RE: Cosmology Question

From: Stirling Westrup (sti@cam.org)
Date: Mon Feb 10 2003 - 07:15:23 MST

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    On 10 Feb 2003 at 0:55, Lee Corbin wrote:

    > Stirling writes
    >
    > > At the moment, the Big Bang theory is THE theory of
    > > the evolution of the universe. It is also generally
    > > regarded as being fatally flawed in a number of different ways.
    > > That is, we know that, as currently stated, it's wrong.
    >
    > Do you think that more than half of the professional
    > physics community would agree with your statement that
    > the Big Bang theory is wrong?
    >

    What a fascinating question! I would love to say yes, but I rather suspect
    not. What I WOULD say is that if you surveyed the best and the brightest of
    current cosmologists (leaving aside the question of how you choose them),
    well over 50% would agree with the statement: "The Big Bang theory, as
    currently accepted, is inconsistent with one or more observations of the
    universe".

    The big problem in the sciences is that scientists are only human. 90% of
    them are dull-witted sheep. (An observation that seriously rattled me when I
    first started having dealings with professional scientists.) Of the
    remainders, the actual innovators, there are always going to be a fair
    percentage that have a vested interest in the current theory, either because
    they helped invent it and have gained status thereby, or because they have a
    grant or other money source tied to particular lines of investigation of the
    current theory.

    As a result, even in the presense of overwhelming evidence to the contrary,
    an old theory keeps going until the number of dissenting voices reaches some
    critical mass, after which the global scientific perspective changes, almost
    overnight.

    This makes such questions as "would 20% of scientists agree..." a poor
    measurment of theory credibility, since (most) scientists do not
    independantly hold opinions, but do so in consensus.

    -- 
     Stirling Westrup  |  Use of the Internet by this poster
     sti@cam.org       |  is not to be construed as a tacit
                       |  endorsement of Western Technological
                       |  Civilization or its appurtenances.
    


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