The comets explain everything


Planets

People are always sending me links — sometimes it’s to a cogent rebuttal of lunacy, sometimes it’s something advocating lunacy, and sometimes…it takes me a while to tell. For instance, here’s this site called “The Truth of Genesis”. I read this and thought for a moment that it was a site debunking creationism.

The biggest laugh comes from the “young Earth” teachers, who try to convince others that the Earth is only 6 000 to 10,000 years old. This is in direct conflict with scientific reality, and the true reading of Genesis. It’s embarrassing to see them try to add up the years from Adam (who they think only lived 930 years), on down to Jesus, who was born in 7 BC. They deny the existence of humanity before Adam and Eve, which were formed from the dust of the Earth. So where do they put Cro-Magnon and the Neanderthals? They claim that there was “no death before Adam”, but that is not found in scripture.

Those fools at Answers in Genesis who think the earth is only 6,000 years old! How ridicuolus! All those inconsistencies and their absurd methodology of toting up the ages of the patriarchs…but then I read on.

Adam was formed in about 7200 BC. The modern animals, along with the birds, were made in about 7100 BC, and Eve came along in about 7000 BC. I’m guessing that the animals lived in and out of the Garden, and Adam probably took Eve out on sight-seeing trips to lands surrounding the Garden. They did this for 2,733 years., until Eve ate of the evil tree in 4267 BC. It is then that the years of Adam’s age begins to be counted, because that is when he “began to die”. So from 7200 BC, till 3337 BC, when Adam died, Adam had lived for 3,863 years.

The reason the sequence of events in Genesis chapter one, do not agree with those in Genesis chapter two, is because Moses was writing about two different time periods. So actually, Genesis is declaring the existence of pre-historic man, which lived more than 60 million years before God made Adam and Eve. The world of science won’t admit to mankind being on Earth any earlier than 10 million years ago., which shows how misinformed they are. Or is it that they are in denial?

I don’t know about you, but I’m always impressed with the specificity of their dates, all derived from the land of making-crap-up.

It’s good to know we’ve now found the one correct creationist, rather than all those other wrong creationists. Also a brave creationist, because he’s going to reveal the truth to us at last.

Now, let us talk about the world of science. They are insane, because they would rather lie to the public, than to admit that there is a Creator. Yes, they lie, and they know it, because they have been withholding evidence from the public in order to not have to explain certain ‘phenomena”.

What is this evidence? You will be dazzled by it, but I’m afraid that as a mere biologist I am not qualified to even contemplate the author’s vision. This one is for the physicists out there. Have at it:

Science refuses to come clean about comets, especially Shoemaker-Levy 9. They know good and well that comet was never “captured” by Jupiter. Captures of comets and satellites never occur, because their paths (orbits) obey the command of God. That is why the moon Metis, of Jupiter, does not crash into the planet, even though it is only 79,800 miles from Jupiter. Science calls it a “gravitational lock”. There is no such thing.

Also, science tells the public that the nine planets of our solar system revolve around our Sun, because of the Sun’s “gravitational pull” and centrifugal force on the planets (the same excuse for why our Moon doesn’t “fall”). But that too is not the truth. If they came clean, their theory of stellar evolution, namely the origin of our solar system, would become suspect. Our planets are not really just orbiting the Sun. The Sun is actually following the planets, as they spiral around the Sun, as they all orbit the center point of our galaxy, the Milky Way, as the galaxy spirals around the center point of our “local group” of about ten galaxies. All of the stars (suns) that you see in our galaxy are moving with the rotation of our galaxy.

So when Halley’s Comet orbits around the Sun, how does the comet know where our Sun will be 75 years later, since the comet leaves the solar system in the opposite direction of the Sun’s orbital path (around the galaxy)? Where does it go? What causes it to come back? Certainly not gravity. How did comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 know where Jupiter would be two years later, when Jupiter had moved over 500 million miles since the comet’s previous orbit of the planet? Its apojove was 32,313,600 miles, so again, gravity was not a factor. For more than 4 billion years, it obeyed the command of God, until its (Divinely) staged crash into Jupiter.

Well all righty then, I guess that’s all settled now.

Comments

  1. OptimalCynic says

    The funniest thing is all the comments saying “What an absolute idiot, it’s obvious that MY particular fairy tale is the correct one.”

  2. pschoeckel says

    This sounds like Herman Cummings, I’ve seen his posts before. I like him, he’s a hoot, he knows the truth about everything.

