What happened in the case of Freudian theory is that the insight of its discoverer was applied as an all-purpose solvent, more by his over-eager followers than by himself, whether it had any general applicability or not.
I don't think that happens often in science, certainly not in physical science where the variables are fewer than in biological. On the other hand, it happens all the time in fields like literary criticism, where fashions come and go, and before they go are applied indiscriminately.
Accordingly, I think this is less an example of falsification in science and more a demonstration that psychoanalysis isn't a science.
In all three Biblical cases that you cite, Man didn't make the environment uninhabitable. Instead, God blew a whistle and said, "Everybody out of the pool." Man's culpability in these cases is an offense against the laws of God, not a destruction of the environment. It would be possible to cite global warming as evidence of the End Times, but I don't believe I've seen anybody claiming that, probably because the kind of people who think in that manner don't believe in global warming. Instead, they cite AIDS or 9/11. They don't believe humans can destroy the Earth in this manner; they consider these things messages from God. In any case, Revelationary apocalypsism is a phenomenon of the last century; previously, Biblical futurists tended to focus on God's promise to Noah not to destroy the Earth again.
I should perhaps have said, not "around each other," but "around a central point." And yes, my understanding is that this applies to every pair of bodies, including Mercury and Saturn, virtually indiscernible though that interaction may be.
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Date: 2010-09-10 04:47 pm (UTC)I don't think that happens often in science, certainly not in physical science where the variables are fewer than in biological. On the other hand, it happens all the time in fields like literary criticism, where fashions come and go, and before they go are applied indiscriminately.
Accordingly, I think this is less an example of falsification in science and more a demonstration that psychoanalysis isn't a science.
In all three Biblical cases that you cite, Man didn't make the environment uninhabitable. Instead, God blew a whistle and said, "Everybody out of the pool." Man's culpability in these cases is an offense against the laws of God, not a destruction of the environment. It would be possible to cite global warming as evidence of the End Times, but I don't believe I've seen anybody claiming that, probably because the kind of people who think in that manner don't believe in global warming. Instead, they cite AIDS or 9/11. They don't believe humans can destroy the Earth in this manner; they consider these things messages from God. In any case, Revelationary apocalypsism is a phenomenon of the last century; previously, Biblical futurists tended to focus on God's promise to Noah not to destroy the Earth again.
I should perhaps have said, not "around each other," but "around a central point." And yes, my understanding is that this applies to every pair of bodies, including Mercury and Saturn, virtually indiscernible though that interaction may be.