Comet Sparks Questions

What do you think of scientists? I mean, they’re uber smart right? I have to agree. It seems like they thrive on learning new things, so much so, that at times everything else—life—gets put on the back (bunsen) burner. But what gets my hackles up is how a scientist will state something as fact when it’s really still just a theory. As if they’re so far above us average people that after giving us the hypothesis, analysis and conclusion that we could make the decision on our own. Grrr…?íSo here’s the Wild 2 comet. Nice photo huh? We’re working on a century or so of serious astronomy and here they come with “an object that has no known peers in the solar system.” Have we looked at all the objects in the solar system already? Maybe I’m not giving us enough credit but let’s just pull back on the reigns there Tonto and do a little more research before making a grand claim like that.

Ok, to be fair, that comment was made by the author of the article and not the scientists so maybe I’m over-sensitive. It just bothers me that around 1900 they said the earth was between 90-100 million years old. Then later, they tell us with the new dating process we understand the Earth is really 1.64 billion years old. Now everyone just knows it’s 4.55 billion years old.

What if we learn something next month that leads us to believe some other number? We should all understand that rather than being facts, these numbers are “best guesses based on the science we currently have.” So I guess that’s it. Apparently, it’s their presumption of infallibility that gets my goat. We’re all human and we all make mistakes. Now there’s a solid theory.