  3. says

    At least this “explanation” doesn’t require the writer to don a purple track suit and put a bag over his head.

  4. howard says

    I… wait, what? I’m suddenly confused. And dizzy. And a bit dehydrated.

    Reading that took a lot out of me.

  5. A. Noyd says

    And how is it you’ll land in the same spot if you jump straight up while on a moving train!? It can only be the command of god!

  6. physicsphdstu says

    Tide goes in, tide goes out.
    Shoemaker-Levy 9 , …
    Never a miscommunication, therefore God!

  7. Ogvorbis, broken failure. says

    . . . I’m always impressed with the specificity of their dates, all derived from the land of making-crap-up.

    When you have less data you have (more lies, in other words), there is nothing to stop you from being very, very, very specific. Reality is messy. Fantasy can be very exact.

    Christianity is all about believing exactly the right thing about exactly the right things. And only one can be right. And every single Christian thinks that their version at their church is the only possible Truth. So it makes sense that this idiots fantasy is the only one that has Truth, all the rest are actual fantasies, not the Fantastic Truth!

  8. pschoeckel says

    A. Noyd; I guess his god doesn’t like me. I’m certain if I jumped straight up on a moving train I’d most likely land on an unsuspecting passengers lap, and maybe break my hip.

  9. noastronomer says

    I’m inclined to file this under P for Parody. Hermann appears to be setting out to annoy everybody.

    Mike.

  10. Rawnaeris, FREEZE PEACHES says

    bwahahahahaha*gasp*bwahahahahahaha*gasp*gasp*

    Oh I needed that. Comets, therefore God. I have to say, I’ve never heard that one before.

  11. Esteleth, the most colossal nerd on Pharyngula says

    Is it bad that the thing that caused me to lose it altogether was “apojove”? I get that “apogee” is derived from ἀπόγαιον, which contains the element γαῖα, “earth”, but I’m still boggled that they went with “apojove.” Way to mix Latin/Greek roots! It should be ἀπόΔιός!

  12. jasonnishiyama says

    I’m guessing that this guy doesn’t put too much stock in the field equations of General Relativity…

  13. busterggi says

    “Also, science tells the public that the nine planets of our solar system revolve around our Sun, ”

    Should we tell him about what happened with Pluto a few years ago as well as the trans-Plutonian dwarf planets (I hate that term, I voted for planetessimals)?

  14. anchor says

    They can ‘know the truth’ only because they don’t understand a damned thing they’re talking about.

  15. Rabid says

    This guy is clearly an incredulous, crazy fool. What he has written is incoherent, puerile fantasy. If he would acknowledge simple existing math proof that 4 harmonic corner days rotate simultaneously around squared equator and cubed Earth, proving 4 Days, Not 1Day,1Self,1Earth or 1God that exists only as anti-side. This SnotBrains will know hell for ignoring TimeCube.

    …ahem. Sorry. I got a little off track there. Not sure what happened.

    I prefer my crazy well done, none of this namby-pamby half effort.

  16. Ogvorbis, broken failure. says

    They can ‘know the truth’ only because they don’t understand a damned thing they’re talking about.

    In a reality-free zone, all things are possible.

  17. says

    @11: FWIW, Wikipedia gives both “apozene” and “apojove” as legitimate terms. Modern science doesn’t seem to mind mixing Greek and Latin (and maybe other languages as needed).

  18. says

    Well of course, the greatest scientist, Isaac Newton, told us that angels push the comets around.

    You didn’t believe him, did you?

    Now you’re getting it, you materialist naturalist Satan-worshipping atheists you.

    Glen Davidson

  19. says

    I`m sure this guy considers the fact that astronomers no long consider Pluto a planet as proof science is wrong and evil. No doubt he can cite some piece of Biblical text that proves Pluto is a planet, and that its existence has always been known to those who read the bible properly.

  20. Azuma Hazuki says

    PZ, WARN us when you post something that wrong! I know no more physics or astronomy than a 100-level college course and a lot of reading can teach me, and the last few paragraphs of that were physically painful to read.

  21. timberwoof says

    This reminds me of a video on YouTube that comes up if you search for “Where is Niribu Now?” This lady says that Niribu is over here, beyond Pluto—or Jupiter, one of those planets, and as long as it decides to go this way instead of that way, we will be spared certain destruction. I wonder why they all suddenly stopped posting those stupid Planet X videos… 

  22. kemist, Dark Lord of the Sith says

    So when Halley’s Comet orbits around the Sun, how does the comet know where our Sun will be 75 years later, since the comet leaves the solar system in the opposite direction of the Sun’s orbital path (around the galaxy)?

