Were there an institution, today, that sought to suppress truth, as with Galileo, how would you judge them?

Question

Were such people to have actively sought to destroy the message and messager for many years, what should the judgement of such people be, in light of todays standards?

Answer 1

For responder iridium190: If there were flaws in the theory of evolution, it would be entirely appropriate to teach them in a classroom, including in public schools. Since no such flaws exist, the point is moot.

The more salient point is whether alternative theories involving some sort of divine intervention have any merit. It is impossible in principle to refute any such theory. Since the predictive power of any theory can be shown to obtain exclusively from its refutability, no such theory can predict anything: they may be true, but they are useless.

Answer 2

Well, the institution that suppressed Galileo is with us today;
pretty much operating now as it did then.

You are not only dealing with people, but an institution which has status as a nation. It has no true representative government but claims to be God's only representative on earth!

The position they ascribe to themselves is accepted by other nations as long as balances of power do not shift to far.

Considering their status, the judgment of such people is a mute point. Further there are no standards today which would reflect such a judgment, allow such a judgment or carry any force allowing judgment to stand.

Since no judgment is possible, one is left without recourse to personal opinion. I think mine is apparent.

Answer 3

The key to suppressing truth is concealing the fact that that's what you're doing.

Do you suppose that Joe Six-pack in Galileo's day felt that truth was being hidden from him? I doubt it.

Back then the people defining the "truth" were the only ones with the means to promulgate it.

I'd like to think that we've moved beyond that point now.

Now-- if you choose to believe that the World Trade Center towers fell because they were hit by airplanes, or that oil comes from dead dinosaurs and the plants they ate- it's only because YOU haven't bothered to pursue the truth.

There is no longer an institution to blame- just your own lack of due diligence.

Answer 4

Today President Bush vetoed legislation that would have allowed the government to conduct lifesaving research on embryonic stem cells.

"Were there an institution, today, that sought to suppress the truth", indeed! There is such an institution today. It is the executive branch of the US Government.

And I judge them to be small-minded, corrupt, and unworthy of the trust that has been given to them.

HAD ENOUGH?

Vote Democrat!

Answer 5

There are plenty of institutions that try to suppress truth. The White House and the Defense Department, for example . . . luckily the truth sometimes gets out, though it takes a Deep Throat or a leak or a memoir thirty years later to do so. Corporate publishing . . . keeps out a certain kind of truth from seeing the light.

I judge them as I would judge the institution that suppressed Galileo.

Answer 6

You know that didn't happen w/ Galileo don't you? He was put in confinement not for his theories, but b/c he had a rivalry w/ a priest.
It's a cute metaphor, but historically wrong. It actually serves to show how little science teachers care about accuracy.

But, maybe you mean like evolutionists who deny flaws in their theory but won't let them be taugth in classrooms?

Maybe you mean journalists who talk about "banning" stem cell research even though that's untrue.

How about global warming advocates who bashed a researcher who demonstrated strong evidence that any warming was coming from the sun. They called him "irresponsible".

Frankly, the modern scientific establishment works hard to suppress truth. They are the high priests of a new religion.