Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by oldandtired 2981 days ago
My apologies that it has taken some time to respond to your points. The problem I have is that cosmologists incorporate entities that have not been experimentally verified or are impossible (at least at this time) to be experimentally verified. Just because the models appear to work actually means nothing when you cannot get any experimental verification of all the elements on which a theory or model depends. Proxy evidence is used to enhance the belief in some specific entities, but proxies are only proxies and the use of such can be very misleading.

To say that "the fundamental truth that there is dark matter..." is problematic from the get go. No experiment has demonstrated that "dark matter" of any kind exists. You cannot say that there is a fundamental "truth" anywhere in science. We have observation, we develop hypothesis which should suggest experiments to test said hypothesis and with further evidence we develop theory. At no point is either hypothesis or theory "truth". Unless, of course, your intention is to make science into a religion.

When it boils down to it, science is a way of developing understanding of the physical world about us. It may lead to changes in one's philosophical or religious viewpoint, but it doesn't have to. It is not the be all and end all of anything. It is simply a means of hopefully increasing one's understanding. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. There are many examples of experiments and the results that have been considered anathema to the consensus view that the scientists who did those experiments have been made pariahs. This is very problematic as politics and religion become the driving forces that maintain the orthodox view.

There has been and is a significant push for science to be the authoritative voice as to what one should believe. However, science gives no guidance on any matters relating to human interaction or action. If anything, it is a cause of significant problems for human interaction and action.