Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Science Bullies: Why the Revelation of Truth is So Painfully Slow

Scientists are portrayed in the media as selfless seekers of truth. Unfortunately, they are prone to the same human weaknesses that we all have. Even though the scientific method is the best we have for uncovering the mysteries of our universe (aside from revelation from God), it doesn't usually go that smoothly, because humans and their lust for money and their insufferable egos get in the way.

Since the beginning of scientific discovery, there has been two sides to the historic struggle of uncovering truth. The "bullies" on one side, the "martyrs" on the other.

Unfortunately, the truth the martyrs offer is usually kept hidden for years by the bullies. For this reason, truth as discovered by the scientific method progresses at a snail's pace, when it could be rocketing forward at the speed of sound if arrogant humans were not part of the equation.

Scientists work hard to gain notoriety through their hypotheses, theories and studies and experiments that prove their ideas. And with notoriety, comes money. Plus the years of experience and connections and relationships built up benefit a veteran scientist a great deal.

So when a new scientist approaches a problem with a fresh pair of eyes, from a different angle, and uncovers holes in the veterans' "proven theories," he or she can be in danger. The veterans' egos won't allow themselves to admit that they spent their entire life pursuing a flawed hypothesis. And the fear of the loss of money motivates them to use their network and influence to marginalize the upstart. "I'm the expert here and that young Dr. So-and-So is just wasting everyone's time and money pursuing ridiculous ideas." Sometimes this leads to the dismissal of the "crackpot." As well as blacklisting.

Below is a partial list of the great thinkers who spent their lives trying to overcome the scientific establishment's closed-minded dominance. Their names are links to informative articles, if you want to learn more about them and their body of work. There are also scientists who discovered disruptive new information that threatened the status quo, but later capitulated to help explain away their own irrefutable evidence in order to keep their standing among the scientific community.

Or course, someone could be in both lists. They were a disruptor in their youth and a bully in their old age. Let me know in the comments if I missed anybody and I'll add them to the list.

Bullies
Thomas Edison
Catholic Church
Richard Dawkins
Bill Nye
Lawrence Krauss
J. Eric S. Thompson
Zahi Hawass


Martyrs
Nicolaus Copernicus (Heliocentrism)
Galileo Galilei (Heliocentrism)
Nikola Tesla (Alternating Current)
Alfred Wegener (continental drift)
Luis and Walter Alvarez (Chicxulah KT impact)
Stephen J Gould (punctuated equilibrium)
Victor Clube and Bill Napier (coherent catastrophism)
James Lovelock (Gaia hypothesis)
Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina (Ozone depletion)
Richard Firestone (Younger Dryas impact hypothesis)
Allen West (Younger Dryas impact hypothesis)
James Kennett (Younger Dryas impact hypothesis)
John Anthony West (sphinx water erosion)
Danny Hilman Natawidjaja (Gunung Padang)
Heinrich Schliemann (discovery of Troy)
Charles Hapgood (crust displacement theory)
Mark Armitage (fired for teaching dinosaur bones still have soft tissue)
Jean Steen-McIntyre (Hueyatlaco dating)
Matthew Stirling (Olmecs were parent culture, not Maya)
Louis Agassiz (empirical evidence disproved Darwin; maligned even today for not capitulating)
Stephen C Meyer (proponent of intelligent design)
Richard M. Sternberg (as editor, published Meyer's article in Smithsonian)



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