What crusaders for Einstein's sacred Special Theory of Relativity are "learning" from this is that Einstein's theory of
relativity is obviously right, and shouldn't have been questioned. But
this kind of mindset is fatal to the critical thinking and willingness
to question widely-held beliefs that has made science what it is today.
People
often forget that Einstein's own theories conflicted with the
universally accepted "infallible" work Newton did in the development of
classical mechanics. Einstein dealt with the same type of controversy
that the OPERA team did, because his work represented the same threat to
Newton's physics as OPERA did to Einstein's.
So-called
defenders of Einstein clearly did not know as much about Einstein as
they do about his work; if they did they wouldn't attack OPERA so
vehemently like they did for "attacking" Einstein's magnum opus. It's as
if they saw Einstein as God and the suggestion of Einstein's
fallibility was blasphemy!
What these scientific zealots didn't
know apparently, is that Einstein himself encouraged people proving his
theories wrong, as you can see with such words of wisdom as "If the
facts don't fit the theory, change the facts", "No amount of
experimentation can ever prove me right; a single experiment can prove
me wrong". If Einstein were wrong, it wouldn't mean a setup in science
or even quantum mechanics-- on the contrary, it would only further
bolster these fields.
Science is fueled by questioning the facts
and putting to the test the commonly held to be true. It is cynicism
with the consensus and the willingness to think outside the box of
mainstream beliefs that scientific research thrives in!
If
Einstein were alive today he would be more than happy to be wrong,
because it would give him greater challenges to undertake, and more
curiosity to satisfy! If Einstein were alive today he would be the first
to undertake the CERN tests putting his own theory to the test, and
encourage every last scientist with the resources to do the same.
If
Einstein were witnessing how people are wrongfully exploiting his name
to defend the Special Theory of Relativity, he would scold the lot of
them good, and remind them that "Anyone who has never made a mistake has
never tried anything new"; to imply that Einstein cannot have made a
mistake is to insult the innovative thinking that made Einstein and
science itself so profoundly great!
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