11-11-2011, 11:57 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-12-2011, 12:28 AM by Tenet Nosce.)
(11-11-2011, 06:37 PM)Richard Wrote: I think you took that statement out of context, Tenet. I was speaking in historical sense. So, perhaps I should re-phrase...."To date, it has been the nature of the human experience"
Oh, I see. Yes I had interpreted that differently. But still, one can see how these memes get perpetuated among people as if there is some sound scientific basis when there is not.
"Survival of the fittest!" we say. And we're just so proud of this kind of attitude, too. We now have an entire TV genre of shows centered around this meme. People are taught these quips as if they have been scientifically proven.
The theory of natural selection is a theory. There are other theories out there. For example, multilevel selection theory posits that lifeforms compete until a certain degree of diversity is reached, and then the pendulum swings back toward cooperation and unity.
All one really need do is to look at the fossil record to find evidence for this all over the place. But since it is not a popular theory among scientists, and moreover because it just doesn't "make for good capitalism", people are kept in the dark about different ways to view life and reality.
Richard Wrote:I disagree. There are many unproven theories. We simply lack the ability to verify the existence of some of the basic tenets (no pun intented, lol) of some of them. Beyond mathematics.
I'm not following how this relates back to my post. Either I am misunderstanding you again, or you are misunderstanding me.
What I was trying to say is that it is misleading to present a certain idea or viewpoint as a "fact" when it is not a fact at all, but an opinion. If anything, this is what I would refer to as a "negative yellow" manifestation.
People getting snippy with one another from time to time is human nature. Blindly going along with whatever everybody else thinks because "majority rules" is not.
Science is not a democracy, and the majority doesn't always win. To say that 9 out of 10, or 999 out of 1000, scientists agree that a particular theory is true is rather meaningless. All that proves, when placed in the proper context, is that most scientists are wrong most of the time.
Richard Wrote:If the students of competing theories had adhered to the values stated in your educational example..wouldn't they all be positing the same theory? There is still a wealth of original thought out there.
No, I don't think so. There is plenty of room for diversity of thought and genuine competition among various theories. The issue, as I see it, is that the very same meme from above which leads to fragmentation in the scientific community. Open collaboration gets stymied because of egos and institutional rivalries.
People are more concerned with "being right" and university politics and all manner of shenanigans which are decidedly unscientific in nature. A true scientist places facts above theories, and a smart scientist wouldn't allow commercial interests to cloud their professional judgement.
What it comes down to (again) is a willingness to accept having been wrong which appears to be beyond the capacity of most Americans at this particular nexus.