Bad Predictions
"Somebody has called astronomy the Futile Science, and I am not at all
sure that the epithet is wholly undeserved. What do the stars matter
distance so great that if they all were utterly annihilated neither we
nor our remotest descendants should experience the smallest material
effect...For every one person who wants the Truth at all costs there
are a thousand who want an Illusion at all costs, even at the cost of
mental balance. Let a man go about proclaiming truths ascertained by
research and experiment and he will be considered a bore by all except
a few specialists. But let him boldly assert an absurdity or a
paradox, and he will obtain millions of adherents, all animated by the
Will to Believe. And the more absurd his assertions, the more
self-assured and fanatical will be his followers. No, the popular
interest in astronomy is not due to a thirst of accurate information.
It is due to a vestige of the old astrological belief in the
significance of the constellations."
- E. E. Fournier d'Albe, Quo Vadimus? Some Glimpses of the Future,
1925.
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