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Old 01-11-2009, 02:32 PM
FredSnerd (Claude)
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Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Canberra
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sjastro View Post

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough. Contemplating alternative theories that contradict observation or experimental evidence is not science.

Steven
Steven,

Its most unbecoming to try and misrepresent what I’m saying by labelling it “conspiracy theory”. I don’t think that scientists conspire with each other to promote an established view. Rather I think what happens is that those who’ve worked in a field for a time (and I’m not just talking about scientists) have a tendency to become very impressed with themselves and what they know (and not sufficiently impressed with what they don’t know) and consequently become unduly resistant to new ideas, especially if they adjudge the proponents of those new ideas to be mere interlopers.

Your revised remark is no better then the first. I don’t think science or the scientific method would ever discourage the contemplation of alternative theories regardless of what earlier observations or experimentation may say. That’s why the book is never closed, even on such respected theories as Evolution and Relativity.
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