On Thu, May 26, 2011 at 11:33 AM, Alan Young <alansyoung...@gmail.com> wrote: > My assertion is that whatever we *collectively* decide is the truth > becomes the truth. The "discoveries" we have made over the millennia > have not been discoveries but alterations of the universe around us as > theories and ideas have become popularly accepted.
So if I lived in Greece in the 4th century BC, then the Sun I saw rising each day was stationary and the Earth revolved around it; unless I was a Pythagorean, in which case the Earth revolved around the Sun; but if I left Greece and moved to Egypt, it goes back to the Earth being stationary (in Egypt, at least), until I can convince everyone that they're wrong and I'm right and once that happens the Sun stops moving and the Earth starts up again. All of this is of course perfectly sensible and could not under any circumstances be challenged except by the most intellectually obtuse, but I'm still confused about something. Hopefully you can enlighten me. We know that in Egypt in the 4th century BC the Sun revolved around the Earth, since that's what everyone believed. But when half of the people in Egypt believe that the Earth is stationary, and half of the people in Egypt believe that the Sun is stationary, which one is moving and which one is holding still? The answer is probably obvious, but I'm just too dumb to see it. Can you help me out, Alan? /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
