I remember many years ago, in a postgraduate entrance examination group, I heard several group members discussing, thinking that quantum physics and astrophysics can be called "theology". The reason is that most natural sciences pay attention to experiments, and then draw conclusions based on experimental results (such as chemistry), and astrophysics and quantum physics are difficult to verify through experiments. After all, the universe is vast, and human footprints cannot even break out of the range of Earth and Moon system .
. Compared with astrophysics and quantum physics, cosmology is regarded as a "full of fallacies" by most people. What is the reason for this?
1, unusual science
, and disciplines like chemistry, the research process of cosmology is very special. Because chemical research emphasizes truth from facts and practicality: chemistry must be studied based on the results of chemical experiments that have been found. Moreover, chemical reactions cannot be imagined out of thin air, and experimental results must be respected. This was the first lesson in chemistry as early as the junior high school chemistry stage, allowing students to understand it.
However, the understanding of cosmology is essentially similar to astrophysics: even astrophysics needs to be calculated and speculated based on the real physical mechanics , and many studies in cosmology are often based on hypotheses: for example, the theory of cosmic expansion and the theory of singularity are typical.
I remember that the book "Popular Astronomy" mentioned at the beginning: If the range of the outer part of the solar system is the size of a North American continent, then the size of the earth is like the size of a table tennis ball. In fact, this concept is still valid at present. After all, human footprints have not broken through the Earth and Moon system so far, and have not even been able to go to Mars for physical inspection.
So, for cosmologists on Earth, what do other distant galaxies look like? What did the origin of the universe look like? Are the chemical composition and physical properties of matter on other planets consistent with the situation on Earth? Will there be new elements that have never been found on Earth on other planets? All these cannot be answered through field investigations and objective evidence. Therefore, for this series of problems, cosmologists can only put forward a series of conjectures and conduct research through conjectures.
The doctrine based on a series of conjectures and hypotheses will naturally inevitably show deviations, and as these deviations accumulate, they may be counterproductive to the truth. What makes people feel even more helpless is that the correction of these deviations may take hundreds or even thousands of years later - after all, basic scientific research in human beings has actually stagnated for decades. Especially in physics, there are almost no new breakthroughs.
2. Unacceptable Theory
In addition, many ideas put forward by scholars in cosmology are also difficult for many people to accept - of course, mainly difficult to understand.
For example, parallel universe is a very typical concept. To this day, many people still express their unwillingness to accept and believe in the existence of parallel universes. Many people even believe that the parallel universe may be theology of the 21st century, full of absurdity. The proof of wormholes and parallel universes seems difficult to determine within at least a century.
In addition, in the process of development of cosmology, there is indeed a phenomenon of overturning the original theory. Since the universe that humans truly understand is very small, limited to the Earth-Moon System and some areas of the solar system, no one dares to guarantee that the authenticity and credibility of the current cosmological theory will be much higher than the geocentric theory thousands of years ago. At least, one thing is certain: on the basis of failing to break out of the solar system, humans are like studying the boundless universe in front of a ping-pong ball. There will definitely be a lot of fallacies in this process. Therefore, mistakes like the geocentric theory may be inevitable.
is even more pessimistic: that is, almost all the cosmological theories mastered by humans at this stage are wrong, and the correct ones can be ignored.
However, this is inevitable. After all, science is carried out through continuous correction.For thousands of years, this leap from alchemy to modern chemistry, from astrology, to modern astronomy, has actually been achieved through continuous correction.
