a lot of people have a poor understanding of science, even people who love and promote scientific rationality. i want to address one issue i see periodically, in the hopes that you dear reader can benefit
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specifically, it's the difference be theories and phenomena.
a few days ago, someone tweeted that the Church Turing Thesis was a fact of reality and I commented that it was a thesis, a hypothesis, not proven fact. he then DMed me saying gravity was also a thesis not a fact
@beka_valentine This is tangential, but it is odd how many people take not only the Church-Turing thesis as a matter of fact but who also do so with the "Church-Turing-Deutsch thesis", while also confusing the two!
this person isn't stupid, isn't anti-science, he's a big science enjoyer
but this thing he said "Gravity is also just a thesis, not a proven fact" is just flat out wrong, and is the exact same claim that actual anti-science nutjob fundamentalists make about evolution, but worse
so lets talk about why gravity is not a thesis
when you are standing here on earth, in your normal life, and you are holding an only in your hand, and open your hand, usually (tho not always) it falls to the floor
this is an observed fact, a phenomenon that happens. you see it with your eyes, feel it, hear it, etc.
we don't have special magical insight into why this happens, but we know it does. just look! open your eyes!
sometimes it doesnt happen. a balloon might float upwards. that's also a thing you just open your eyes and see happen
