On Mar 15, 2013, at 11:02 AM, Joshua Marsh wrote: > I think they are still exceptions though. If we base things on the mistakes > that have been made, then science certainly is in the same boat.
I'd like to offer a data point to support this argument. Important Note 1: I'm not arguing whether religion or science suffers more from this phenomenon. Important Note 2: I'm also not painting the whole scientific community with this rather negative brush. In the mid-1800s, Dr. Ignaz Semmelweis told some doctors that they needed to wash their hands. The doctors were performing autopsies in a morgue and then delivering babies minutes later, without washing their hands. Amazing, right? When Semmelweis told them to wash their hands, "virtually everyone rejected" his idea[1]. A lot of children and mothers died as a result of them discarding his counsel. The rest of his life is not a happy story. Moral of the story: Scientific mistakes of the past should not taint its future (and wash your freaking hands!) I'd also like to say that I love Asimov's writings on this subject. Science is getting less and less wrong all the time, and I like that trajectory. --Dave [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis#Legacy /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
