> Dan Minette wrote: <snipped most> > ....Peer review is based on the > assumption that the scientific > community does not operate on an inherently dogmatic > or political basis. > While new ideas may not initially get all the credit > they might objectively > deserve, the fact that additional data tends to > support the correct theory > results in the consensus shifting towards good new > ideas.
Which can take years or even decades. Another example from medicine that I am hard put to explain, except to think that no one _wanted_ to believe such a thing was so widespread, is something that I was still taught in the mid '80s: Gonorrhea is a sexually transmitted disease, except that in some cases where children must be sharing bathwater or toweling with infected adult(s), they can become infected. Talk about denial... <grimace> > I think it might be helpful to look at several > examples before reapplying > this principal to the 9-11 conspiracy theories. > These examples will be > listed in increasing confidence in the scientific > consensus. They are: > > 1) Global Warming > 2) Cold Fusion > 3) Young Earth <snip very good discussion of these points> Except that I think global warming is worse than you accept - but as you note, differences of opinion and interpretation are quite legitimate, not mean-spirited. > Looking at this progression, I see the 9-11 > conspiracy theories matching > best with cold fusion. Both require deliberate > blindness to the obvious by > a wide range of professionals.... > This doesn't mean that we know exactly what > happened, BTW. There is still > enough room in the data for a scenario that we are > not thinking about to be > the one that...after all is said and done...to be > considered the best model.... Heck, I should have read this before finishing my post, then I could have just said "Ditto" to that last. Debbi I Do Not Like Them In A Box, I Do Not Want Them Via Fox Maru ;) __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
