Monsignor Pope Ping!
Interesting. FWIW, Protsch at least has some independent corroboration in his “finding” that modern Humans and Neanderthals coexisted; unless a number of geneticists are “in” on the deception, they’ve independently demonstrated the presence of neanderthal DNA in the modern human genome.
Science is, and always was, a philosophical tool. It is not a religion, and attempts to dress it up as a belief system are doomed from the start.
There is no such thing as “settled science”. By its very nature, to question everything, even long-held beliefs, the dictum is, that as new facts are discovered that do not square with existing theory, it must cause a new reconsideration. Either the facts are not measuring the character of that slice of the universe, and a new slice has to be made, or the construction of the theory is skewed and no longer fits the facts.
The Universe is NOT an endless range of possibilities, only our perceptions of the observed portion are. The range of possibilities is cut down sharply as facts are introduced to the reasoning process, and the dim outlines of some applicable rule become apparent. The Universe obeys these sometimes hidden percepts with an internal and relentless logic of its own, perhaps using parameters far beyond our feeble powers to observe or reason through.
It is a test, people, neither pass nor fail, but repeated as often as necessary before proceeding the next level.
Which in itself may also be a dead end or a needlessly long and skewed path. Sometimes it is a long way out of the fever swamp.
On the other hand, the reverence of science has tipped perhaps too far in the direction of a religious substitute. Indeed it is arguable that the robes of the priest, once admired and revered, have now been replaced in our culture’s esteem by the lab coat. Many regard the findings of science with an almost blind faith that many (often unfairly) attribute to religious believers. “Scientists say … ” has become a kind of mantra wherein all dissent must stop and a slight bow of the head might also be appropriate. The matter is settled since “scientists say … ” And while religious believers base their faith on some connection to unchanging Divine utterances, “believers” in science too often couch their belief on the utterances of mere human beings, learned to be sure, but fallible and subject to changing their theories (rightly) when new evidence comes in. Hence the sort of religious reverence that many today give to scientists is problematic, both for them and for science.
Funny!
"I don't know if it (human activity) is the only cause, but mostly, in great part, it is man who has slapped nature in the face," he said. "We have in a sense taken over nature.""I think we have exploited nature too much," Francis said, citing deforestation and monoculture. "Thanks be to God that today there are voices, so many people who are speaking out about it."
-- from today's thread Pope on Climate Change: Man Has 'Slapped Nature in the Face'
This is a good article.
I think, though, it’s more paleontology than archeology.
But yes, dear reader, even some scientists stray, and “objective” science is not without sinners in its ranks too, no matter what the “white lab coats” might lead you to think.
People like Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, the Wright Brothers probably did not even think of them selves as being scientists but if their inventions had not worked we would not have even heard of them.
The proof was in the out come, the scientists trying to prove man came from monkeys have not proven anything, every thing is still just theory, just a religion.
One way liberals get elected is by scaring people. They’ll always be running some kind of hoax - or scam - it’s who they are... It’s still global warming because we haven’t had the power to expose the lie yet...