Next time some one wants to tell you evolution isn't real

The Off-Topic forum for anything non-LDS related, such as sports or politics. Rated PG through PG-13.
_SPG
_Emeritus
Posts: 527
Joined: Tue Oct 11, 2016 12:47 am

Re: Next time some one wants to tell you evolution isn't rea

Post by _SPG »

Chap wrote:It is always a bad sign when someone who gets off on amateur and ignorant vaporings about science starts posting stuff about Einstein.

It usually goes something like 'Hey! People thought Einstein was wrong/foolish/ignorant, but who's laughing now?'. Alas, it by no means follows that if people say your opinions about science are not worth a pitcher of warm spit, that shows you may well be a second Einstein.

On the matter of the first Mrs Einstein's possible contributions to his early work, a serious discussion may be found here:

Did Mileva Marić assist Einstein in writing his 1905 path breaking papers?


I've read 3 different biographies on Einstein, with the hope it might make me smarter. You guys make me feel so...., inadequate. At the end, of all of them, I wasn't sure if I got smarter, or Einstein got dumber. I've very aware your vision of him. You can dismiss those other opinions, if you want, as they don't enforce your hero worship.
_Chap
_Emeritus
Posts: 14190
Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 10:23 am

Re: Next time some one wants to tell you evolution isn't rea

Post by _Chap »

SPG wrote:I've read 3 different biographies on Einstein, with the hope it might make me smarter. You guys make me feel so...., inadequate. At the end, of all of them, I wasn't sure if I got smarter, or Einstein got dumber. I've very aware your vision of him. You can dismiss those other opinions, if you want, as they don't enforce your hero worship.


Scientists of any kind are not suitable recipients of hero worship.

But I have one experience you will never have: I have learned enough physics and math so that I can (for instance) understand Einstein's work on the photo-electric effect, and have had the pleasure and privilege of sharing that experience with bright young minds. They loved it.

Do the math. Otherwise anything you say on this topic is no more than flatulence.
Zadok:
I did not have a faith crisis. I discovered that the Church was having a truth crisis.
Maksutov:
That's the problem with this supernatural stuff, it doesn't really solve anything. It's a placeholder for ignorance.
_Gunnar
_Emeritus
Posts: 6315
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2012 6:17 am

Re: Next time some one wants to tell you evolution isn't rea

Post by _Gunnar »

My favorite book about Einstein so far is Kip Thorne's Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy . It has been a long time since I read it; I should go back and read it again. Einstein was an incredible person who well deserves all the scientific accolades he has received, but as Chap pointed out, he is not deserving of worship, nor is any other scientist. His personal life and interactions with his wives and family, especially his first wife, was not all that admirable.
No precept or claim is more likely to be false than one that can only be supported by invoking the claim of Divine authority for it--no matter who or what claims such authority.

“If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; but if you really make them think, they'll hate you.”
― Harlan Ellison
Post Reply