Why do people strongly opine about topics they know nothing about?

[burbguy82]

Of course the OGs contributed original ideas. But they didn't do it in a vacuum. Einstein studied Newton, Maxwell, Boltzmann, Lorentz, Riemann, and many others before making his own contributions. Carl Sagan didn't single-handedly discover modern cosmology. He spent decades learning from and synthesizing the work of thousands of scientists.

That's how education and science have always worked. Every generation builds on the work of the previous one. Standing on the shoulders of giants isn't a weakness - it's the entire reason science progresses.

The notion that learning from textbooks, lectures, and published papers somehow makes your understanding less legitimate completely misses how every educated person acquires knowledge in the first place.

All those questions do is let me know you have no idea how the education process works...but you seem to have BIG opinions on it.

You still did not answer the question.........:

Nobody learns cosmology, medicine, engineering, or physics from direct personal experience.

So to substantiate your statement, how did the OGs acquire their knowledge to pass it down? If not from personal experience then what? Aliens?

The notion that learning from textbooks, lectures, and published papers somehow makes your understanding less legitimate completely misses how every educated person acquires knowledge in the first place.

Education and knowledge are two different things. Plenty......plenty of half wits have an education and are absolute idiots.....likely most especially these days. I deal with them everyday.

 

[PWMDMD]

You still did not answer the question.........:

So to substantiate your statement, how did the OGs acquire their knowledge to pass it down? If not from personal experience then what? Aliens?

There is literally no human being, ever, who didn't build on the work of others in their pursuit of knowledge/education. Newton didn't invent mathematics. Einstein didn't invent calculus or Maxwell's equations. Maxwell didn't invent electricity. Every one of them inherited an enormous body of knowledge, added something new, published it, and then the next generation built on that.

Education and knowledge are two different things. Plenty......plenty of half wits have an education and are absolute idiots.....likely most especially these days. I deal with them everyday.

The truth finally comes out.

I'm sorry you seem to feel inferior to people with formal educations. You shouldn't. But this discussion has slowly turned into a therapy session where you keep trying to convince yourself that educated people are the real idiots, while those without are the ones who truly understand how the world works.

Sure, there are educated fools. There are also uneducated fools. The difference is that you seem to think education itself is the problem.

That's a pretty convenient narrative if you've already decided learning from experts, textbooks, and decades of accumulated knowledge is something to be mocked rather than valued.

Here's some humility on my part - I'm not a therapist, I'm not qualified, and I have no desire delve any deeper into your inferiority complex and self-worth issues.

 

[Astro14]

This has gone personal. It needs to stop here.