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Originally posted by stander
The connection between the ancient symbolism and the photos of shapely galaxies taken by the Hubble space telescope built for the purpose of seeing something that the ancient naked eye couldn't obviously detect renders the premise fictional.
Originally posted by stander
If the competition among the various theories could be likened to a horse race where I would be asked to make a bet, I would put the minimum amount of money required to participate on the favorite -- the Standard Model.
If there are objections to the leading theory, which has been developing for some time, there had to be alternative views to this theory when it was developing. There surely were -- a bunch of them, but most of them are no longer advocated by their proponents or their scientific progeny. Actually a good number of those theories tended to explain questions regarding weaker spots in some of the material the Standard Model was built from -- these theories were not standalone competitors. Those that were couldn't account for certain stuff that the Standard Model could.
Originally posted by stander
I made a remark about the standard model of cosmology. The standard model of the sun is an almost separate issue.
When Alfen began to speculate in terms of "ambiplasma" back in 1960s, he went against iconic Albert Einstein. The result can be compared to Charles Darwin trying to make appointment with pope Pius IX -- the mainstream science wasn't impressed. Alfen didn't know about or disregarded the existence of cosmic microwave background that, when finally discovered in 1964, supported the Standard Model. That made plasma cosmology sort of a dead-end street.
Developing theories, such as the Standard Model, would always have competitors. The problem is that the counterpoints come from the guys who went to the same school with the guys responsible for the challenged leading theory. They all undergo the same education and stand to make the same mistakes in the way complex problems are approached. When Albert Einstein published his famous, groundbreaking theory, he was a patent office clerk; he was isolated from the mainstream views and that enabled him to cast an independent look on the works. History will not repeat itself, because the present requirements do not provide for an outsider to achieve academic sainthood. Also, cosmological stuff got very complex and an individual human brain may not be able to handle this type of task.
To me, the critical alternative views sort of resemble those get-rich-quick schemes. But the way money is made is usually through a long, hard work. So I think that the Standard Model must keep working the 9 to 5 shift and wait a bit longer.
I also think that the biggest danger to the Standard Model are future observations of the universe through advancing technologies. The astronomers may get the chance to see hitherto unknown effects that would defy the Standard Model.