RE: A question about the lifespan of scientific theories.
January 11, 2015 at 10:18 pm
(This post was last modified: January 11, 2015 at 10:51 pm by Alex K.)
It's not clear when one would declare one theory to end and a new one to begin. Usually, there are continuous amendments because new knowledge is gained. That doesn't mean that all previous theory is discarded. The 30 years sound completely made up. Newtonian physics was uncontested for hundreds of years and even today is valid as a limiting case of relativity and quantum mechanics, say. Darwinian evolution has been put in a context of the neodarwinian synthesis, what, 80 years later or so, and also here one can speak of a refinement, and some removal of baggage, not replacement. I'm willing to bet my gravestone that the core tenets of darwinian evolution will still hold in 1000 years time. The ptolomaian model of the solar system was used for 1400 years. Even copernicus after that was more like a reinterpretation (a change of viewpoint, and some technicalities like using some epicycles instead of equants) than a complete replacement.
Now, religion simply has no quality standards at all, it allegedly lasting thousands of years means nothing. Changing it was often forbidden by the ruling class and through most of history you'd be killed for trying - and it has still changed. So even there, if you apply similar standards of comparison to e.g. Christianity , which you use to to get your fantasy 30 years lifespan of theories, you'd find that Christianity did *not* last even close to a thousand years. The religion which, according to christians, was conceived by jesus, was for jews only and is not the same one that was spread among the gentiles a few centuries later. It couldn't have been because it before was -according to christian literature- an apocalyptic cult which assumed that the end times were immanent. Protestantism is a child of the 16th century, and so on. Even here, people continue making up a new religion and just keep the name for marketing purposes. So even that is an obvious lie. I would even go so far and say thay fundamentalist christianity is a newly invented religion and not the same one the pilgrims took with them to America, for example.
Now, religion simply has no quality standards at all, it allegedly lasting thousands of years means nothing. Changing it was often forbidden by the ruling class and through most of history you'd be killed for trying - and it has still changed. So even there, if you apply similar standards of comparison to e.g. Christianity , which you use to to get your fantasy 30 years lifespan of theories, you'd find that Christianity did *not* last even close to a thousand years. The religion which, according to christians, was conceived by jesus, was for jews only and is not the same one that was spread among the gentiles a few centuries later. It couldn't have been because it before was -according to christian literature- an apocalyptic cult which assumed that the end times were immanent. Protestantism is a child of the 16th century, and so on. Even here, people continue making up a new religion and just keep the name for marketing purposes. So even that is an obvious lie. I would even go so far and say thay fundamentalist christianity is a newly invented religion and not the same one the pilgrims took with them to America, for example.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