    How does a rock knows where the ground is ? Answer that Mr. smartypants scientist.

    Where does it go?

    Now he makes me think of my little niece, contemplating her poo as it swirls down the toilet.

    What causes it to come back? Certainly not gravity.

    Because I say so.

    How did comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 know where Jupiter would be two years later, when Jupiter had moved over 500 million miles since the comet’s previous orbit of the planet? Its apojove was 32,313,600 miles, so again, gravity was not a factor.

    These people make a lot of assumptions about things they don’t understand.

    Such as “gravity is not a factor”, extrapolated straight out of “common sense” hardwired from rules-of-thumb that apply to human-sized objects going at restricted speeds in an earth-gravity system, without even being slightly aware of what they’re doing wrong. It would be cute if he wasn’t an adult.

    For more than 4 billion years, it obeyed the command of God, until its (Divinely) staged crash into Jupiter.

    So when it followed its orbit it obeys God, and when it doesn’t it’s also obeying God. o_O

    That’s one impressively messed up cognitive process.

    I hereby declare this guy a hopeless case, to be used as an example of how your brain is on religion.

  23. Rob says

    I’ll just back slowly out of the room and close the door softly behind me. I don’t want to disturb this one.

  24. julial says

    I quote Voltaire:

    Bounce a graviton particle beam off the main deflector dish
    Thats the way we do things, lad, we’re making shit up as we wish
    The Klingons and the Romulans pose no threat to us
    ‘Cause if we find we’re in a bind we just make some shit up

  25. glodson says

    At least it isn’t the Lunar Bukkake hypothesis.

    Why do some people feel the need to abuse astronomy? No. I actually know why. There’s a sufficient number of people out there who don’t know enough to spot the bullshit and have a reason to not check up on it for the sake of their religion.

  26. birgerjohansson says

    What. The. Fuck.

    “and the last few paragraphs of that were physically painful to read.”

    I could not read it to the end. Painful and embarassing.

  27. Tyrant al-Kalām says

    Dont be too hard on him, it took a mind like Newton’s to figure the ‘how planets know wherr to return to’ thing out.
    Of course, he could read a book.

  28. says

    Adam probably took Eve out on sight-seeing trips to lands surrounding the Garden.

    Where did they go? Ham’s creation museum hadn’t opened up, yet, and Las Vegas was still a boring chunk of desert.

  29. steve oberski says

    and the true reading of Genesis

    Quite often a harbinger of major craziness.

  30. says

    It doesn’t take a degree in Physics to debunk this stuff. He appears to be saying (need a loon Babel fish), that comets orbit the sun with God’s assistance. Sort of like the guy in the circus with the spinning plates. Only he says when one slams into a planet, God meant to do that not like the guy dropping the plate. Apparently, that makes his God more awesome directing every tiny ball of ice and rock in the universe. According to this guy’s reasoning kind of like a cosmic pin ball player only when he tilts and one of the balls goes awry, it’s on purpose.

    The comet disappears where did it go? Only his God knows, and can be bothered by that much minutiae. Of course, he could always intelligently engineer solar systems like human engineers design something like a computer to run itself. But somehow that only proves the awesomeness of God to this guy. Alternatively, he is using science to affirm his faith rather than having blind faith.

  31. inkcat says

    *squints*

    I would imagine that the gibberish would be even more ridiculous if he were drunk. I’d like a transcript of that.

  32. screechymonkey says

    Adam probably took Eve out on sight-seeing trips to lands surrounding the Garden.

    Well, of course he did. He just seems like the kind of guy who knew how to treat a lady.

  33. kantalope says

    I picture adam driving his 18-wheel ATV SUV – AC blowing out the open winnders: Hey, Babe, out the left side you can see the brontosaurus (I named that you know) and see behind him – that’s a Tyrannosaurus (I named it that too) but those big teeth? Totally not for killing things – he eats nothing but coconuts (which I also named) and he needs the big teeth to get through the tough husks. Here have some jerky – its tofu – but its still good.

  34. Acolyte of Sagan says

    screechymonkey
    1 May 2013 at 4:46 pm

    Adam probably took Eve out on sight-seeing trips to lands surrounding the Garden.

