Reply to Rich Daniel

Glenn R. Morton (grmorton@waymark.net)
Sat, 29 May 1999 08:21:01 -0500

paracelcus@email.com wrote:

>Was Newton so stupid that he couldn't see the flaws in his laws
> of motion or gravity that would not be solved until relativity?
>Was he so cowardly that he wouldn't point them out? Or was it
>that he was a product of his education such that while his
>genius allowed him to see something new, his education prevented
>him from seeing all its implications? Behe is like Newton.
>His genius allowed him to see something no one else had seen
>before, but his education prevents him from seeing all its
>implications. However, his book has pointed the way for other
>scientists to see beyond him to the truth. That he himself may
>never accept that truth is sad, but then Newton never accepted
>that space and time were not constant and fixed.

This is erroneous. People in Newton's day did not have the precision of
measurement to even know of the very slight departures from Newton's
formulation of gravity. Newton's theory worked remarkably well for all
measurments during that time. The perihelion of Mercury problem was
initially thought to be due to another undiscovered planet. It wasn't
until the mid-1800s long after Newton was dead, that small departures
began to be recognized and worried about. You need to study a bit more
history before you use another shoddy analogy.

-- glenn

Foundation, Fall and FloodAdam, Apes and Anthropologyhttp://www.isource.net/~grmorton/dmd.htm