Message #13165

[Wanderer]

Jake I like your observation concerning "the accepted norm."   In the world of archeology and many others people have all sorts of time and reputations invested in their particular points of view and theories.  Anything that rocks their boat is an attack upon their livelyhood so opposing ideas are shouted down as it were.

Things we take now as simple and basic were once fought over in the acedemic circles.  Just the furor over the Lucy's discovery in the 1970s illustrates it.  Now we accept that the australapithicines are valid members in the hominid to human evolution.  But it took the dethroning of a few old ideas with absolute proof of something different. We've uncovered a pitiful few fossils reflecting out human ancestry really relative to all things. 

As with most scientific breakthroughs and discoveries it takes a new approach and out-of-the-norm thinking to make significant strides.  When we begin believing that most is impossible we lose the whole spirit of human and proto-human existance.  There are people who don't want to accept anything new in any field of science or non-science.

Remember in 1900 the head of the pantent office thought it should be closed since everything worthwhile that could ever be invented had been.  It's a great illustration of close-mindedness.