Questioning Scientific Titans

[The Grand Nudger]

It might have been more difficult to discover fire, than it was to be the first in flight. We're not endowed with better intellectual tools, we're endowed with a greater body of underlying knowledge from the repeated application of the same intellectual tools.

[ScepticOrganism]

It might have been more difficult to discover fire, than it was to be the first in flight.  We're not endowed with better intellectual tools, we're endowed with a greater body of underlying knowledge from the repeated application of the same intellectual tools.

This video perfectly illustrates your eloquently put point 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGiQaabX3_o

[ScepticOrganism]

Double post sorry

[T.J.]

I believe in questioning everything even if it makes me look dumb as at the very least I come out of it with a better understanding of it. Though this comes less from a desire to criticize it as I'm just asking questions to see where the chips fall.

[CapnAwesome]

Well you got the Eureka story wrong anyway. Although the story is likely not historically accurate, it's origins are about him discovering the use of water displacement in order to measure volume, specifically to discover whether or not a gold crown was entirely gold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(word)

So I probably wouldn't be big on lecturing your girlfriend if I were you. Also it's very easy to criticize ancient scientists. Archimedes was discovering principles that you can mostly learn in high school now. Anybody with a high school education knows more then he did about the world. I'm not intimately familiar with him, but I'm sure he believed in plenty of quackery like most scientists back then did.

[Excited Penguin]

Hey everyone,

So I was discussing with my gf today Archimedes's famous term "Eureka!", and how it came to be. I told her that he basically came up with a way to make it so that large heavy ships don't drown.

At a certain point she said that there is this flaw, and that flaw in that theory, and "wouldn't it be easier to do this and that?". At which point I became "triggered", I started acting like a bible thumping Christian saying "how dare you question Archimedes!!"

I also told her that "we're bent to the bias of the vintage point of our own history, so you can't really act like you would have figured it out in his time". And that she needed to have deep scientific knowledge about many scientific disciplines in order to properly gauge, or even say that there were "flaws" with his theory.

And to her credit, she admitted that the word flaw might not have been the most appropriate term. She's also quite the mathematician, she's even the top student in our uni. At any rate, I felt bad afterwards, because I felt like I was some kind of "extremest".

I guess my point is, or rather my question is; at which point do we become allowed to freely flaunt terms like "flaw" and whatnot at scientists and even some theories?

I see nothing wrong with the way she described his theory and can't understand why would you possibly be getting upset over her questioning the theory behind what is said to have originated the term Eureka. The whole conversation sounds a little confusing, and you sound a little stupid because of it, so let me deflate that obvious ego a bit. Do tell your girlfriend she deserves better and then go away. You're annoying.


Oh, I'm sorry, you said you were a student. I sometimes forget people of my own generation are just that dumb around this age. I apologize.

[ScepticOrganism]

Well you got the Eureka story wrong anyway. Although the story is likely not historically accurate, it's origins are about him discovering the use of water displacement in order to measure volume, specifically to discover whether or not a gold crown was entirely gold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(word)

So I probably wouldn't be big on lecturing your girlfriend if I were you. Also it's very easy to criticize ancient scientists. Archimedes was discovering principles that you can mostly learn in high school now. Anybody with a high school education knows more then he did about the world. I'm not intimately familiar with him, but I'm sure he believed in plenty of quackery like most scientists back then did.

Yea I've got it wrong on many levels, and I've since looked it up, and watched many youtube videos about it. 

Hey everyone,

So I was discussing with my gf today Archimedes's famous term "Eureka!", and how it came to be. I told her that he basically came up with a way to make it so that large heavy ships don't drown.

At a certain point she said that there is this flaw, and that flaw in that theory, and "wouldn't it be easier to do this and that?". At which point I became "triggered", I started acting like a bible thumping Christian saying "how dare you question Archimedes!!"

I also told her that "we're bent to the bias of the vintage point of our own history, so you can't really act like you would have figured it out in his time". And that she needed to have deep scientific knowledge about many scientific disciplines in order to properly gauge, or even say that there were "flaws" with his theory.

And to her credit, she admitted that the word flaw might not have been the most appropriate term. She's also quite the mathematician, she's even the top student in our uni. At any rate, I felt bad afterwards, because I felt like I was some kind of "extremest".

I guess my point is, or rather my question is; at which point do we become allowed to freely flaunt terms like "flaw" and whatnot at scientists and even some theories?

I see nothing wrong with the way she described his theory and can't understand why would you possibly be getting upset over her questioning the theory behind what is said to have originated the term Eureka. The whole conversation sounds a little confusing, and you sound a little stupid because of it, so let me deflate that obvious ego a bit. Do tell your girlfriend she deserves better and then go away. You're annoying.


Oh, I'm sorry, you said you were a student. I sometimes forget people of my own generation are just that dumb around this age. I apologize.

I have already apologized to her actually, and we both looked it up together. I am a little thick headed at times, and she knows it, and we've moved on since this little squabble. 

Lastly, try not to judge. But hey this is the internet, everyone is a keyboard warrior here.

[Minimalist]

I wonder though, don't you find it a bit "arrogant" when someone questions a theory that has been proven to be correct already?

I completely agree, especially when it comes to evolution.  There is a whole cottage industry of ignorant creatards pretending that their silly shit is legitimate.

[The Grand Nudger]

They're not actually questioning anything, though.  That's their problem, in a nutshell, when you think about it.

[CapnAwesome]

Well you got the Eureka story wrong anyway. Although the story is likely not historically accurate, it's origins are about him discovering the use of water displacement in order to measure volume, specifically to discover whether or not a gold crown was entirely gold. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_(word)

So I probably wouldn't be big on lecturing your girlfriend if I were you. Also it's very easy to criticize ancient scientists. Archimedes was discovering principles that you can mostly learn in high school now. Anybody with a high school education knows more then he did about the world. I'm not intimately familiar with him, but I'm sure he believed in plenty of quackery like most scientists back then did.

Yea I've got it wrong on many levels, and I've since looked it up, and watched many youtube videos about it. 

Good for you. Most people when they are wrong just double down on that wrongness and refuse to look into it. It shows maturity.