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From: mat@hou4b.UUCP (Mark Terribile)
Newsgroups: net.religion
Subject: Re: Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!
Message-ID: <1284@hou4b.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 18-Jan-85 13:32:36 EST
Article-I.D.: hou4b.1284
Posted: Fri Jan 18 13:32:36 1985
Date-Received: Sat, 19-Jan-85 01:44:15 EST
References: <528@mhuxt.UUCP>
Organization: AT&T Information Systems Laboratories, Holmdel, NJ
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>Arndt apologizes for the persecution of Galileo:
>>   These men, in the Church, did nothing more
>> or less than members of scientific bodies have done many times in the
>> course of history and will likely do into the future.  Argue and make
>
>    When else in the history of science have one of the proponents of rival
>scientific theories tried to use the legal system to 'prove' (or at least
>or at least prevent the other theory from being heard) their own theories?
>Nowhere!  Disagreeing scientists argue back and forth in journals and letters,

Seems to me that the USSR for many years supressed Darwinian Evolution, while
supporting Lamark's theory of inherited adaptation.  An article some years
ago (Sci. Am.?) explained that this was a political act ... the fellow in
charge of the ``Acadamy of Sciences'' was using this pet theory to inflate his
importance and maintain/expand his power base.  And then there was the time
that Lenin made it a crime against the state to propound the ``false'', ie
``counterrevolutionary'' theory that fatigue was a warning from the organism
that it was near the point of damage or failure.  Seems to me that something
like that also happened with plate tectonics.

At least in Galileo's case the fathers of the church offered him a way to
publish without punishment (this from a Sci. Am. article also).  They said
that Astronomy enjoyed a special place among fields of study ... that it was
entitled to certain hypothetical statements that might not be appropriate
elsewhere.  If Galileo had said  ``I have found that the Solar System behaves
AS IF IT WERE HELIOCENTRIC'' the pope would have overruled the objections ...
but Galileo stuck to his point.  He declared (rightfully, it is true) that the
S.S. IS heliocentric.  This was much a case of refusal to acceede to
*realpolitik* as a case of suppression, since Galileo was essentially told
what the scoop was.
-- 

	from Mole End			Mark Terribile
		(scrape .. dig )	hou4b!mat
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