Theories and Reality

It is interesting to observe what happens when someone's theory or model of the universe are contradicted. If the person has invested energy and time in the theory (s)he will defend the theory even if there is evidence against it. If the person has discovered evidence against her theory she might think the evidence is wrong or miscalculated instead of changing or discarding the theory. The evidence might be wrong then again the theory might be wrong. If another person comes up with a contradictory theory you might attack the theory or even get personal and attack the person who came up with the theory.

For example, if you believe people cause global warming then read in article saying there is global warming on Mars what do you think is causing global warming then? There are no humans on Mars. One thing that Mars and the earth share is the sun.

Copernicus said the planets revolve around the sun. When he said this the Church's belief about the universe revolving around the earth (the Ptolemaic system) was contradicted. The Church understandingly was upset. They ordered Copernicus' book that contained the theory to be burned. Both the heliocentric theory (Copernicus' theory) and the Ptolemaic system described the same phenomena. But Copernicus' theory was simpler and now we know it was the correct one.

Another example is cosmologists who belief in dark matter. Dark matter is a hypothetical form of matter that is believed to make up 90 percent of the matter in the universe; it is invisible (does not absorb or emit light) and does not collide with atomic particles but exerts gravitational force. This theory has been around for a while. It helps explain how the universe operates. Then comes along Prof. Mordehai Milgrom's Modified Newtonian Dynamics theory which makes the cosmologist community nervous. All he did was with a simple equation to show you don't need the dark matter hypotheses to explain workings of the universe. But this is exactly how science works--theory is only valid as long as the universe agrees it is valid.

Beliefs can even be upset in juries. Take the Andrea Yates trial. She killed her five children was not convicted because the jury believed she was insane. Andrea Yates thought she was possessed by Satan and she was trying to save them from going to hell because she thought she had ruined their lives. I believe the jury had a hard time believing that a mother would kill her own children. So, instead of coming to terms with that fact they decided she was insane. But it does happen, sorry to say. A mother in Germany killed her eight babies and is currently serving a jail term for 15 years. That comes to about two years for each baby. That number of years is ridiculous. Back to the Andrea Yates trial. It said in a CBS article that the defense claimed Andrea Yates had postpartum psychosis. I did some reading on that diagnosis. That condition usually develops after two or three weeks after delivery. In rare cases the condition can happen in the first three months after giving birth. Andrea Yates' youngest child was six months old. Interesting.