A Sodom and Gomorrah Story Shows Scientific Facts Aren’t Settled by Public Opinion
A story of Sodom and Gomorrah shows that scientific facts are not settled by public opinion
The assertions that an asteroid or an aeronautics of the comet destroyed the biblical sodom captured the imagination of the public. Its retraction shows that scientific conclusions are not decided by the rule of the majority in the public square
The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, painting by John Martin, 1852.
Incarastock / Alamy Photo
In 2021, a multidisciplinary team of researchers said that a plane the size of Tunguska, greater than all such an affirmation of human history, had destroyed a city of the Bronze Age near the Dead Sea. History has become viral. This alleged destruction of great El-Hammam around 1650 before Scientific relationships, Noting “which could be interpreted as the destruction of an city by an air / impact event”.
The media of Smithsonian At Times In Great Britain, covered the report. There were all the ingredients – with authors praising his connection with the biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrh – to make the gold of pure clicks. On the day of his publication, one of the co-authors published links on his blog to their three press releases. A week later, he said it was “the most read scientific document on earth” based on 250,000 access to items.
Science, however, is not a popularity competition, and the story of “Cosmic Outlust” indeed has a different lesson from that supposedly, on the way the public should hear incredible assertions. In April, just before the study passed the 666,000 mark, Scientific relationships Retraction of the observation, writing that “affirms that an air event has destroyed the city of the average bronze age of Tall el-Hammam does not seem to be sufficiently supported by the data of the article” and that “the publishers only trust the conclusions presented are reliable”. Independent scientists (I was one of them) had alerted them to the defective methodology, factual errors and the inappropriate manipulation of digital image data. A co-author of the study responded to the withdrawal in an online article with allegations that the editor-in-chief had given in to harassment by the skeptics, concluding that the “court of public opinion is much more powerful than a dark chopper spam the reception box of a corrupt editor”.
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Public opinion influences political decisions and the financing of science priorities. People are interested in new medical remedies and new starred discoveries, which helps to explain why we have a NASA and a NIH. This is why it is important that the public is scientifically literate and well informed. But scientific facts are determined by the scientific method, logic and evidence, all presented in publications evaluated by peers which require reproducible results. Scientists do not vote on the results, but they obtain a consensus by convergence on understanding based on multiple studies in many areas.
Rather, the Sodom Airburst document represented the Nadir of “Science by Press Liker”, in which the sensational but barely supported affirmations were presented directly on the media and the public. Press releases, in protherapy with references to Sodom and biblical implications, seemed to be concentrated as much on titillation as on science.
A meme, in its original definition, is a unit of self-propagation of cultural information which is very suitable for evolutionary sense. Like genes, memes can be designed. Science by press release can be an effective first step in the creation and money laundering of such memes in the collective consciousness of the public. The authors of Sodom Airburst paper did that. Their press releases were quickly picked up and repeated by the online media of clicks and consumer media.
The same Sodom Airburst was so successful that he obtained the status of pop culture and the acceptance of the public in the year following the publication of the newspaper, in this “last affection!” Question: “A study in 2021 suggested that an asteroid that struck the Jordan valley is 1650 BC, gave birth to the history of this city in Genesis 19.” (Winning answer: “What is Sodom?”)
I am no illusion that this myth will suddenly be rejected by the public simply because the newspaper has been retracted. It is a sticky and convincing idea that has existed since it was suggested by the astronomer Gerald Hawkins in 1961. I think it is much more likely that he will join the great pantheon of persistent beliefs, folk facts and urban legends. Unlike this bastion of error, scientists know that humans use more than 10% of their brain, vaccines do not cause autism, “detoxification diets” do not clean our bodies, toads do not give us warts and the bulls do not hate red color.
Many of these myths are harmless. It won’t hurt you to avoid kissing toads, for example. The belief in other scientifically incorrect affirmations can be extremely dangerous. Avoid vaccinating your children and you submit to the risk of serious illness or death.
What would it hurt if most people thought God sent an asteroid to eliminate the inhabitants of Sodom, because of their nasty manners? It could go in both directions. The Old Testament, in Ezékial 16: 49-50, says that they were punished because they were “arrogant, supercharged and not concerned; They did not help the poor and the needy ”. Could it be a bad thing that the fear of an asteroid makes us better people? But this could also generate opposition to planetary defense programs to plan and prevent the impact of an asteroid if we discover one on a collision course. If the majority of people think that it is the will of God and that we have it to come, then why should we not just accept our fate?
In the end, the choices informed by science are always the best, whether they involve personal decisions concerning vaccination or public policies for the attenuation of climate change. When faith inspires people to improve, I am completely for that. This should not take an irrational and not scientific fear of the fire and sulfur of an asteroid to make us want to be more humble, kind and generous than the inhabitants of Sodom.
This is an article of opinion and analysis, and the points of view expressed by the author or the authors are not necessarily those of American scientist.