    Well, of course he did. He just seems like the kind of guy who knew how to treat a lady

    Nope! Read the OP again; he clearly didn’t give a fig for the first 2,733 years.

  35. pensnest says

    No, no, this is not fair. I was just re-reading ‘NO JOHN RINGO NO’ and came back to Pharyngula for some sanity and – what? What?

    What?

    I’m going to bed now.

  36. carpenterman says

    Ow, ow OW! Oh, my head! The Stupid… the STUPID!… it HUUURRRTS!!!

    Oh, and Acolyte of Sagan? That “not giving a fig” joke did *not* help.

  37. Acolyte of Sagan says

    Sorry, Carpetman.
    I was going to say that he couldn’t leaf her alone, but that really would have been wrong.

  38. says

    Herman Cummings has described “himself as the foremost terrestrial authority on the book of Genesis”, adding “Until you can disprove that claim, accept it as fact.” He understands how science works (his definition of a scientific theory: “a guess about the unknown, using scientific jargon”); thus he accepts the age of the earth, but not the age of celestial objects:

    How can we possibly know what the make-up of a star is? Have we sent a probe into the center of our Sun? … If pretending to know the composition of planets, stars, and comets isn’t bad enough, many scientists also claim to know the ages of celestial objects. This is what I mean by “crossing the line”. … We can examine the Earth, since we live on it. We have examined material brought back from the Moon, in such wise as we have visited it on several occasions. I accept the findings of the geologist that the Earth and Moon are close to 4.6 billion Earth years old.

    It is reasonable to assume that the Sun is about the same age as the Earth, the Moon, and the other planets in our planetary (solar) system. But that is as far as the scientist can legitimately go. Only the theologian has a ‘license’ to go farther.

    Cummings had a small part in Selman v. Cobb County School District, the evolution disclaimer sticker case in Georgia. (See “If you litigate, they will come” at The Panda’s Thumb.)

  39. Anri says

    Dammit, I wanted to be smart for the rest of the day, but reading that post has made me stupid(er)… this will take hours – hours I tell you! – to recover from.

  40. peanutcat says

    Good Lord. My Brain-Thinky score went down after reading that . . . . .

  41. Denverly says

    I don’t know why, but I totally read that post in Bill O’Reilly’s voice. Can someone explain that to me? You can’t explain that.

  42. Gregory Greenwood says

    sbh quoting Herman Cummings @ 43;

    How can we possibly know what the make-up of a star is? Have we sent a probe into the center of our Sun? … If pretending to know the composition of planets, stars, and comets isn’t bad enough, many scientists also claim to know the ages of celestial objects. This is what I mean by “crossing the line”.

    Oh, this is priceless;

    Spectrometers – clearly the creations of teh Debil…

    It is reasonable to assume that the Sun is about the same age as the Earth, the Moon, and the other planets in our planetary (solar) system. But that is as far as the scientist can legitimately go. Only the theologian has a ‘license’ to go farther.

    One needs ‘license’ from an unevidenced sky fairy to think for oneself? What a lightless and sorely limited intellectual world it is that these bible-bashers inhabit. It is sad really.

  43. Lithified Detritus says

    Interesting coincidence – I was Googling today looking for images of drumlins – surprising how few pictures there are out online. I came across some new-agey/woo webpage claiming that drumlins and eskers are not the result of glaciation, but are caused by, you guessed it, comets. I was busy, and didn’t waste much time looking at it, but wow…

  44. Ogvorbis, broken failure. says

    Lithified Detritus:

    There a lots of photos of a Drumlin. Just look for photos of >a href=”http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=tufts+university&FORM=HDRSC2″>Tufts University. My dad majored in geology there back in the early 1960s. He still calls it The College on the Drumlin.

  45. Ogvorbis, broken failure. says

    I was Googling today looking for images of drumlins – surprising how few pictures there are out online

    There are lots of them. Just search for images of Tufts University. My dad got a geology degree there back in the early 1960s (pre-continental drift acceptence) and he still refers to it as “The College on the Drumlin”.

  46. shouldbeworking says

    That article could have been written by one of my physics students. After the exam on gravity and planetary motion. The rest of students aced the exam, according to Newton, Copernicus, Kepler and Galileo. But what do they know?

  47. Ogvorbis, broken failure. says

    I was Googling today looking for images of drumlins – surprising how few pictures there are out online

    There are lots of them. Just search for images of Tufts University. My dad got a geology degree there back in the early 1960s (pre-continental drift acceptence) and he still refers to it as “The College on the Drumlin”.

