What I thought was wrong!

[StrongInTheArm]

It takes a big man or a courageous lady to admit they were wrong and change their mind. Recently a number of leading scientists were asked if they had changed their scientific view of anything. A number said yes, http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/20...news.evolution

I suppose the classic example is the Catholic church and the flat world hypothesis. The church suppressed Galileo's thoughts that the world was in fact round. This held science back for many years.

I was wondering, have you changed your mind about something that you have firmly believed in over the years? If so what was it and why the change?

[Atom]

Originally Posted by StrongInTheArm

It takes a big man or a courageous lady to admit they were wrong and change their mind. ...

Well hell I must be Goliath then.

[G10]

I remember this one time when this guy showed me where I had gone wrong once and I must say I was humble enough to admit it also
They never did find the body - Bloody smart arse!

[Atom]

Well I can't think of anything, I've been trying. I must be a stubborn ol' coot.
Must be something.

[Atom]

Ok I know what it is, I've changed my mind on so many things in the past 5 years that I've become comfortably numb. I'm actually all over the damned board and it's begining to look a lot like Christmas.. de de da da de .. sing along.. everybody..

de de doo dum dum

da da da da day

[Atom]

"Until I was 20 I was sure there was a being who could see everything I did and who didn't like most of it. He seemed to care about minute aspects of my life, like on what day of the week I ate a piece of meat. And yet, he let earthquakes and mudslides take out whole communities, apparently ignoring the saints among them who ate their meat on the assigned days. Eventually, I realised that I didn't believe there was such a being ... I still don't like the word agnostic. It's too fancy. I'm simply not a believer."

My belief would not change in this manner, not from my erroneous belief in a God that was made known to me by the interpretation of men, to there being "no such being". My own personal definition would stand alone, as it does currently, without any help from anything I've learned. My definition was forged by experience. I know that this is where most scientists would draw the line, because this can't be proven, but, I don't care about that. That fact has little importance to me. I'm referring to an experience I had that left me drug free for 19 years. That bitch was real folks, I'm telling you the truth. Oh but the mind itself can cause that. I'm telling you all that that was not mind power what-so-ever. You can believe me or not, I don't really care that much, I mean, I care, but ... .. you know? What else can I say?? And, it happened in an instant!

[Atom]

It's nothing my mind did, I can assure you. But I can't prove it to you.

[Atom]

... Females are much of a muchness, clustering round the mean. But, among males, the variance - the difference between the most and the least, the best and the worst - can be vast.

"So males are almost bound to be over-represented both at the bottom and at the top. I think of this as 'more dumbbells but more Nobels'...


Much of a muchness. Now that's disheartening, coming from among the best minds in the world.

[Atom]

"But in a rethinking of conventional wisdom I now think that cooking was the major advance that turned ape into human ... Cooked food is the signature feature of human diet. It not only makes our food safe and easy to eat, but it also grants us large amounts of energy compared to a raw diet, obviating the need to ingest big meals. Cooking softens food too, thereby making eating so speedy that as eaters of cooked food, we are granted many extra hours of free time every day."

This just sounds like nonsense to me. World's greatest thinkers? pfttt

[Cricket]

Once I thought I might be wrong about something, but I ended up being wrong about being wrong.

Does that count?






P.S. Just kidding. When I am wrong, I am the first to say so.

[Atom]

"I've had to question the overall assumption that human evolution pretty much stopped by the time of the agricultural revolution ... New [laboratory] results have suggested that thousands of genes, perhaps as much as 10% of the human genome, have been under strong recent selection, and the selection may even have accelerated during the past several thousand years ... If these results hold up, and apply to psychologically relevant brain function ... then the field of evolutionary psychology might have to reconsider the simplifying assumption that biological evolution was pretty much over and done with 10-000-50,000 years ago."

Anyone know what strong recent selection is?

[Atom]

"I was relatively certain that there was precisely enough matter in the universe to make it geometrically flat ... according to general relativity [geometrically flat] means there is a precise balance between the positive kinetic energy associated with the expansion of space, and the negative potential energy associated with the gravitational attraction of matter in the universe so that the total energy is precisely zero ... We are now pretty sure that the dominant energy-stuff in our universe isn't normal matter, and isn't dark matter, but rather is associated with empty space! And what is worse (or better, depending upon your viewpoint) is that our whole picture of the possible future of the universe has changed. An accelerating universe will carry away almost everything we now see, so that in the far future our galaxy will exist alone in a dark, and seemingly endless void. And that is what I find so satisfying about science ... that the whole community could throw out a cherished notion, and so quickly! That is what makes science different than religion."

I don't know about you guys, but I don't find a thing satifying about any science that starts out with I was relatively certain. What's that supposed to mean? Who is this guy??

[StrongInTheArm]

I used to trust authority and thought that some people had my best interests at heart, now I'm sure that most of these people are more interested in covering their arse in the first instance.

I think I've swung the other way too far, perhaps I need to be less cynical, find a balance.