16 thoughts on “Michael Mann: ‘I don’t mind being compared to Galileo’”
What truth was he persecuted for? He was held for fraud (see my post above). He refused to apologize for insulting his patron, and he refused to write the paper he was paid to write by said patron.
Besides Mann himself, who has compared Mann to Galileo?
Galileo was persecuted for speaking truth; Mann was and continues to be honored and rewarded for speaking falsehood.
My first thought was “yeah, Galileo couldn’t program a computer, either.”
Sorry BR, but your apologetic history doesn’t jive with one important thing.
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicholaus Copernicus.
Copernicus, a Catholic canon, wrote it. It was dedicated to the pope. This book didn’t touch scripture except in the dedication, where Copernicus said to not believe those who would twist scripture to their own ends.
Yet, the book was initially banned and then allowed to remain in a censored form (removing the central passages that explained the heliocentric model and the aforementioned line in the dedication). It has been suggested that the only reason that it was allowed to remain is due to its calculations being central to the church’s calendar reform.
This fact undermines the entire “Galileo trhe jerk” theory.
Close, but not quite correct.
Galileo was contracted by the Pope to write up the Copernican Theory in layman’s terms for a conclave of bishops so that it could be reconciled with Scripture. Instead he wrote a Socratic Dialog with a poorly disguised Pope as the Fool.
He was placed under house arrest for fraud until he wrote what he had been paid for.
He then published it, and was told that now not only did he need to fulfill his contract, he needed to write a public apology for his insults to his patron.
The Copernican Theory had been around for around a century at this time.
Galileo was an ass. Mann is an ass. I think the comparison is apt.
I see him more as a modern-day Arthur Conan Doyle – a writer of fiction of some original repute who swallowed a scam hook, line, and sinker to continually and emphatically embarrass himself with great fanfare. In Doyle’s case the scam was Spiritualism.
Steve, I’m sure glad I didn’t have a mug of hot beverage in hand when I read that!
bestruger1022, thank you for teaching us. Not even 8 a.m., and already I’ve learned something interesting. The day’s off to a good start!
Mann can be compared to Obama. Scientifically incompetent and ignorant. Ethically, a massive liar. Probably the worst leader in his field in world history. That’s Obama and Mann.
Funny. If I have to think of an Italian name associated with Michael Mann, it isn’t Galileo Galilei.
There needs to be something like Godwin’s Law of Hitler Analogies, it would be the Law of Galileo Analogies.
It would be something like, ‘in any extended discussion of a crank who peddles unfounded scientific claims, he will eventually be compared to Galileo by his defenders.’ And that’s for real. Every charlatan is always eventually compared to Galileo as a putative defense against his detractors. And here’s Mann doing it to himself. Shameful.
Even more shameful is that he’s fallen for an historical charade.
Galileo was one of the first members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. That’s right, the Vatican is home to the world’s first, and now oldest, scientific academy. Then, as now, the position of the church is that whenever empirical fact conflicts with scripture, that portion of scripture is to be regarded as allegorical.
So Galileo comes up with this idea of the Sun being the center of the solar system. He tells the Academy. They say, cool, neat-o, etc. Then he says, hey, and I can prove it with scripture. They say booshwah, it’s not there, you do astronomy, we do theology. He says no really, here’s the sacred proof. And they say, it’s not proof, it’s crap, and if you keep pushing it, you’ll get hit with blasphemy. So he pushes it, and gets hit with a blasphemy charge.
People with an attitude about Catholics have a revised version of events, and the version has been so oft repeated that it’s considered irrefutable.
Galileo got so wound up with his novel theory that he went beyond being an astronomer and started pushing theories that wouldn’t hold water. Perhaps Mann should have stuck with climatology and not gone around the bend with apocalyptical crap. And maybe he should resent being compared to Galileo.
Every time Mann opens his mouth he confirms Mark Twain’s famous aphorism: “Better to be silent and thought stupid than to speak and remove all doubt.”
Mann knows that PSU will keep him on board as long as he brings home the research grants. When it comes to the global warming nonsense, money trumps science.
The last thing that PSU needs is another black eye. I doesn’t matter.
The administration has endorsed his junk science, so they too are accessories. They won’t fire him.