  48. shabadu15 says

    As a physicist, I am always baffled by the sheer number of lunatics who think they can upend everything we’ve come to know about physics by pulling theories out of their own asses. We don’t call it a “gravitational lock”, we call it the centripetal force provided by gravity. And if comets were prevented from being captured by the gravitational fields of planets by God’s will then how does this clown explain other celestial bodies like asteroids and meteors that are attracted to planets and eventually collide with them. His omnipotent creator entity is chilling in the ethereal plane saying “You asteroids can go wherever you please but if I catch you goddamned comets hanging out with the planets I’m gonna put my size infinity boot up your ass.” Makes perfect sense to me.

  49. Lyn M: ADM MinTruthiness says

    @ Mobius #45

    [headdesk] [headdesk] [headdesk]

    No! Stop that! It could result in believing what that … fellow wrote!

  50. vaiyt says

    So when Halley’s Comet orbits around the Sun, how does the comet know where our Sun will be 75 years later, since the comet leaves the solar system in the opposite direction of the Sun’s orbital path (around the galaxy)? Where does it go? What causes it to come back? Certainly not gravity.

    Classic crank tactic. “Well, how do you solve this conundrum? The actual answer doesn’t count!”.

  51. FossilFishy(Anti-Vulcanist) says

    “Were you there?!”

    Oh dear, not another one of these pre-programmed idiots.

    “No Billy, I wasn’t there. But that doesn’t stop me from figuring out how this happened. Here, let me explain.”

    [Starts drawing frantically on the whiteboard.]

    “Sometime in the distant past a large chunk of Dunning collided with a slightly small piece of Kruger. That impact fussed them and the pushed the resulting body onto a new vector. Unfortunately, that path intersected squarely with Mr. Cummings’ head.”

    “You can’t know THAT! You weren’t there to see it!”

    “Oh yes we can. By tracking the spalled fragments of scientific ignorance backwards along their paths we see that they all intersect quite neatly at Mr Cummings’ head. By analysing weights and velocities we can predict the size and shape of the impactor, and the content of those fragments leave little doubt as to the Dunning/Kruger nature of that object. You see Billy, by following the evidence and applying reason and knowledge of the demonstrated physical properties of the universe we don’t have to be there to understand what happened in the past.”

    [Looks around, realises that Billy has run away from the evidence.]

    [Spends the rest of the day drawing vector diagrams in the hopes of dodging further collisions with Cummings’ micro-fragments]

  52. amyisonly3letters says

    I came across some new-agey/woo webpage claiming that drumlins and eskers are not the result of glaciation, but are caused by, you guessed it, comets.

    The thought of comets depositing their tails into neat, tear-drop shaped hills on the northern plains made me laugh hard enough for hot tea to end up in my nose. Thanks.

  53. newfie says

    The reason the sequence of events in Genesis chapter one, do not agree with those in Genesis chapter two, is because Moses was writing about two different time periods.

    Has anybody ever asked these Creotards, “Was Moses there?”

  54. Moggie says

    Tyrant al-Kalām:

    Of course, he could read a book.

    He has read the book.

  55. thumper1990 says

    Well, it’s original, you’ve got to give them that much.

    What the fuck is an apojove? Is that related to aphelion and perihelion, or did they just make it up?

  56. Marcus Hill (dripping with unearned privilege) says

    The comets are clearly being pushed into their orbits by (possibly invisible) GOATS ON FIRE!!!!!

  57. Turtles says

    I can only quote Babbage:

    “On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament], ‘Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?’ I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question.”

    Such a confusion of ideas.

  58. alkisvonidas says

    This one is for the physicists out there. Have at it:

    We Are Not Amused :-(

    (Come on… not even ‘Einstein was Wrong’? You get humans riding Triceratopi, we get God flings Comets? No fair!)

  59. Irmin says

    I’m still trying to understand what he thinks gravity exactly is. I probably shouldn’t. Declaring Dark Matter to be his god would make more sense (if only just).

  60. David Marjanović says

    I love the part where he says “I’m guessing”. Such a sudden outbreak of reason!

    In fact, Poe’s Law still applies.

    Is it bad that the thing that caused me to lose it altogether was “apojove”? I get that “apogee” is derived from ἀπόγαιον, which contains the element γαῖα, “earth”, but I’m still boggled that they went with “apojove.” Way to mix Latin/Greek roots! It should be

    ♥ ♥ ♥

    ἀπόΔιός!

