The Galileo Gambit (Vatican Secret Archive Thrillers)

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He identified evidence for and argued that the sun did not, in fact, revolve around the earth, but that the earth revolves around the sun — the Copernican heliocentric model. An additional irony arises when we consider that if the maverick idea does manage to amass enough evidence to win over the majority, it will become the new consensus — at which point, by the fallacy's own reasoning, the idea must become wrong! The fallacy is an appeal to the minority, an appeal to authority, a conditional fallacy, and an association fallacy. While some people do develop theories or new advancements or technologies that do change the world, a rare few are truly persecuted for those advancements or beliefs. After all, a new "Galileo" might assert that the Earth is indeed the Universe's stationary center ( some people actually do assert this).

We conclude that FIRELAN overall lacks supporting scientific evidence, both theoretical and empirical, and would be unable to deliver adequate wildfire mitigation. On the other hand the Vedic science is entirely based on observations, just like what Galileo observed. The author also reveals the more dangerous and fearful side of wishful thinking, including Holocaust denial, the effort to incorporate creationism into public school curricula, the recovered memory movement, the satanic ritual abuse scare and other modern witch crazes, extreme Afrocentrism, and ideologies of racial superiority. Those who reject the 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming often evoke Galileo as an example of when the scientific minority overturned the majority view.

Premise: A is in set S1 Premise: A is in set S2 Premise: B is also in set S2 Conclusion: Therefore, B is in set S1. Similarly, Carl Sagan has stated that people laughed at geniuses such as Christopher Columbus and the Wright brothers, but "they also laughed at Bozo the Clown". It must be realized that there is a heaven and hell difference between modern science and modern engineering.

Yet plenty of people would like to believe that they are both clever enough and important enough to be Galileo. Also, Galileo tended to provoke those holding the opposing viewpoint, and this often leads to one's ideas not getting the reception they deserve.For us, the theory was clearly wrong, Galileo should have realized it, and other evidence (for heliocentricity) looks better in hindsight.