An Inconvenient History Of Science

Posted: 9/5/2017  Updated/Revised: 12/3/2019, 5/11/2019, 9/9/2017

Update Of 12/3/2019

Just watched this very recommendable documentary on chaos theory by Jim Al Khalili: The Secret Life Of Chaos: Chaos Theory (Jim Al-Khalili). Among many other things, Jim pointed out that after Newton many scientists and others were convinced that the world and the universe operated like a very predictable mechanical clockwerk, cause and effect etc. Thus, humans would be able to become masters of the universe. Then came quantum mechanics and later chaos theory.

Rest Of Blog Post Before 12/3/2019

The All Present Demagoguery And Propaganda Of Science

On a  daily and very pervasive basis, science is frequently abused for political ends. Citizens are taken for fools and made to believe propaganda instead of science.

They famously say about statistics: 

1. You can only trust your own statistics (perhaps attributed to Winston Churchill)
2. There are lies, damned lies, and then there is statistics (perhaps attributed to Benjamin Disraeli or Mark Twain)

Something similar about statistics can be said about science as well. With science you can prove almost anything you wish to prove especially if it is politically expedient and generates lavish government funding for scientists.

Frequently, the use of scientific arguments is not much more than a pretense of knowledge or scientism. In some instances it is not much more than superstition dressed up as science.

The Global Warming Hoax

This is probably the biggest and most consequential science demagoguery the world has ever seen and suffered. It is incredible superstition revived on steroids! Fatalism and apocalyptic thought combined! Supposedly, 97% of all scientists agree we the citizens are to believe. The sooner this hoax subsides and vanishes, the better for humanity!

For brevity sake, I will not go here into any of the many controversies of this Global Warming disinformation. Some of it is covered on my blog. Suffice it to say, humans are still not capable of forecasting accurately our local weather for more than 24 hours, but Global Warming zealots want us to believe their computer models can forecast or simulate global climate for a hundred years. Simply Preposterous!

Geocentric Versus Heliocentric Planetary System

Most people are familiar with this famous case of erroneous science and with the courageous scientists involved in correcting it, i.e. Galileo Galilei and Nicolaus Copernicus. This case is probably taught in school in all Western countries.

However, what many people probably do not realize is that this was not just a singular aberration from an otherwise superbly working science. This story even reinforces the narrative that it was actually the dogmatic catholic church that opposed science and not leading scientists themselves for over several centuries.

In fact this is but one prominent case of hundreds of similar cases were prominent scientists of the day developed and fervently defended a wrong theory until they could not longer given the ever more growing, overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

History Is Littered With Defunct Scientific Theories

I will try to present here only a selection of once pursued, obsolete scientific theories. Wikipedia actually has an interesting compilation of such theories here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superseded_scientific_theories

Here is the Wikipedia definition of a superseded scientific theory, which I agree with (emphasis added): “A superseded, or obsolete, scientific theory is a scientific theory that was once widely accepted within the mainstream scientific community but is no longer considered to be an adequate or complete description of reality, or is considered to be simply false. This label does not cover proto scientific or fringe science theories with limited support in the scientific community.”

List of selected, superseded scientific theories (in no particular order, but these theories were very prominent in its time and tainted science for a long time):

1. Phlogiston (“a superseded scientific theory that postulated that a fire-like element called phlogiston ... is contained within combustible bodies and released during combustion”)
2. Spontaneous Generation (“The theory of spontaneous generation held that living creatures could arise from nonliving matter and that such processes were commonplace and regular”)
3. Miasma theory of diseases (“an obsolete medical theory that held diseases—such as cholera, chlamydia, or the Black Death—were caused by a miasma (... "pollution"), a noxious form of "bad air", also known as night air”)
4. Vitalism (“the belief that "living organisms are fundamentally different from non-living entities because they contain some non-physical element or are governed by different principles than are inanimate things"”)
5. Caloric Theory (“an obsolete scientific theory that heat consists of a self-repellent fluid called caloric that flows from hotter bodies to colder bodies”)
6. Dalton’s Atomic Theory (atoms were considered as indivisible and indestructible)
7. Luminiferous Ether (“Luminiferous aether or ether ... was the postulated medium for the propagation of light.”)
8. Geocentric planetary system
9. Steady State of Universe theory (“In cosmology, the steady state model is an alternative to the Big Bang theory of the evolution of the universe. In the steady state model, the density of matter in the expanding universe remains unchanged due to a continuous creation of matter”)
10. Flat earth theory (“a modern misconception that Earth was believed to be flat rather than spherical by scholars and the educated during the Middle Ages in Europe”)
11. Preformationism (“a formerly-popular theory that organisms develop from miniature versions of themselves”, e.g. there is a little man (homunculus) sitting inside a sperm)

Do not fool yourself believing that some of these superseded theories are very old, predating modern science and therefore it could not happen anymore. This is plain wrong! E.g. the Luminiferous Ether theory was developed in the 18th and 19th century before it was refuted in the late 19th century; the Phlogiston theory remained prominent until 1780; the Miasma theory has ancient roots, but it was not abandoned until 1880s; similar the Spontaneous Generation theory, ancient origins, but was not put to rest until about 1859.

This inconvenient history of science should be taught much more widely! Scientists are only too human! Neither the pope nor scientists are infallible!

Beware Of Fallacy

Don’t fool yourself believing that today’s humans or scientists are so much smarter than their predecessors. We are not much more intelligent, but we have more knowledge! 

Few scientists truly stand on the shoulders of giants. Most scientists are anything but giants. To err is human (Seneca: “Errare humanum est”)! No exception for scientists!

Finally Outright Criminal Scientists

There have been examples in history, where scientists or medical doctors aided and abetted crimes:

1. Eugenics
2. Forced, dubious medical experiments e.g. during World War II by German and Japanese scientists and doctors