    Haaaaang on a second, for now I shall colossally outnerd you. Your Greek is but copypasta; you didn’t fix the ending or the accents and even kept the capital letter in the middle. Sad, sad. *headshake*

    While the Babylonians and the Romans named the planets after gods, the ancient Greeks did not (until Hellenistic times). “The Greeks called it Φαέθων, Phaethon, ‘blazing'”, quoth the Pffft! of All Knowledge, fitting the pattern:

    “The ancient Greeks of Hesiod’s time knew the planet [Mercury] as Στίλβων (Stilbon), meaning ‘the gleaming’, and Ἑρμάων (Hermaon).[96] Later Greeks called the planet Apollo when it was visible in the morning sky, and Hermes when visible in the evening. Around the 4th century BC, Greek astronomers came to understand that the two names referred to the same body, Hermes (Ερμής: Ermis), a planetary name which is retained in modern Greek.[97]”

    “The Ancient Egyptians believed Venus to be two separate bodies […] Likewise, believing Venus to be two bodies, the Ancient Greeks called the morning star Φωσφόρος, Phosphoros (Latinized Phosphorus), the “Bringer of Light” or Ἐωσφόρος, Eosphoros (Latinized Eosphorus), the “Bringer of Dawn”. The evening star they called Hesperos (Latinized Hesperus) (Ἓσπερος, the “star of the evening”). By Hellenistic times, the ancient Greeks realized the two were the same planet,[139][140] which they named after their goddess of love, Aphrodite (Αφροδίτη)(Phoenician Astarte),[141] a planetary name that is retained in modern Greek.[142]”

    “The Hellenistic Greeks also called the planet Πυρόεις Pyroeis, meaning ‘fiery’.”

    Your turn. :-)

    I voted for planetessimals

    But you can’t spell it? :-)

    I prefer my crazy well done, none of this namby-pamby half effort.

    Speaking of half-efforts, you forgot the http:// in your link. Without it, all links are interpreted as local.

    Modern science doesn’t seem to mind mixing Greek and Latin (and maybe other languages as needed).

    Indeed.

    I don’t know why, but I totally read that post in Bill O’Reilly’s voice. Can someone explain that to me? You can’t explain that.

    FTW.

    You get humans riding Triceratopi

    The name Triceratops doesn’t refer to a single individual, it refers to the entire genus. There is no plural. It’s like a Highlander: there can be only one.

  61. David Marjanović says

    Such a sudden outbreak of reason!

    …That works, too, but I meant to write “honesty”. I’m only waking up.

  62. alkisvonidas says

    The name Triceratops doesn’t refer to a single individual, it refers to the entire genus. There is no plural. It’s like a Highlander: there can be only one.

    No plural in English? Pfft! Let’s try in Greek, then. Triceratopes?

  63. says

    #13 got to Intelligent Falling first. And the planetary motion thingy was actually Copernicus, not Gravity boy Newton. (Although, without gravity, where the hell would Copernicus be? Still dead, no doubt.)

    And no, I never sweat the details. :-)

  64. says

    15 busterggi 1 May 2013 at 3:37 pm (UTC -5):
    I hate both of those; they’re long and too broad. I voted for centaurs, duh ^-^

  65. cactuswren says

    busterggi@15:

    Should we tell him about what happened with Pluto a few years ago as well as the trans-Plutonian dwarf planets (I hate that term, I voted for planetessimals)?

    Well that only proves how wrong science can be. I mean, didn’t science for decades think Pluto was a planet, and then they found out it wasn’t one?

  66. glodson says

    Well that only proves how wrong science can be. I mean, didn’t science for decades think Pluto was a planet, and then they found out it wasn’t one?

    What? So… since science takes new data and self-corrects, that’s a bad thing? Further, Pluto is still there, but with the data we have, and the criteria set for being a planet, the data we have for Pluto suggests that Pluto cannot be classified as a planet.

    This is more about nomenclature rather than science itself. The qualities we know of Pluto haven’t changed. The essential science behind Pluto wasn’t shown to be wrong. We set the terms for planets, and Pluto didn’t fit the bill. It was called a planet because that was the label originally attached to it.

    This explains the whole Pluto thing.

    So, if you think this shows a flaw in the scientific method, or how we do science, you are wrong. This is how it works. When an idea is shown to be erroneous, we either reject the idea outright, or try to adjust the idea so that it works. Depending on the error. Science is self-correcting.