After my evolution post yesterday, I identified a new type of Internet debating “knockout.” It’s when someone attacks the hypothetical part of your argument as if that’s the point.
Example:
YOU: “If you traveled back in time, you would see that the atmosphere on earth was very different.”
IDIOT: “It’s impossible to travel back in time!”
That’s a victory by knockout for you. (Bonus points if the idiot also argues that you can’t “see the atmosphere.”)
Yesterday in this blog I showed that evolution doesn’t happen from the perspective of someone traveling at the speed of light. Many of you said, in effect, “People can’t travel at the speed of light.” Or “Evolution would still be happening for you while you traveled at the speed of light.”
My first reaction was to declare victory by knockout. But since I only today identified “attacking the hypothetical part” as a knockout, it seemed unfair. Instead I will de-anthropomorphize my argument and see if that helps.
1. Photons exist.
2. Photons travel at the speed of light.
3. According to Einstein, from the perspective of an object traveling at the speed of light, there is no change for the rest of the universe.
4. If there is no change, there is no evolution happening anywhere in the universe as far as the photon’s reality.
5. The photon itself would not evolve either. They don’t do that sort of thing.
6. Therefore, evolution is not completely true because it’s not true for all components of the universe. It is only completely true to slow, dense people.
According to many of you, when it comes to physics I don’t know my mass from a black hole in the ground. The interesting thing is that when I’m wrong, according to my readers, I’m wrong for multiple and simultaneous reasons.
As a general rule, if a hundred people tell me I’m wrong about something, and they all cite the same reason or two, I figure I’m probably wrong even if it doesn’t feel that way in my bones. BOCTAOE. But when a hundred people tell me I’m wrong for a hundred DIFFERENT reasons, frankly that encourages me. My experience has been that when people are wrong, no matter how clueless they are, it’s generally not for more than three or four reasons at the same time.
So tell me why I’m wrong. I’ll stop counting at four reasons.