Come on, wake up people. You're being fed nonsense by those who won't admit they're guessing.
I have an excellent explanation. This quote makes you sound like a stupid creationist who can't handle the idea that people make guesses, then support their guesses with evidence. Now, the natural history programs are often guilty of presenting guesses that don't have a lot of evidence as guesses that have so much evidence that they are almost certainly true.
But grandly waving your arm and declaring that we are all "being fed nonsense by those who won't admit they're guessing" is a dangerous exaggeration and an unwarranted generalization.
Well, once you start talking about 'assumptions' you come perilously close to invoking creationist arguments about scientists only guessing and really having no idea what they're talking about.
Now, the natural history programs would do a lot to advance people's understanding of how science works if they talked a bit about the evidence and support behind the different ideas they talk about. Also, when they talk about speculative ideas that don't yet have a lot of supporting evidence, they should mention that are much closer to speculation than a theory well backed by mountains of evidence.
Slashdot Mirror
I have an excellent explanation. This quote makes you sound like a stupid creationist who can't handle the idea that people make guesses, then support their guesses with evidence. Now, the natural history programs are often guilty of presenting guesses that don't have a lot of evidence as guesses that have so much evidence that they are almost certainly true.
But grandly waving your arm and declaring that we are all "being fed nonsense by those who won't admit they're guessing" is a dangerous exaggeration and an unwarranted generalization.
Well, once you start talking about 'assumptions' you come perilously close to invoking creationist arguments about scientists only guessing and really having no idea what they're talking about.
Now, the natural history programs would do a lot to advance people's understanding of how science works if they talked a bit about the evidence and support behind the different ideas they talk about. Also, when they talk about speculative ideas that don't yet have a lot of supporting evidence, they should mention that are much closer to speculation than a theory well backed by mountains of evidence.