Evolution Needs a Telescope
Sep. 17th, 2007 07:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
stickmakerIt used to be the doctrine that Ptolemy was right. That is, that the Earth was the center of the universe and everything else spun around it. This was not just the doctrine of the Catholic Church, but of most European scholars and many others. Everyone knew this was the not only way it was, but the way it _had_ to be. Even though there were problem with understanding how the planets could move the ways they did starting from this point, final understanding was always thought to just a matter of further observation and contemplation. Only things never quite worked...
Then Johannes Kepler proved mathematically that the Earth went around the Sun. The other planets did so, too. Not in perfect circles, either, but in near-circular ellipses. The math was sound, and fit the data very closely. Beyond any reasonable doubt, the Sun was at the center. At least according to the numbers...
Few people could understand the math to check for themselves. Even among those who did, many decided that the sun-centric (or Copernican) model simply couldn't be right, because they _knew_ that Ptolemy was right. However, Kepler's work provided a good mathematical model of the real, Ptolemaic state of the universe. That would have to do until a better understanding of the true, Earth-centric universe could be achieved.
Not long after this, Galileo Galilei greatly improved the telescope... and turned it on the heavens.
The valleys and mountains he discovered on the Moon were simply added detail to the imperfections which could be seen without the telescope, of course. (The Moon was already known to be imperfect, with blemishes visible to the unaided eye. That imperfection was probably due to being so close to the Earth. Other heavenly objects were not so contaminated.) The spots he found on the Sun were obviously objects between there and the Earth, since the Sun was a perfect orb. But Jupiter...
Jupiter had four moons, circling around it. Where Ptolemy had stated, flatly, that everything revolved around the Earth.
Many refused to look. Some who looked refused to believe, saying that the telescope distorted the true state of reality, or even was an instrument invented by the Devil to make men doubt the revealed truth. But most of those who looked accepted the evidence. And that meant the Ptolemaic system was doomed.
Evolution has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. The math checks out, often literally. This evaluation has involved multiple methodologies, performed repeatedly, over more than a century. But understanding the evidence and accepting its meaning require an extensive knowledge of science and the scientific method. Even among those who have this understanding, some say that evolution is simply a misunderstanding of the evidence, an illusion caused by imperfect analysis. That once we know more we will see that a single, instant creation is the true state of affairs, that it _has_ to be.
If only we had a telescope...
Then Johannes Kepler proved mathematically that the Earth went around the Sun. The other planets did so, too. Not in perfect circles, either, but in near-circular ellipses. The math was sound, and fit the data very closely. Beyond any reasonable doubt, the Sun was at the center. At least according to the numbers...
Few people could understand the math to check for themselves. Even among those who did, many decided that the sun-centric (or Copernican) model simply couldn't be right, because they _knew_ that Ptolemy was right. However, Kepler's work provided a good mathematical model of the real, Ptolemaic state of the universe. That would have to do until a better understanding of the true, Earth-centric universe could be achieved.
Not long after this, Galileo Galilei greatly improved the telescope... and turned it on the heavens.
The valleys and mountains he discovered on the Moon were simply added detail to the imperfections which could be seen without the telescope, of course. (The Moon was already known to be imperfect, with blemishes visible to the unaided eye. That imperfection was probably due to being so close to the Earth. Other heavenly objects were not so contaminated.) The spots he found on the Sun were obviously objects between there and the Earth, since the Sun was a perfect orb. But Jupiter...
Jupiter had four moons, circling around it. Where Ptolemy had stated, flatly, that everything revolved around the Earth.
Many refused to look. Some who looked refused to believe, saying that the telescope distorted the true state of reality, or even was an instrument invented by the Devil to make men doubt the revealed truth. But most of those who looked accepted the evidence. And that meant the Ptolemaic system was doomed.
Evolution has been proved beyond any reasonable doubt. The math checks out, often literally. This evaluation has involved multiple methodologies, performed repeatedly, over more than a century. But understanding the evidence and accepting its meaning require an extensive knowledge of science and the scientific method. Even among those who have this understanding, some say that evolution is simply a misunderstanding of the evidence, an illusion caused by imperfect analysis. That once we know more we will see that a single, instant creation is the true state of affairs, that it _has_ to be.
If only we had a telescope...
