George wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...
You say that those great Scientists had to "kick Science to the
next level". In fact, they met with resistance not from the
Scientific community but fron politics and religion. It is
not Science that had to be kicked, it was non-Science that
had to be kicked and it often kicked back.


You'll want to re-think that one. Scientists have both politics and
religion - pretty much the same thing , belief over observation - and thus
do not operate in an intellectual ivory tower.

No and I suggest you read what I went on to write about each
of them. If some contemporaries of Copernicus were reluctant
to accept the Copernican model, or spoke out against it, maybe
it was because others who did not were being burned at the stake.
That is not an example of scientists allowing THEIR politics
and religion ot get in their way.

Fact is, prior to Keppler's discovery of the laws of planetary
motion there was no scientifically compelling reason to prefer
a heliocentric model over a geocentric one. Kepler's laws
made teh heliocentric model more attractive becuase it then
had predictive value, albeit through correlation, not causative
considerations. The discovery of the law of gravity and the
developement of dymanics were needed to provide a sound
theoretical basis on which to prefer one over the other.

A reluctance to accept a new theory that lacks a sound scientific
basis to prefer it over existing theory unless and until such
a basis is demonstrated is not adherance to orthodoxy.


"God does not dice with the universe." Is a famous saying by a famous
physicist, but Heisenberg finally gained acceptance in spite of him.

Finally? In spite of him? Of the four papers cited for Einstein's
Nobel prize, three relied on quantum mechanics. That was in 1905.
At that time, Special Relativity, the only non-quantum paper cited,
was the theory most in doubt.

As Carl Sagan (hmm, I can hear booing and hissing in the penut gallery)
said:

They laughed at Galileo, they laughed at Columbus, they laughed at
Einstein and they laughed at Bozo the Clown too.

I'll just point out that it was religious zealots who laughed at
Galileo, competetors for state funds who laughed at Columbus,
Nazis who laughed at Einstein, and people who recognize a clown
when they see one who laughed at Bozo.

The latter folks, I daresay are the same ones who laugh at
"Creation Science" when they see "Intelligent Design".

--

FF