Lets Talk About Science

I'm no scientist, far from it, but I have maintained an interest in scientific topics through an increasingly long life and have a few things to say on the subject.

When I was in college many years ago, I made some spending money working as a film projectionist on campus for professors who wanted to use media in class. One day I was in a geology class showing a movie, and at the end one of the students asked a question concerning continental drift. The teacher answered, dismissing the idea as just something some people believe in. Of course, continental drift is consensus wisdom now.

I bring it up just as a reminder that what is accepted wisdom now might be overturned tomorrow. Three more examples: until fifty years ago dinosaurs were characterized as slow moving cold blooded animals and part of the reptile family. Now it is conventional wisdom that dinos were more like birds, quick and smart (more or less).

Speaking of dinosaurs, scientists used to blame their extinction on climate change. Check Walt Disney's Fantasia for an illustration. The thought that the beasts went extinct because of a catastrophic extra-terrestrial event was derided when it was first suggested. Now it's accepted by nearly everyone that an asteroid collision with earth 65 million years ago caused their demise.

Charles Darwin's theory suggested that evolution was a long incremental process of tiny mutations that accumulate over time to produce new species. Now the theory is modified to the extent that most biologists believe a species can go on for millions of years without any appreciable changes, but when populations are isolated and threatened, change can occur rapidly.

What I'm getting at is the requirement for science, and indeed all aspects of life, to be open minded. Skepticism is necessary in life, but acceptance of new ideas is mandatory when sufficient evidence for them is presented.

One last thought today. Some people deny science because they feel it contradicts their idea of religion. Now, I really don't have any problem with a person who says, "I don't care what science says, I believe God created the world as it is and that's it." What really makes me shake my head in derision is the charlatans who try to convince the gullible that all reputable science is wrong and they can prove scientifically that a literal interpretation of the Bible is good science. If they could, they'd be able to refute continental drift, evolution, and relativity. Really now.