To: PatrickHenry; RadioAstronomer
Gee, if we know so little about how the Universe works as the anti-knowledge trolls suggest, how do they explain the following:
For the benefit of the lurkers, the graph depicted above represents the black-body radiation curve for Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR), which was predicted by the Big Bang Theory. Overlayed on the graph are the ACTUAL data of the measured CMBR. The error bars you see on the data points are exaggerated by a factor of 400 just to make them visible. IOW, for those who are brain dead, the actual data is such a close fit to the predicted values, it is virtually impossible to see any deviation from the predicted value AT ALL.
The challenge for the purveyors of unknowledge to whom I referred previously is to explain how the theory was able to make such a stunningly accurate prediction, if we know so little about how the Universe works. But I'm not holding my breath for an answer....
47 posted on
02/20/2006 10:34:48 AM PST by
longshadow
(FReeper #405, entering his ninth year of ignoring nitwits, nutcases, and recycled newbies)
To: longshadow
The challenge for the purveyors of unknowledge to whom I referred previously is to explain how the theory was able to make such a stunningly accurate prediction, if we know so little about how the Universe works. But I'm not holding my breath for an answer....
How do you walk around with such a friggin' big chip on your shoulder? Your strawman doesn't make much sense - we may still know so little, but we obviously know ENOUGH about enough things to make some accurate predictions. In mechanics alone, Newton's laws were stunningly accurate to the level of precision achievable by the science of the day...until finally, science achieved a level of precision that exposed quantum effects at one extreme, and relativistic effects at the other. In retrospect, it sure seems like there was an AWFUL LOT more to know than just Newton's laws.
To carry your rant to its extreme, we must already be so close to knowing everything that we should really defund most science, and just leave one or two scientists funded to "close up shop" - you know, dot the occasional 'i' or cross the occasional 't'. Which, of course, is poppycock.
At best, it's a draw. Until you actually know EVERYTHING, you really can't quite know how much you still don't know. If you want to heavily fund science, you had best make the case that there's still an awful lot left to discover. Or, you could just continue to finish working out Ptolemy's epicycles - I'm sure the equations are very nearly finished.
To: longshadow
When I contemplate how little we know, my brain goes slack, I get a great feeling, and I wet my pants.
</luddite mode>
51 posted on
02/20/2006 11:30:05 AM PST by
PatrickHenry
(Virtual Ignore for trolls, lunatics, dotards, scolds, & incurable ignoramuses.)
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