How many times has science failed?

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.

Most of the old 'wrong' science originated in theology.

Galileo built a telescope and witnessed that Copernicus's theory that Earth and the other planets rotate around the sun was right. The Catholic Church STILL said he was wrong and imprisioned to his home for life, once again stifling the process of innovation as they had throughout the Middle Ages.

The colored text is my hypothesis of evolution based on my knowledge of the fossil record.

Evolution doesn't claim that we came from monkeys, it says that monkeys and humans had a common now extinct ancestor. Many millennia ago some Ancestors were born a little larger or smaller than others as with any species. The smaller ones liked to climb trees for easy pickn's on the fruit and less competition from the big Ancestors on the ground. And the larger Ancestors found foraging for food on the ground easier than climbing trees for it. Over generations a natural environment-driven self-segregation started to happen...

The small Ancestors largely stayed amongst the trees where fruit was easy. But in times of drought, only the stronger and more agile ones found enough food and the rest were too weak to compete for food and mates. Stronger hands and longer arms became the new standard for the offspring because thats what the survivors passed down. These ancestors eventually became monkeys..

A few of the largeest, most badass of the ground Ancestors were able to survive on the ground among the trees because when they found a food source they could physically defend it. The size and strength kept all the little ones away. The largest and most powerful ones were able to pass down their traits more often, producing more offpring with these genetics. Over time they became gorillas.

Many large Ancestors set out across the land because the competition on the ground got pretty tough. The more intelligent ones were able to find food to survive, and that intelligence was passed though to the offspring. Physical strength wasn't as important as being smart enough to be able to figure out how to survive in a new environment. These were the ancestors of neanderthols and humans etc...

After thousands of generations these small changes in each group eventually yield offspring that are incompatable with the other due to the genetic changes made from adaptations to the environment. We still share 99% of the same DNA as chimpanzees and orangutans yet are obviously different species. A little change over a long time can do incredible things.

Monkeys are maximally evolved for their environment and their evolution has slowed. A human would find it impossible to live like a monkey swinging though the trees. Monkeys are more evolved than humans when looking from the monkey's point of view. Many species are threatened with extinction because a more evolved species now dominates their environments. Human's intelligence gives us the power to control the environments like no species before.

Originally posted by winofiend
this thread is a sure sign of science failure.
soooo much failure..

More a sign of the failure of education, which is at a real disadvantage because it relies on ignorant (and often arrogantly ignorant) people to fund it.

It hasn't failed much. You being able to post this thread from a computer is proof of that. Thousands of scientific principles that had to be fact came together to make computers possible. Or was a religion responsible for figuring all of those things out?

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.

"The world is flat." - religious claim / never backed up by anything
"The Earth is the center of the galaxy." - has never been claimed, because when we learned about galaxies, we already knew that we are not at the center
"Evolution, but there is still monkeys." - that's because we didn't evolve from present day monkeys. We have the same ancestors as present day monkeys, though.

Bashing science without having the slightest clue about the most basic facts. Good job.

Science has a bright side and a dark side

The dark side is used to control and manipulate you

The bright side makes it easier to tolerate being controlled and manipulated

Simple

Science has never failed, man's interpretation of the data has failed, not science itself.

While not intending to pit science against religion (any more than has already been done)...

Both, rely on interpretation of data...

...it is interpretation that gets amended in both (sometimes not correctly, but amended nonetheless)...

A99

Only one way to say it really:

One cannot fail at something that is in constant sate of progress.

It's that simple !

I think the OP is a perfect example of This

Science cannot fail. Scientists can fail.

Sometimes the education system fails all of us.

Which may manifest itself in this kind of Thread.

Tfw.

Science knew the world was not flat long before the church came into existence. It was worked out and estimated (wrongly but was later figured out) The whole flat Earth thing originated from alternative theory that the earth was a flat disc because that is how some chose to interpret what we knew at the time.

It was also perpetuated into a modern myth because people often didn't know exactly were a map ended, so before the Americas were explored and that information brought to the masses, Europe would just be surrounded by water to the west... It was more of a case of trying to just simplify things for people who really couldn't grasp the concept that the whole world had not been explored yet.

On a flight once, a kid asked his father why the airplane was taking a curved route... I missed the opportunity to tell them that, the map is a 2d representation of a sphere... the shortest distance between any two locations on a sphere is to follow a great circle arc... at all scales if you look closely, after unfolding, you will be left with a curved path.


As a scientist by training and profession, science failing often gets the response "Mmmmm thats interesting" because we want to understand it... we don't throw our arms up and say... Oh no we failed we suck. We simply take a step back and study the problem

Science is failing us even today, by allowing you to communicate your ignorance to us by use of a computer.

By the way OP. I would like to take this opportunity to suggest that the next time something is wrong with your health you do not see a doctor under any circumstances, or take any medications. If you wake up having a heart attack or coughing up blood just suck it up and let god heal you lol. I mean science has failed in so many ways right? Sky daddy understands this and will surely come to your aid