Settled Science

Einstein was a very bright fellow. He understood that science is never settled ... old theories will forever be replaced by newer, more informed ones. Therefore Galileo’s notion of gravity as a simple undiscriminating force of nature, later updated by Newton’s Law which included relative masses, could be debunked by calling it a “warp in the space-time continuum.” Sometime in the future, Einstein will be debunked by some upstart scientist ... an on and on into the indefinite future.

Is this wrong? Why can’t science be forever settled? Simple. Because we keep discovering new things. Darwin is being relegated to the dustbin of history by advances in DNA science. So is Freud by advances in brain science. And so will be other Nobel Prize winning scientist for as long as these Norwegians believe that we have found the ultimate answer to anything “scientific.” (Global warming?)

And this is not bad. It is the way science works ... and will continue to work. The thing that might worry me is what happens when scientists get it wrong. Did we really understand everything about nuclear fission before we tested that first A-bomb? I kind of doubt it ... but the best minds turned out to be right enough that we didn’t annihilate ourselves.

But there are many things about atomic energy production that we still don’t understand. Does this mean we should stop our quest for harnessing this fundamental energy source? Of course not! But we should insist that we not rush into (or away from) scientific conclusions based upon any uninformed political motivations.

Know what I mean?

The Pope Knows

Pope Francis, the heretofore darling of the world's media, has gone from solid theological grounds into a political quagmire ... calling the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, an "angel of peace" and has had the Vatican recognize Palestinian statehood .... see: Associated Press Story for details. Does this man not read the newspaper? Has he not seen that Abbas's servants have placed Israel under a firestorm of over 11,000 rockets since 2005 (see: Israel Defense Forces Numbers)?  Did he not see how last year Abbas cynically thwarted his citizens a golden opportunity for statehood ... see: The Impossible Dream? Is he confused because both angels and rockets fly through the air?

Unfortunately, His Holiness is also preparing a papal encyclical to be delivered this summer in which he is expected to ally the Catholic Church with the Church of the Moonbat CO2 Haters ... see: New York Times Story. Does Pope Francis not recall how his church was besmirched by its treatment of Galileo when he had advocated heliocentricity? When the Catholic Church starts teaching science is when it loses its luster of saintly objectivity and becomes just another pitchfork-carrying peasant preparing a bonfire for the heathen.

And most of the Christian world had such high hopes for this man when he was elected to this august post ...

By Hook or by Hockey Stick

It now seem that, in the United States at least, global cooling data has been transmogrified by our crazed scientists at NOAA ... into global warming data. The U.S. has actually been cooling since the 1930's, the hottest decade on record, whereas the real data has been cooked (if you will excuse the expression) to show just the opposite ... see: UK Telegraph Story.

For "scientists" to be so unscientific, to me, is astounding. But it's not like such silliness hasn't happened before ... just ask Galileo ... and Einstein ... and many others. But, given the ongoing economic cost of this particular dastardly duplicity, me thinks some punishment should be exacted from these charlatan scientists and those snot-nosed politicians who are in bed with them. Perhaps we could put them in stockades and shoot hockey pucks at them?