What truth was he persecuted for? He was held for fraud (see my post above). He refused to apologize for insulting his patron, and he refused to write the paper he was paid to write by said patron.
Besides Mann himself, who has compared Mann to Galileo?
Galileo was persecuted for speaking truth; Mann was and continues to be honored and rewarded for speaking falsehood.
My first thought was “yeah, Galileo couldn’t program a computer, either.”
Sorry BR, but your apologetic history doesn’t jive with one important thing.
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicholaus Copernicus.
Copernicus, a Catholic canon, wrote it. It was dedicated to the pope. This book didn’t touch scripture except in the dedication, where Copernicus said to not believe those who would twist scripture to their own ends.
Yet, the book was initially banned and then allowed to remain in a censored form (removing the central passages that explained the heliocentric model and the aforementioned line in the dedication). It has been suggested that the only reason that it was allowed to remain is due to its calculations being central to the church’s calendar reform.
This fact undermines the entire “Galileo trhe jerk” theory.
Close, but not quite correct.
Galileo was contracted by the Pope to write up the Copernican Theory in layman’s terms for a conclave of bishops so that it could be reconciled with Scripture. Instead he wrote a Socratic Dialog with a poorly disguised Pope as the Fool.
He was placed under house arrest for fraud until he wrote what he had been paid for.
He then published it, and was told that now not only did he need to fulfill his contract, he needed to write a public apology for his insults to his patron.
The Copernican Theory had been around for around a century at this time.
Galileo was an ass. Mann is an ass. I think the comparison is apt.
I see him more as a modern-day Arthur Conan Doyle – a writer of fiction of some original repute who swallowed a scam hook, line, and sinker to continually and emphatically embarrass himself with great fanfare. In Doyle’s case the scam was Spiritualism.
Steve, I’m sure glad I didn’t have a mug of hot beverage in hand when I read that!
bestruger1022, thank you for teaching us. Not even 8 a.m., and already I’ve learned something interesting. The day’s off to a good start!
Mann can be compared to Obama. Scientifically incompetent and ignorant. Ethically, a massive liar. Probably the worst leader in his field in world history. That’s Obama and Mann.
Funny. If I have to think of an Italian name associated with Michael Mann, it isn’t Galileo Galilei.
It’s Charles Ponzi.
There needs to be something like Godwin’s Law of Hitler Analogies, it would be the Law of Galileo Analogies.
It would be something like, ‘in any extended discussion of a crank who peddles unfounded scientific claims, he will eventually be compared to Galileo by his defenders.’ And that’s for real. Every charlatan is always eventually compared to Galileo as a putative defense against his detractors. And here’s Mann doing it to himself. Shameful.
Even more shameful is that he’s fallen for an historical charade.
Galileo was one of the first members of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. That’s right, the Vatican is home to the world’s first, and now oldest, scientific academy. Then, as now, the position of the church is that whenever empirical fact conflicts with scripture, that portion of scripture is to be regarded as allegorical.
So Galileo comes up with this idea of the Sun being the center of the solar system. He tells the Academy. They say, cool, neat-o, etc. Then he says, hey, and I can prove it with scripture. They say booshwah, it’s not there, you do astronomy, we do theology. He says no really, here’s the sacred proof. And they say, it’s not proof, it’s crap, and if you keep pushing it, you’ll get hit with blasphemy. So he pushes it, and gets hit with a blasphemy charge.
People with an attitude about Catholics have a revised version of events, and the version has been so oft repeated that it’s considered irrefutable.
Galileo got so wound up with his novel theory that he went beyond being an astronomer and started pushing theories that wouldn’t hold water. Perhaps Mann should have stuck with climatology and not gone around the bend with apocalyptical crap. And maybe he should resent being compared to Galileo.
Every time Mann opens his mouth he confirms Mark Twain’s famous aphorism: “Better to be silent and thought stupid than to speak and remove all doubt.”
Mann knows that PSU will keep him on board as long as he brings home the research grants. When it comes to the global warming nonsense, money trumps science.
The last thing that PSU needs is another black eye. I doesn’t matter.
The administration has endorsed his junk science, so they too are accessories. They won’t fire him.
Yes, not an entire horse.
Pretty close. Add another part of anatomy.
He believes to be a horse?? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galileo_(horse)
I’d say he’s better compared to Torqemada.