anything that has not been OBSERVED by reliable humans is theory
black holes are theory
so are Unicorns (more people can claim to have seen a unicorn than a black hole)
42 comments
Black holes have been detected by observing their gravitational effects on stars around them as has the accretion disks of matter falling into black holes.
Your argument is like arguing that dinosaurs never existed because no one has ever seen live one.
Good thing we've directly observed evolution at work, then.
By the way, we've seen the effects of gravity, but we've never directly observed gravity. We should discount gravity, then?
No one's actually seen an electron, so by your standards electricity is just a theory and must not exist.
Why don't you demonstrate your reasoning to us by taking a fork and sticking into a wall socket?
This person clearly misunderstands what the word "theory" means -- and that same misunderstanding is often exploited by creationists -- but there's nothing fundamentalist about this particular quote.
(He/she also signs off with "Live long and prosper," which is not a common fundie phrase.)
I think this one belongs in PWDUSSTDTICAEWFCT (People Who Don't Understand Science Say the Darnedest Things, Inadvertently Creating an Environment Where Fundies Can Thrive.)
Layman's theory = scientific idea (at most).
It is in every scientist's best interest to disprove everyone else's theory, stupid. Every single one of them wants to be the one who formulates a new theory that will rule out the old ones.
Black holes are fact.
Never trust a man whose bread and butter is a myth. its not in his best interest to disprove it
[(more people can claim to have seen a unicorn than a black hole)]
[(more people can claim to have seen a unicorn than a black hole)]
Never trust a man whose bread and butter is a theory is in the best interest of everyone else to disprove it, which is why scientists are always checking each other and are perfectly happy to tell the world that their competitors are full of it. That was all done a hundred years ago with Darwin, when there were still people who thought they could prove him wrong. They didn't, and one by one they gave up. The only ones left are cranks with a religious agenda.
Not true, bonehead. Observation of effects and relics can be credible evidence. Black hole have both high quality theory and observation of their effects to back up the claims of their existence. Neither is true for alien flying saucers, yeti or bog men from Venus.
Never trust a man whose world view depends upon believing in unproven and/or ridiculous ancient fairy tales.
That (along with total lack of evidence) is why we don't trust creationists, or preachers for that matter.
As for scientists, if they found evidence shooting down evolution, or black holes, etc. they'd get rich and famous right quick.
Never trust a man whose bread and butter is a theory
Yeah, all those musicians using music theory can't be trusted! Music theory shouldn't be taught in school, it's just a theory!
I read the thread (for some reason). This guy seems to think he actually has a better understanding of physics than the whole of the human scientific community throughout history. He doesn't understand even the basics of science (he claims that the "law of entropy" - which seems to be a bad re-interpretation of the 2nd law of thermodynamics in his own words - makes photons slow down.
He's either the dumbest & most arrogant person I've ever seen on the STO forums, or he's a very dedicated troll.
Never trust a man whose bread and butter is a theory
A sad but true statement about human cognitive processes. Regretably, the way science progresses is far more about Other Scientists proving our theories wrong, than it is about the ideal of the individual falsifying his own hypotheses.
However, it's important to remember that you don't get to elevate your hypothesis to the status of a theory without considerable supporting evidence. Otherwise you end up making yourself look like the sort of jackass who can't tell the difference between the idea of a Black Hole and a Yeti.
I have never met anyone who claims to have seen a unicorn-a real one, not a plastic one. Same applies to bog men from Venus-it takes a fertile imagination to come up with that one.
Apologies to all the trekkies :)
Yeah, well, theories these days have a rather nasty habit of becoming fact.
Just ask the scientists at CERN. Then Evolutionary biologists.
And as we can't see Gravity, therefore it can only be a 'Theory', amirite?! Can you see germs with the naked, unaided eye, Sollfux? What's that, you say? You can't? So I guess you won't mind if I inject you with Ebola, whilst this very heavy anvil is dropped on your head from a great height. After all...
... mere 'Theories' can't kill you. >:D
so i suppose that makes your religion just a theory doesnt it?
i dont believe anyone who wrote any scripture was actually there to see it. seeing as how the stories were passed around orally for the first couple hundred years or so. the churches bread and butter is belief in an unobservable sky daddy. and somehow you figure you can trust them more than people whose goal in life is learn more about things that we know nothing about?
well, so much for the legal system then
of course, there may be a reason why "eyewitness testimony" is often considered the least reliable admissible evidence
@LAchlan
Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend.
No, unicorns, flying saucers, the yeti and bog men are all myths and fairy tales, unsubstantiated rumours.
A scientific theory is first a hypothesis that has been thoroughly researched by scientists who have written a paper on it, with clear statements of falsifiability. The paper has then been peer-reviewed by other scientists who have done their very best to find faults and errors. It's then published in a scientific journal so that even more scientists can search it for faults and errors. If the hypothesis can make it through all these scrutinies, then it becomes a theory.
@Philbert McAdamia
"@LAchlan
I dunno, though. I mean, have you seen "The Fly"? The scene with the inside-out baboon ...?! XP
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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