Heck, the earth use to be the center of the universe according to religion.
Personally religion is a non-scientific thing that really has no place in science at all. As a result, it's really not relevant on hacker news either , IMO.
So does science.
>Heck, the earth use to be the center of the universe according to religion.
That's a gross simplification. See: Ptolemy and Nicolaus Copernicus.
It was actually "common knowledge" in the scientific community that the Earth was the center of the universe. The popularized issue between Galileo and the Catholic Church (and not just "religion") was largely political. The Catholic Church, to retain power, could not be wrong about anything. If they had been teaching (with scientific backing even!) that the Earth was the center of the universe. That was how it must be.
Galileo wanted to educated people outside of the scientific community that the Earth was not the center. So he had to be silenced, else the Church would be wrong and may lose power.
As early as 300~ B.C.E , there is a reference from Archemedes' book "The Sand Reckoner" of a heliocentric system described by Aristarchus of Samos. [0]
Em, didn't everyone believe this? Sure religion was slow to adapt when proof the Earth wasn't the centre was brought forward but at the time that was a pretty big claim.
>> "Personally religion is a non-scientific thing that really has no place in science at all. As a result, it's really not relevant on hacker news either , IMO."
Of course that's your opinion but this is Hacker News, not science news. If your interested in how someone runs a large company it can be relevant to look at religious leaders like the pope of dalai lama as that is essentially what they do and on a bigger scale than any company.
Everybody believed it due to religion, even when the science described a different reality.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_model#Ptolemaic_mod...
E:
The important takeaway:
"It has been determined, in fact, that the Copernican, Ptolemaic and even the Tychonic models provided identical results to identical inputs. They are computationally equivalent. It wasn't until Kepler demonstrated a physical observation that could show that the physical sun is directly involved in determining an orbit that a new model was required."
You also seem to believe that Galileo was the creator of the heliocentric model. Please see my other reply. [0]
Science isn't about choices. It's about Truth. What is true and what is false isn't a choice.
And rebirth happens to you right now when your consciousness arises again and again from previous states of your mind.
Yes, there's also a "fantastic" theory that this process goes beyond physical death but this theory is supported by simple logic of buddhist philosophy.
but not supported by science.
(Please note that my world view is purely scientific but I'm using buddhist ideas for looking into my consciousness because science doesn't say much about it.)
To clarify, reincarnation in this context is happening dozens of times every second. So then, "you" don't really last all that long, and there really isn't a constant "you" anyway. And what happens in-between those beats? Ah, look into -that-.
Has the alternative been falsified by evidence? Has this process been observed? As complex/beautiful/philosophical/metaphysical as a concept is, it is not Science unless it can be experimentally verified. One can just as easily say that reincarnation is bullshit, and you can't prove otherwise unless you have no evidence.
Science and logic are related but they mean different things. Science requires evidence for falsifiability. Deduction and proof are the domain of logic, not science.
Still. Not. Scientific. At. All.
Of course, this makes no sense, because I can't make that step for you. It could take minutes, or years, to get the point. Be instead like the child who sees the order in clouds without labeling them as seeming to be this or that as they move across the sky. The experiment is experiential to the individual; do these things, and expect this result to inevitably occur. Do not these things, and it will not occur. Thousands of years of the same results, and yet you ask for evidence to be produced by others instead of yourself.
Don't misconstrue this as a personal failing - everyone starts from the same confusing position you are expressing. That each individual must overcome this futile attempt at reasoning and thinking their way to liberation is only a problem when you are determined to solve the problem in that way.
Look. Spin a pen or shoot a basket until it can be done without effort or thought - who is it that has learned this? Motor memory, brains dissected and labeled; etc., but all that is useless towards learning or doing. Would it ever be the same to describe how these actions are done with words as it is to do them without words or thoughts? I can spin a pen skillfully for a long time with the simple directive of "don't drop it", and my fingers do it for me. Over time, they avoid actions that did not lead to the desired outcome, moment to moment. When that brain that has learned that action has been dissolved, who would expect it to be innate in a new being? Yet the knowledge of how to do this thing was never mine; it is available to all to use.