“Dissention” by Cory Ench
Posted on 11/21/2014 1:16:47 AM PST by Swordmaker
“I was bold in the pursuit of knowledge, never fearing to follow truth and reason to whatever results they led, and bearding every authority which stood in their way.” — Thomas Jefferson
It is a common perception that “we stand on the shoulders of giants”: that is, new ideas are based on those inherited from older investigations. If that is the case, then there is a serious hinderance inherent in the approach.
The title of this article is borrowed from Paul Feyerabend, a self-described “epistemological anarchist”, who promulgated an irreverent view of science. It is necessary, in his opinion, to promote inconsistency in the scientific method. By demanding conformity to older theories, those older theories are protected from change, thus inhibiting amended thought. That dogmatic stipulation is familiar to Electric Universe advocates when they attempt to introduce the idea that electricity governs the cosmos and not gravity, alone. The “old guard” immediately mans their guns, aiming to blow apart any intruders attempting to storm their institutionalized walls.
As Cervantes put in the mouth of Don Quijote de la Mancha: “Facts are the enemy of truth”. “Facts” are those data points born from observations that trusted in past theories. Those observations become the “rules” under which all new research is governed. They are the “laws of physics”, for example, that must not be violated lest “thought criminal” be branded on the forehead of the transgressor. The “hallowed halls” of science become the home of sanctified knowledge that brooks no denial.
It is forgotten that the worshipful dictum is an assumption. It is assumed that the charge on the electron does not vary. It is assumed that a kilogram is a kilogram no matter where or when it is measured. It is assumed that the fine structure constant is a constant throughout the Universe. However, it is demonstrated time and again that those assumptions could be wrong. The gravitational constant seems to change every time it is measured. The speed of light—considered to be one of the most inviolate cosmological statutes—has been exceeded in some laboratory experiments. If those facts are obviated by new observations, then laws become mere suggestions.
Skepticism has been lost in modern science. To be a “skeptic” today means to attack new ideas; to marginalize the opposition with a coordinated offensive designed to eliminate competitive viewpoints. It is usually couched in a variety of logical fallacies: appeal to authority; denigration of personality; arguing adverse consequences; or demanding adherence to tradition. As the old gospel song fervently asserts, “If it was good for Paul and Silas, it’s good enough for me”.
Without an inner context, observations can be invisible. That inner context is called a theory. It can be shown that the theories that changed the models science uses to comprehend observations were often based on unsubstantiated particulars. The Electric Universe promotes theories of reality that await confirmation. In conventional conclaves, those theories are nothing but “pseudoscience”, meaning “not genuine”; not “authentic”. So-called “authentic science” is, in reality, the established dogma against which leading-edge visualization should be opposed.
Philosopher Thomas Kuhn wrote: “Examining the record of past research from the vantage of contemporary historiography, the historian of science may be tempted to exclaim that when paradigms change, the world itself changes with them. Led by a new paradigm, scientists adopt new instruments and look in new places.”
Those new paradigms do not come about because research builds on top of research stone-by-stone. Rather, those “paradigm shifts” usually come about by force. The fall of the Berlin Wall is an equivalent phenomenon. When the decision is made, nothing can withstand it, and that decision can arise suddenly.
img src="http://www.astro.washington.edu/users/balick/WFPC2/m29.model.jpeg
There is no need to resort to the Electric Universe or any other crackpot theory.
It has on the entire linked page some replies which randomly include the words "electric," "universe," and the phrase "I am not a crackpot" in their sentences, not at all together as the cohesive phrase "Electric Universe." I am still laughing at your Googling skills.
The #2 hit is to a Yahoo question that is answered with a simple “Yeah!” with no explanation. Followed by a guy who makes the sweeping statement that electromagnetism isn’t a scalable phenomena, when it clearly is, according to all physicists who work with it, demonstrating HIS ignorance. If it were otherwise, we would not be able to see anything in the Universe,
At least #3 goes to a legitimate reasoned argument. Thanks.
#4 “The International Skeptics Forum” was quite interesting. A number of the people that were really bad mouthing the Journal that published the papers on Plasma Cosmology and its editorial board, in fact the ones who started the bad mouthing, now have “banned” under their handles. It appears they were making a concerted effort to destroy any interest in EU and Plasma Cosmology that had been published in a scientific journal. . . and the editor of the site finally called them on it.
Many of your other hits actually connect to Electric Universe sites, and on the third page, it links to this thread on FreeRepublic. LOL!
RationalWiki is a genetic-egalitarian race-denialist propaganda website that is run by Ontario resident Trent Toulouse. RationalWiki is a wiki founded by secular humanists in response to Conservapedia.
Hahahahah... quoting liberals now?
is that "Denser barrel of older material" made of "dark matter" that is invisible and does not distort the view one iota, in any spectra at all? Strange, more magic. That is SOME hypothetical barrel. One light year in length, identical in size on BOTH sides of this star, pre-existing the exploding of the star, and just the right size. Quite a bore too. . . about a quarter light year in diameter. How did they say it was formed? Oh, they didn't. They just invoked it magically. What keeps it together, circular, and constrained? Please tell us. By the way, their "jet engine" is a plasma diagram, or didn't you know that? Where is the disk they were claiming in the other description from the APOD? No where in THIS claimed method. Where is gravity driving this? What makes up this mythical "nozzle?" WHY would these matched jets be exactly 180º opposite each other in a gravity model that is globular?Nothing about the observed object shows it to be spinning.
There is so much "smoke and mirrors" in this explanation . . . and you simply cannot see it? They have you so completely bamboozled with their brilliance. "Jet Engine" my ass. Look out for that magic wand!
Spooky Alignment of Quasars Across Billions of Light-years — Science Release — ESO1438
"The alignments in the new data, on scales even bigger than current predictions from simulations, may be a hint that there is a missing ingredient in our current models of the cosmos”
Amazing. . . the orthodox cosmologists are again surprised, shocked, stunned, etc., that the Universe is arrayed along threads and the galaxies are aligned. . . and they don't know how that can be possible. They think it should be random. Just amazing.
The disk can actually be seen in shorter exposure images obtained with the Hubble telescope. It measures approximately 10 times the diameter of Pluto's orbit. Models of the type that are used to design jet engines ("hydrodynamics") show that such a disk can successfully account for the jet-exhaust-like appearance of M2-9. The high-speed wind from the one of the stars rams into the surrounding disk, which serves as a nozzle. It is deflected in the perpendicular direction and forms the pair of jets that we see in the nebula's image. This is much the same process that takes place in a jet engine: the burning and expanding gases are deflected by the engine walls through a nozzle to form long, collimated jets of hot air at high speeds.
"A correlation between the orientation of quasars and the structure they belong to is an important prediction of numerical models of evolution of our Universe. Our data provide the first observational confirmation of this effect, on scales much larger that what had been observed to date for normal galaxies," said Dominique Sluse of the Argelander-Institut für Astronomie in Bonn, Germany and University of Liège.
http://www.hngn.com/articles/50273/20141120/quasar-alignment-shocks-scientists-in-spooky-observation.htm
There is no need to resort to a crackpot theory (Electric Universe) supported by little more than quotes from “epistemological anarchists” and Don Quixote.
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