[A group of astronomers decides Pluto should not be called a planet.]
These scientists are always trying to play God - can't they just leave things as they are? Its a sad day...
48 comments
Maybe if your "all-knowing" god had told us before we figured it out I could think about believing in him. Statistics change, dear doltess, because the facts change. Just because you believe in an unchanging god doesn't mean the world works that way. Was it a sad day when it was discovered that the earth was round, or that it wasn't the center of the universe? The bible didn't recognize Venus as a planet, merely a star. It obviously isn't the bastion of knowledge you think it is.
Or are you saying it's a sad day because you have to remember a different set of numbers?
"Can't [those scientists] just leave things as they are?"
I expect that this little luddite and her ancestors have benefited from antibiotics, anaesthesia, computers, radio, television, movies, electrical appliances, cars, plastics, metallurgy, civil engineering, aeronautical engineering, nuclear science, improved agriculture, and pasteurization, just to name a few random examples of scientists NOT just "leaving things as they are" -- and she's upset about them changing things because of an academic redefinition?
Dang it, girl, get your freaking priorities straight! And if you don't like change, give up all those things and everything else science has given you, and go live naked in a cave eating nuts and roots and the raw flesh of whatever wild animals you can catch.
~David D.G.
Don't worry, Deborah, Pluto is still right there where it has been since our solar system formed. It still looks the same, is still in the same orbit, still just as frozen as before, just like the Bible says...Hey, wait a fuckin' minute! (slaps forehead) The Bible doesn't say anything about Pluto, or any of the other planets or microplanets or asteroids. Damn those scientists for finding things that the Bible never mentions.
You people really should read that thread (if it can be called such). It's just filled with totally hilarious idiocy: some guy whines his education has been wasted because of this, a guy from Texas thinks astronomers should spend more time stopping wars, curing diseases and eradicating famine instead of figuring out what to call a planet and many people suggest Pluto is not a part of our solar system any longer. I guess it has to pack its bags and head toward Alpha Centauri.
And boy, are the astrologers miffed.
SUVRAJIT SAHA, Aachen, Germany:
I for one am not amused to see Pluto being "demoted". Planets can be researched upon, but not played around with to suit the whims and fancies of scientists. Perhaps they should now also include the media invented "third sex" in biology text books.
Moreover as a Scorpio, it does not make me a trifle happy with the way Pluto has been treated. But, at least scientists will not be able to change the way the universe exists and functions. So, Pluto lives and will continue to live.
I hadn't even thought of the possible impact on astrology! But I suppose a redefinition of "planet" could wreak havoc on their livelihood.
And just think...they just narrowly avoided the awful realization that they've been neglecting the effects of Ceres and Xena all this time, too! Good thing the IAU didn't go with their original 12-planet scheme.
g-21-lto: I think it's a riot that any astrologers think they're in any position to condemn astronomers over this. After all, if their practice has the faintest validity, what difference does it make what category a world is put in? And besides, who found Pluto in the first place? Not an astrologer!
What's annoying, however, is the fact that anyone would bother to print the opinions of astrologers in anything but a fluff article. The only ones who are not crackpots are frauds -- hardly the sort of people I would want to give free publicity.
~David D.G.
If they had gone with the original proposal and expanded the solar system to 12 planets, one of them would have been Cheron, which has been considered a moon of Pluto but is only slightly smaller than Pluto. What is unique about it is that it does not actually orbit Pluto. Cheron and Pluto orbit a central point outside the body of Pluto.
And as g-21-lto mentioned there is Ceres, the largest asteroid in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, which by the way, was also once considered a planet along with 2 other asteroids in that belt. So this is not the first time bodies that were once called planets have been demoted or reclassified.
And, yes, this all just goes to show that astrology is total bullshit.
I think it was in Carl Sagan's Demon Haunted World that he talks about Astrologers who utilise recent astronomical finds... Anyway, some astrologer incorporated Ceres into charts, and stated that it had an effect on fertility and new beginnings, due to Ceres being the Goddess of fertility and rebirth. Who ever the comentator was, asked the obvious question, "What effect does the asteroid Zappa Frank have on an astrological chart?"
Deb - we have bad news for you. We've decided to classify Uranus as a large unsightly, irregularly, shaped, gasous, menace. Kindly remove it from public.
The thing is, bringing Pluto and its buddies into the system wouldn't give us just 12 planets. Estimates are there's enough qualifying detritus of sufficient size out in the Kuiper Belt to take us to 50 or more.
But from an academic standpoint, what's wrong with 50 planets? Nothing, except for the hundreds of schoolkids who will be dutifully expected to know them all, for whatever weird reason.
So, the astronomers decided to adopt guidelines sufficiently strict to reduce the number of "planets" in our little star system to a number that humans can easily remember and list.
Forgive me if this seems a little tail-wagging-dog.
--GF
g-21-lto: I wonder if he means Rygel VII, Dominar of Hyneria, or Rigel VII, where Captain Pike and the Enterprise crew had a skirmish?
Scientists are "playing God" because they used a different word to describe the same object? They should stop?
In that case, quit speaking English. You must speak only whichever primitive langauge came first. After all, English words are new words, and you've just said that using new words is bad!
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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