I wrote these two laws down on a scrap of paper years ago. I still have the scrap of paper but not the original reference.
Harris’s First Law:
Belief in the truth of a theory is inversely proportional to the precision of the science.
Harris’s Second Law:
The creativity of a scientist is directly proportional to how much he knows, and inversely proportional to how much he believes.
Jennifer Marohasy BSc PhD is a critical thinker with expertise in the scientific method.
So do you have any data to support the validity of these two “laws” Jennifer? Or do you merely believe that they are true? (sorry, couldn’t resist!)
Yeah. And I was wondering what the definition of a ‘law’ was. 🙂
My favourites:
“We haven’t got time to do it right the first time, but we’ve got time to get it wrong a few times”
“A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”
Max Planck
And a special one for you ‘Ender’ 😉
“It is impossible to reason someone out of something they weren’t reasoned into.”
Jonathan Swift
Forester
Forester – So you think that I was born an environmentalist 🙂
Ender, we were only born humans, and then some of us changed, more or less. And some of us remain satisfied with our original state, hence the absence of the urge to be “reborn”, or whatever.
Ender, I too was born an environmentalist, but my socialist indoctrination eventually wore off…
Forester
Here’s another way to express the same idea.
Benford’s law of controversy (from the 1980 novel Timescape):
[quote]Passion is inversely proportional to the amount of real information available.[/quote]
LINK. http://tinyurl.com/ag8bpe