all human knowledge, but that one single sentence could survive to be passed on to the next generation. What would he suggest that sentence be? The universe is made of atoms.
Feynman is awesome, but that dude has a serious under-appreciation for abusively long run-on sentences filled with literary non sequiturs and mathematical and chemical formulae.