Of course. All these things are still important. It's just reliance on them as being the God given truth is stupid. Never rest on your laurels.
No one claims they are.
The "unless we know everything, we know nothing" is rab putting words in my mouth to exaggerate me in such a way it looks like nonsense
Rab quoted you in another post, specifically this one:
No, you can't understand a simple question, "what evidence would you accept" and have spent days being unable to understand it and just confusedly repeating the same non-answer over and over.
I find it rather amusing that I get pretty much the same type of stonewalling whenever I ask FE'ers what evidence they would accept that the earth is round.
Oh that's easy
First present us with the complete works and nature of the universe in its entirety. Then we can have a look at the data and see.
We already know though from a photons perspective the Earth would 'appear' to be pretty flat. As would the entire universe. Who is to say that a photons perspective is not the default view and we are just an anomaly? Until you get that data we cant be sure. So dont bank on any particular shape
Not that I need him to tell me your position, as you say stuff like this all the time.
Its more like, "The more we think we know, the more we realise we dont know" or "There will always be more questions. Every answer leads to more questions"
That’s what happens in science.
In other words, we are always on the backfoot in knowledge. 1 step forward, 10 steps backwards. Such is the scale of the universe
Er, no. What steps backwards?
When we talk about about the shape of the earth, early civilizations thought it was flat (which it how it arguably appears when you only look from one location), then as people travelled further, they realized it must be round, then through observation of the stars and planets, realized the sun was the center of the solar system, etc.
Each step was a step forward, that provides a better fit for the available evidence, so the previous model was superseded. It’s the flat earth movement that’s trying to go backwards, right back to the beginning.
If a spherical Earth works for your observations, great. But dont end the observations there. Don't rest on it content you have figured it all out. Don't tell people 'dont do any experiments looking for other dimensions or the nature of our universe because we can be quite comfortable with what we know now"
Well, that’s the problem isn’t it. Observations show the earth is spherical and orbiting the sun. For the heliocentric model to be overturned, flat earthers would need to explain ALL the observations at least as well as the heliocentric model, but I’m afraid they can’t make the really basic stuff work. So instead we get denial of very simple principles and conspiracy theories.
Scientists have spent a lot of money and time testing the simulated universe theory. Such as here
https://cosmosmagazine.com/physics/physicists-find-we-re-not-living-in-a-computer-simulation/
Now if we were smart, we would not assume the conclusion in this test is the end of the matter. We should test again. test using different methods and ideas etc. Not just pack it up satisfied we have an answer
Or the holographic universe theory such as here https://www.wired.co.uk/article/our-universe-is-a-hologram
Or looking for extra dimensions using gravitational waves https://phys.org/news/2018-09-gravitational-dose-reality-extra-dimensions.html
All these things are good to do. Someone has an idea - no matter how far fetched and it gets tested. However no one should be comforted by the conclusions of any 1 test no matter which way it falls. Humanity should indeed spend it's existence, testing and testing again and again
Perhaps you should show this level of appreciation for all the other things scientists have spent far more time and money testing?
And one other thing - we should assume with every test that our understanding of physics may be wrong. It may not apply to certain conditions we are testing in. If you do a test and follow a very rigid, inflexible set of rules, then it may end up leading to missed answers and opportunities
For example e=mc2? We should be trying to break it. We should not assume it is universally applied everywhere in every condition
Actually there’s a very good reason to assume that it’s a universal law.
Having assumptions isn’t inherently bad. However, they aren’t set in stone, and can be overturned with sufficient evidence to the contrary. I’m sure there are physicists actively trying to break it. In fact making assumptions is necessary to test a hypothesis.
What it’s really about is the degree of confidence of various assumptions. Something that’s been corroborated over and over is far less likely to the cause of anomalous results than something that hasn’t. Particularly when the evidence is from multiple fields arriving at the same conclusion (consilience of evidence). So the first thing to look for is what other assumptions or errors might have been made to produce that result.
When looking at the shape of the earth, the amount of corroborating evidence is just absurd. There’s entire fields of science that would need to be completely thrown out or rewritten- physics, astronomy, geology, meteorology, etc. along with how they are used for everyday activities such as telecommunications, navigation and travel.
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.