darwin v newton
if i were to go to the kansas school board hearings, i wouldn't talk about darwin. i'd talk about newton. classical newtonian mechanics is taught in high school physics classes all over the country. and no one complains. the thing is - classical mechanics is just a theory, not a fact. and in fact, classical mechanics is wrong. in some cases it's absurdly wrong. this paperweight here on my desk when treated as a classical black body should be radiating lethal amounts of gamma radiation. i should be dead now. clearly, it's not. but we teach physics classes without any fuss. why not? because it doesn't offend anyone's religion. not anymore. though it used to. copernicus predicted the positions of the planets very simply using the mathematical trick of putting the sun at the center of the system. no problem there. but then galileo and bruno said it's a physical reality that the sun is the center of the system not just a mathematical curiosity. bruno burned on a stake for his heresy. galileo recanted when he faced the inquisition. we've achieved a bit of enlightenment since 1633. at least with that theory. which is useful. even if it is wrong.