Do you think that scientists are right?!?

Question

sometimes i sit and ponder..... i think about how much mankind thought they knew about the world and the universe hundreds of years ago.... and how wrong they were! what if what we think is right will be totally thrown out the window in a hundred years or so?

what if they are wrong about such things as space, the sun dying, global warming and many other things!

does anyone else ever think about these things or am i just odd...... haha.....

Answer 1

Sure, I have considered the same, but you have to keep in mind that learning is a process, and it takes time.

They thought that the earth was flat, but now we have proof that it is round.  I have been around the planet three times myself, and I can say without a doubt, ROUND!!

They thought that the sun was a chariot that went across the sky, WRONG!  We know for sure that this is not true.

Now, granted we believe some things that will be proven wrong in the future, but I feel that overall we are getting closer to the truth.

Answer 2

they not be right?

we're only humans making excuses for our own faults

Answer 3

Oh yeah. There are plenty of things that are pretty well accepted but not exactly in the bag proved, and I bet lots of those turn out to be wrong. I don't think the Sun dying or global warming will be some of the wrong ones though. Nothing lasts forever, and the Sun can't keep putting out that energy forever. Of course 4 billion years is as good as forever compared to a human lifetime. And global warming is a pretty trivially obvious consequence of the almost unimaginaly vast amount of coal and oil we are burning. Although there is plenty of room to argue about the magnitude of the effect, there is no doubt there has to be an effect from such a massive cause.

Answer 4

well....i think that majority of the things that have been discovered by the scientists are true because these have been experimentally confirmed and accepted by scientists throughout the world....There may occur a few changes with the passage of time due to which the scientists of future may claim those experiments wrong!!!

Answer 5

At any given instant, science is as right as our ability to inspect the universe confirms.  That some theories once prevailed and are now discarded does not mean science goes about things badly.  It does suggest that some time from now, some theories we hold today will no longer be held.  Science progresses in its knowledge, generally as our ability to inspect the universe increases.

Answer 6

i think it doesn't matter. science is never going to be 100% right. science actually says it can never be 100% right on some things. in fact, its actually the main tenet of quantum mechanics.

continue doubting science, to a certain degree. doubt is good. doubt is what inspires new fields of science and revisions to current ideas. people would still think the earth was flat had no one doubted it.

but some things weve got right. the sun is going to die. it doesnt have infinite fuel. thats a pretty big stretch to propose that.

Answer 7

there is nothing wrong with pondering as long as you ponder that science is based on fact.

Answer 8

You're not odd. Someone once told me that the more you know about the universe, the less you know. That's the beauty of the universe. No matter how much you know, there is always another surprise just around the corner.

Answer 9

I think they are right for the most part, but they are only human so I'm sure they get plenty of things wrong.  Thankfully one of the great things about science is more than willing to correct itself when it discovers that is in error

Answer 10

For the most part, accepted belief in science relies only on facts that have been proven. It is true however that some things that were thought to be absolute have been completely proven wrong, but only a few.

I think any laws that are true now may be improved upon, but probably not completely negated. For instance, Newtons laws are flawed, this was demonstrated by Einstein, but they're still not wrong, just not a complete picture. Newton's calculations assumed that the force of gravity was instantly transmitted across space. Einstein said that nothing, not even the force of gravity, could be transmitted instantaneously,rather, it had to be transmitted at some finite speed. For gravity, the speed of light.

So maybe were not completely right in our scientific beliefs, but in a practical sense, the laws we have accurately predict what we can see happening around us.  

Answer 11

Take two people.  One person believes whomever was last to speak to him.  The other asks for data which underlies the belief of whomever she is speaking to.  Person one is gullible.  Person two is a royal pain in the a**.  But Person two will find that on the roads she chooses she can backtrack and correct any mistakes she discovers. (if she takes good notes).  Person one has no reason to prefer one belief over  another other than the historical record, esthetic considerations or personal biases:  If I was a happy child and I believed (then) in santa claus then I will be happy if I believe (now) in S.C.  If I read the book

"Invest and Grow Rich" and follow the advice in it and do get rich, I can conclude that anybody who reads the book and follows the advice will get rich.  Belief becomes anecdotal.  This is a very common way of knowledge.  Some believe that Science is a more effective way to discriminate between the truth and the rest.  (Because anecdotally, it seems to have worked for the past few centuries).

I realized that science is not about creating (or discovering) a correct theory.  Science is about PROVING the theory correct.  (yeah, proof is in the eye of the beholder).  It can be painfully slow, especially when one believes an idea is obviously correct.  These flashes of insight (creativity) happen in all professions, but in Science we insist on building a solid base that should hold up to the challenges of future infomation.  As interpretations change, understanding can change radically but still I can go back and see WHY the older (incorrect) interpretation was held - what its basis was (and is).

A very common phase in child development is to ask "Why is ..." for EVERYTHING.  One of the most unsatisfying answers AND one of the most common is "Because. " or "Because I said so".  Science is (or tries to be) just the opposite.  Doesn't mean that the unscientific statement is false and the scientific statement is true, but based on history suggests that the scientific statement is more likely to be closer to the truth.  Science is NOT about TRUTH, is is about being able to predict more correctly than any alternative.  Scientists who throw around the words "true" and "truth" are being sloppy and using a shorthand for their personal degree of belief, few would actually publish such unscientific statements. (But there's always the wackos).

Answer 12

We keep getting closer to "right'.

Nobody seriously proposes that we've arrived.

"When people thought the earth was flat, they were wrong.

When people thought the earth was spherical, they were wrong.

But if you think that thinking the earth is spherical is just

as wrong as thinking the earth is flat, then your view is wronger

than both of them put together." - Issac Asimov

Answer 13

Science requires you to assume that you will never be 100% right, there is ALWAYS the possibility that you will uncover some new piece of data that changes everything.

HOWEVER if you think this means that science is just a bunch of guesswork that's probably wrong, then you don't understand it.  It's precisely the fact that science assumes it is always wrong to some degree that makes it such an effective tool for learning things.  If a new explanation comes along that allows us to learn more, then that's what we go with.  Science is not dogma, nothing is safe from inquisition and nothing is sacred.  

Two things to remember about science:

1. the scientific explanation is the most logical, reasonable explanation, _to the best we know_, and

2. we might still be wrong about it.

A wise person will accept the scientific explanation as correct, but not to the degree that they will irrationally hold on to that explanation if a better one comes along.

i.e. the mark of wisdom is understanding how sure you are about what you think you know.