Wednesday, June 27, 2007
House passes bill affirming global warming exists
It's now official. Global warming is a reality.
Do you know how I know?
The US House of Representatives said so in a bill they passed 272-155. That august body of qualified scientific experts in the subject have made it official by a majority vote. (The last sentence would be a sarcastic remark, for those of you that don't know.)
It reminds me of something I read once.
Do any of you remember the name Galileo?
He was put on trial by the Catholic church because he was heretical enough to proclaim that the Earth revolved around the sun, instead of the entire universe revolving around the Earth.
The church's justification?
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises." - from the Wikipedia article on the trial.
A majority of theologians, at the time, found the view to be heretical, and false. Therefore, they banned further research into the idea, under threat of excommunication. Galileo was let off with a light sentence, considering it was the Inquisition he faced. He, just, received house arrest FOR LIFE!
It took 300 years for science to prove to the satisfaction of the Catholic Church that Galileo was, indeed, correct.
Let's look at a few facts closely:
1) Galileo, based on the research of Copernicus, and his own observations, came to the conclusion that the Earth revolved around the sun in 1610.
2) The Catholic Church decided, because he could not provide irrefutable evidence of his theory as fact, that he was completely wrong, by a majority of leading theologians ... not scientist in 1633.
3) In 1992, Pope John Paul II vindicated Galileo, after his theories had been satisfactorily proved to be fact to a majority of Catholic theologians.
The questions are:
Was Galileo any less right in 1610 than he was in 1992?
Was there some incredible shift in the way the universe operates in those 300 years?
How many majority votes of unqualified, unknowledgeble bureaucrats does it take to make a treasured, unproven idea truth?
Do you know how I know?
The US House of Representatives said so in a bill they passed 272-155. That august body of qualified scientific experts in the subject have made it official by a majority vote. (The last sentence would be a sarcastic remark, for those of you that don't know.)
It reminds me of something I read once.
Do any of you remember the name Galileo?
He was put on trial by the Catholic church because he was heretical enough to proclaim that the Earth revolved around the sun, instead of the entire universe revolving around the Earth.
The church's justification?
Psalm 93:1, Psalm 96:10, and 1 Chronicles 16:30 state that "the world is firmly established, it cannot be moved." Psalm 104:5 says, "the Lord set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved." Ecclesiastes 1:5 states that "the sun rises and the sun sets, and hurries back to where it rises." - from the Wikipedia article on the trial.
A majority of theologians, at the time, found the view to be heretical, and false. Therefore, they banned further research into the idea, under threat of excommunication. Galileo was let off with a light sentence, considering it was the Inquisition he faced. He, just, received house arrest FOR LIFE!
It took 300 years for science to prove to the satisfaction of the Catholic Church that Galileo was, indeed, correct.
Let's look at a few facts closely:
1) Galileo, based on the research of Copernicus, and his own observations, came to the conclusion that the Earth revolved around the sun in 1610.
2) The Catholic Church decided, because he could not provide irrefutable evidence of his theory as fact, that he was completely wrong, by a majority of leading theologians ... not scientist in 1633.
3) In 1992, Pope John Paul II vindicated Galileo, after his theories had been satisfactorily proved to be fact to a majority of Catholic theologians.
The questions are:
Was Galileo any less right in 1610 than he was in 1992?
Was there some incredible shift in the way the universe operates in those 300 years?
How many majority votes of unqualified, unknowledgeble bureaucrats does it take to make a treasured, unproven idea truth?
