The below reminds of a perhaps apocryphal story attributed to Wolfgang
Pauli.
He was criticizing the work of some other theorist, and his most damning
statement was that the other guys theory was worse than bad,
"it wasn't even wrong"
Joel R.
|
| The other day, while driving and listening to the radio, I
| heard a statement that kind of got my blood boiling. The
| little news snippet that was brought up was about the
| controversy between the Evolution and "Intelligent design".
| Personally, I have my own beliefs of the whole thing, but I
| keep it to myself. Even if a student asks me what I believe,
| I don't answer them, but ask them about their beliefs.
| Personally, I can respect people who believe in one thing or
| the other.
|
| The thing that got me a little angry was one of the
| statements made on the radio. It stated something along the
| lines that the teaching of "X-belief"
| is wrong because it is a BAD theory.
|
| My argument is that there really is no such thing as a "bad
| theory". To put the two words together, "bad" and
| "theory"...is bad! :-) What makes a theory good or bad?
| Isn't a theory, just a theory...nothing good or bad about it?
| The way they were using the word "theory", it was as if they
| equated it to "law".
|
| I sometimes think about the theory of how the craters on the
| moon formed.
| At one time, the common theory was that they were extinct
| volcanoes. Was that a bad theory? No! There was nothing
| good or bad about it, it was just a belief based on visual
| observations, until more evidence was collected that stated otherwise.
|
| Am I wrong? What are your thoughts? I'm sure whatever
| anyone says about this will be "bad". ;-) (haha)
|
| Have a great day!
| Dwight
| Ashland, OH
|
_______________________________________________
Phys-L mailing list
Phys-L@electron.physics.buffalo.edu https://www.physics.buffalo.edu/mailman/listinfo/phys-l