How many times has science failed?

Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

Don't start picking on the scientists, that is discrimination. A lot of scientists lack common sense, they have a lot of knowledge though. Discriminating because of mental issues is not allowed. Pick on someone your own size.

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

How many times has science failed?

Countless...

Religion has failed more however; and has a higher body count.

On the other hand, science is becoming something of a religion, so it may all come out a wash in the end.

reply to post by johngrissom


the idea is to keep learning and testing to improve your ideas

Science is all about discovering, trying to explain and maybe proving some facts. Doesn't always have to be right, just by the simple fact that most scientists are objective about their discoveries shows that the book of science is alway ready to be rewritten.

I have a feeling that this thread is going to turn into a sh** blizzard and get shut down, but I'll post anyways I suppose...

The main difference between science and religion - When science makes a mistake, it tries to rectify it and uses that mistake to improve its understanding of where it failed. When religion makes a mistake it tries to cover it up and hopes nobody noticed, and will never admit to that mistake.

Plus, scientists have done much more than your torpid god ever has. They are trying to make the world a better place for all its inhabitants, while your god apparently sat on his languid ass for 200,000 years, indifferent towards the countless human beings who suffered from disease and famine.

Do you actually believe that something was powerful enough to create the universe, and breathe life into this planet, but all these health problems and natural disasters and other inconveniences just totally slipped its mind? lol.

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

'Science' is what discovered that those thing were not true..so it hasn't really failed

"Evolution, but there is still monkeys." is just a statement born out of ignorance. All life on the planet is ultimately related and shares common ancestors. Just because one species evolves doesn't mean the parent species it evolved from has to vanish.

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

What is your point?

The scientific method continually changes to realign itself with reality - it's a self-correcting narrative.

Theology (whatever method it uses) continually aligns itself with some demagogue's cuckoo imaginary reality - it's a chimerical narrative.

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

Are you willfully ignorant on purpose?

Science.. as it purest do not fail so often.. system does.

How many mice have been cured from serious illnesses... many
Are there medicine to cure same illnesses in human... not so often ( type 1 diabetes mice has been cured decades but still no cure for us humans) .. Problem is that there is a big Pharmas and their profits in stake.. so which one wins science or profit? Its always Profits !

The basis of science is to ask a question like is Earth the the center of the solar system?

Then the scientists set out to correctly answer the question. That can be the hard part. It may take a number of iterations to correctly answer the simplest of questions. One may not have the math needed, or the instruments that can measure what you need measured.

In that way, science moves forward. It is not always correct but over time the scientist get closer and closer to models that explain our physical reality.

Science, just like everything, has its good and bad.
The only thing I dislike about science, apart from the few nutjobs, are the amounts of money they spend on ridiculous "research". And they always seem to have a "new study" that shows yesterdays study was wrong, then a "new study" will come out tomorrow claiming todays study was wrong.

Doesn't mean science isn't right on some things though.

We share a common ancestor...us and monkeys, that is why we still have monkeys...
OMG you really do not understand.

I would not say science has failed.

There are all kinds of theories. I believe we should not consider theories, which were proved to be wrong, as failures. Yes, earth was considered to be flat. Although the technology during that time was non-existent and there was no way to truly find it out. Also mathemathics and physics were too primitive back then to prove the opposite + people did not question many things, they simply accepted what was told to them.

Blind religion has done a lot against sciences. For example, when Giordano Bruni suggested that Earth is not the center of the galaxy and the Earth and planets revolve around a stationary Sun at the center of the Solar System, he was burned alive for it, because it was against Church´s beliefs. During the dark ages, when the Church had the power, scientists could not work as hard on their theories, as they may have gotten themselves killed if the Chruch did not agree.

Science could not get anywhere without theories. At first there are theories. When any of them is proved, it becomes a fact. That does not mean that the other theories were failures. In fact, any of the other failures, may have given the scientist, the idea for the correct theory in the first-place. When I would have theory about the Earth being flat, someone might start to think about it and come up with another theory about earth being a square. The next scientist already expands the theory by calculating that Earth could not be a perfect square and so and so on. Sometimes the most absurd theories might become the truth. Many theories can not be backed up or turned down before scientists discover something new.

That is what science is all about. Every failure can also be considered as a step forward to the truth as knowing what is not true limits the options for the truth. Although science continues to find out the truth. That is what is the main difference between science and religion.

it's not science that's failing, but the people that are suppressing it. Even if they found a cure for cancer, which they probably have, the pharmaceutical company would never allow it. Business is made by repeat customers.

It isn't the scientific method that fails. Humans utilizing the scientific method sometimes fail. The method does what it's supposed to do. Measure probabilities.

You may want to educate yourself on what science is, and what science is not...

What Science Is...

What Science Is Not...

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

You've got to be kidding me.

The world is flat: This view was actually promoted by the Catholic church, even while mathematicians and astronomers were insisting otherwise.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy: Once again, this view was promoted by the church, even while scientists and other fields were stating otherwise. They even executed a number of scientists for disagreeing with them. Eventually the church admitted their own stupidity and changed their view to match the reality science had revealed.

Evolution, but there ARE still monkeys: Just because you don't understand the complexities of the evolutionary process, doesn't necessarily mean it is false.

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

As other's have pointed out, your examples do not show what you are hoping for . . .

1. Not the view of science . . . it was the view of superstitious, uneducated layman and the position was backed by the power of the church, as well. This was known to the Phoenicians and Greeks, at the least.

2. Not the view of science . . . it was the view promoted by the church, due to Earth being "god's special creation". Known as far back as the Greeks . . . but, they weren't stuck on Judeo-Christian mythology to talk them out of the evidence.

3. This makes no sense. Of course, there are still monkeys. Why wouldn't there be? Do you understand evolution? What in Evolutionary Theory claims that there would be no monkeys for it to be true?

I will say scientists, not science, are wrong a lot. That's the point. Examine, explore, fail, try again, fail, try again, succeed, advance civilization. The goal is not to fail, give up, and scrap the whole system. The goal is to succeed, in spite of past failures.

It is a psuedo-criticism of science to point out "failures", even though that's not what you actually pointed out. Without the failures, there would be no change in thinking and further exploration. Religion just offers what bad parents do to children they don't really want to see succeed . . . "do this or else". When the child doesn't "do this", the "or else" is abandonment. Way more arrogance than what science offers. Being sure of something because you went through many failures to get it right is not arrogance . . . it's confidence in stating fact.

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

this thread is a sure sign of science failure.

soooo much failure..

Originally posted by johngrissom
Lets see...

The world is flat.

Science proved it wasn't.

The Earth is the center of the galaxy.

Science proved it wasn't

Evolution, but there is still monkeys.

monkeys and humans share a common ancestor...whats your point?

I'm sure there is more, but simple as it is...don't judge something before looking at yourself in the mirror.

took a moment to look in the mirror before writing this next line. I judge you ignorant of what science has provided simply by your fairly bad examples there.

Science is a tool to be used in unraveling the nature of...stuff. the more stuff is studied, the more understanding comes from it. Sometimes new information changes the picture, or adds to it.

Science requires no faith. It simply is a understanding of what we have uncovered at the moment..typically for practical purposes, but often simply to understand.

How many times has it failed? An unimaginable amount. That's kind of their MO though.


As others have stated the content in this thread should be revised, as it fails to validate/strengthen the original idea.