I liked your entire post. I particularly agree with the above. I, myself, have always kept a personal distance from ideas which I have accepted, because, with the appropriate amount of information, they can be instantaneously changed. I never believed in Santa Claus. (When I was three years old, my parents goofed by wrapping one of their own gifts to me in the paper that Santa Claus's presents were wrapped.) It was exciting to me to give up old beliefs. In the same way, I appreciated the findings of Perlmutter, et al., in the LETTERS section of the January 1, 1998, issue of NATURE concerning the accelerating universe. It really blew my mind. It has changed everything in Cosmology and has reintroduced Einstein's *Lambda* (a/k/a Dark Energy) in new clothes. Science seems to produce the greatest *Aha!* experiences. It is too bad that so many people miss out on the *Great Adventure* of Science.

I always enjoy your posts. I usually remain invisible to keep from disrupting the flow of the threads when I have nothing new to contribute other than *Bravissimo* or the like.

Incidentally, I have never been a *True Believer* of any kind. My optical physicist father helped that. Following his advice, I have eschewed science fiction, so as not to get my science wrong. This might bother others. I simply find science much more thrilling. I have read much great literature, so I have not missed everything of value.

ljbrs [img]/phpBB/images/smiles/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

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*Nothing is more damaging to a new truth than an old error.* Goethe

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: ljbrs on 2002-12-25 13:05 ]</font>