Has physics and science ever proved anything that was previously only belief or metaphysics?

Question

Although I can try to come up with a few, I'm curious.

If we have proven things now that were only myth to some before, would they have been right all along.

The implications is that I'm trying to prove a point, possibly, but I am very curious on examples.

Note "proved" not disproved, that's obvious

Answer 1

1. Submarines: Jules Verne's "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

2. Space travel : "Battle of the Worlds"

3. The existence of giant squids : "Iliad"

4. The helicopter : Da Vinci notes and sketches.

5. Noah's ark. Genesis

Yet to be discovered or invented

1. Atlantis
2. Engine with 100+% efficiency
3. Eradication of rats: "The Pied Piper" (I think that was the name of the story in which a piper got rid of the rats in a famous ancient city but when the mayor refused to pay, the piper diasppeared with the children of the city)

Answer 2

You mean Aristotle was wrong about how the world work?

First, you need to separate reveal knowledge from observed knowledge. God reveals, man observes.

Proof comes from observation as expressed by the scientific method.

Let take God for example. According to the reveal knowledge (bible), God existed before and created everything we can observed. So in this reveal knowledge is there a proof that God exists. No, God existence is assumed. So reveal knowledge does not prove this.

What about science? In applying the scientific method, we need facts about God. A fact is an observations made by two or more persons independent of local. But we have no observation about God, we have no scientific facts. So scientific method can not prove or disprove the existence of God.

Expanding this, name me on myth that has scientific explanation, and you will go back to man's observation.

Now to your questions: We have facts and theories to explain those facts. We adjust scientific theory that explain the new facts. Origins for myths is only an attempt to establish facts. Without facts, we have no theories. History of science deals with how theories evolved.

But when you moved into an area that is non observed, you are left only with belief.

Answer 3

Zen masters and others always maintained the essential Oneness and unity of all things and the non-absolute nature of time and space. With quantum physics, those descriptions are now accurate. I think the discovery that modern humans all share the same mother ('mitochondrial eve') may be somewhat related to the symbolism in the creation myth (this could be a stretch and, ironically, not what a fundamentalist would agree with). There are others (more concrete examples) but I can't think of them now.

Answer 4

Plato postulated that what we see isn't really reality. What was real, for him, was the spirit world. The material world was only a world of shadows.

He was half right. Quantum physics has, for the most part, shown that the world we perceive as real is only an illusion, a shadow so to speak. What is real is the world of atoms and subatomic particles and waves. By the way, I am not a scientist, just interested in science - the answer simply reflects what I know up to this point about Q.P.

Answer 5

The sun is the center of the solar system not the Earth.

That herbs and stuff like that can cure or relieve things.

That in the beginingg there was darkness and then in an instant there was light and the stars and planeters were formed and there were waters and the waters became separate from the land and life came forth.

Answer 6

They do it all the time. In fact, the new string theory is a
rip-off of shaman teachings. That when one learns to "see",
they can see a weblike system of light that permeates everything.
1 Samuel 9:9, "The prophets were first called SEERS!"
Physics is the science of the "mechanics" of the material world.
Metaphysics is the science of the "dynamics" of the spirit world.

Answer 7

When science doesn't know, it guesses, which is what a theory is, just a guess. Yes, an ordinary dictionary will tell you a theory is a guess.

Thus there is the Theory of Evolution, which is merely a guess.

When a theory is proven true, it becomes a law, as in the Law of Gravity.

Answer 8

There are many examples of scientific knowledge in the Qur'an that Muhammad or anyone living at that time would never have known.

It only became apparent with the advent of modern science...

Please research. Topic too big for this posting...

Answer 9

Corey,

Just to say, if that the Dragon in your pic was in the NEVER ENDING STORY. I recently met the puppeteer (who was Scottish) who was the means by which the creator played out his ideas and imagination becoming flesh in the acting out by manipulation of certain physical forces.

Answer 10

The Big Bang and Relativity prove what the Bible said hundreds of years before science even asked the question.

Bible said the Universe was created and had a beginning, as does time.

http://reasons.org/