Atheism and the existence of peanut butter

[Anomalocaris]

History is only needed for not repeating mistakes of the past, which doesn't seem to work in a society where people think they already have all the answers.

History is needed for a lot more than just not repeating the mistakes of the past.    History is actually a gigantic laboratory experiment that provides the only real indicator of how large systems in which many humans have agency is likely to behave when stimulated.

You might as well give up on medium to long term prognostication if you don’t care to study history.

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There was never any evidence for a lumineferous aether, there were never any good arguments to believe as much based on what we did know, and nothing about us holding on to that idea helped - completely the opposite.  That was, purely and succinctly, a demonstration of the power of institutional thinking.  There may be good examples of us getting things wrong for effect, but that probably isn't one of them.  It's just another word for witches.

I..personally, don't see the point in doling out consolation prizes to people who got shit wrong, and, as a consequence, enjoyed centuries of unearned acclaim that calcified into strong opposition to more accurate (and in many cases immediately and obviously or even pre-existingly more accurate) ideas about reality.

Good for them, they tried...some not quite so hard as others, for reasons™.  I hit a hell of alot of almost home runs when I played ball too.  I get that we're angling for a "at east they were looking" sort of thing..but...at least looking for your keys in wisconsin means exactly what to finding the keys in your living room?  Nothing other than active detriment, so far as I can tell.

Of course there was evidence for a lumineous aether.      Evidence was in fact noted everywhere.    Sound waves is evidence for lumineferoys aether.   Waves in water is evidence for lumineferous aether.     Are they conclusive or direct evidence?  No.  The only way to get that would be to first make luminiferous actually exist.   But without means yet for getting direct evidence, evidence of what seems reasonably to be as a close an analogue as one could have is the next best thing.

In science, the best available course to take to the destination sometimes steers one directly away from it.    The leg is necessary to get to the next point whence one could take a new, better bearing to the destination,