Quote:
Originally Posted by jimjamuser
The United Nations and the majority of scientists in the WORLD believe that Global Warming is "settled Science". There are a few naysayers that repeat the doctrine put out by the gas and oil conglomerate simply because, for them, billions of dollars are at stake. They buy and control whole TV networks in the US so that they can maintain their ANTIQUATED industry.
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Science, put simply, is the formulation of hypotheses based on best available data. But data changes, and an objective scientist must be willing to change or revise his or her hypotheses if new or additional data is located or if information is acquired that contraindicates current data.
Taking a well-known example from not too many centuries ago, geocentrism was "settled science". I mean, you could SEE it! Everything revolved around the Earth--the sun, the moon, everything. To deny that, to the supposed scientists of that day, was to deny the reality of one of the most settled and obvious truths of the science of the time. Until the advent of Copernicus, and later Galileo, that is. Galileo's observations with that newfangled data-collection instrument called the telescope proved that the "settled science" of geocentrism was anything but, at least as far as the solar system went. The theory of heliocentrism thus replaced geocentrism as the truth
du jour, albeit not without a whole lot of opposition from those who accepted geocentrism as dogma, up to and including threatening Galileo with torture and possibly even death if he didn't recant his support for geocentrism.
Psychology Today (February 20, 2023) had an article, "How Einstein Shattered the Myth of "Settled Science" that deals with just this topic, how "settled scientists" are in fact justificationists, seeking information that supports their hypotheses but seeing any data that contraindicates it as dangerous to their particular science. Key points made:
"The Einsteinian revolution showed, however, that not only is unsettled science not destined to collapse, but it is primed to grow." and
"Today, the lingering desire for settled science threatens to shackle scientific growth"
One can conclude from this article, then, that "settled science" is the antithesis of REAL science. If a person accepts any science as "settled", then what he or she is accepting is really no different from dogma.