I think the problem we’re having here is that you’re thinking of “The Earth revolves around the Sun.” as some useless bit of specialized science knowledge, while I’m seeing it as a rather fundamental piece of information that anyone should know.
I honestly cannot imagine not knowing the answer to that question. I cannot fathom how a person can think about the sun, or the earth, and not recall simple things like which revolves around the other, understand the basis for lengths of years/days, or conjure a basic image of the solar system. I just can’t do it.
I don’t see how this is any different from believing the world is flat, and I feel that every person should be responsible enough to know whether it is or it isn’t, especially if they’re a parent, or plan to be one.
You see this as failing a trivia quiz, and I see it as willful ignorance. So, yeah, we’re arguing two different things.
I apologize if this post isn’t smary, patronizing, or unctuous enough for you, this being my first foray into P&R and all. You really don’t have to SirBruce my posts, though, I’m capable of keeping up if you just respond in one big chunk.
I guess if you learned it as a factoid, “Earth revolves around Sun”, equivalent to “Battle of Hastings in 1066”, then it wouldn’t be a surprise that you could forget. If you made an effort to integrate it with your other knowledge, thought about it, made a picture in your head, then I don’t think you could forget.
So when 25% can’t recall, it says to me that they were told this, but never bothered thinking about it. This strikes me as just a lack of curiosity.
It’s not like choosing 1086 as the Battle of Hastings, but thinking that England was once an American colony, instead of the other way around.
Okay, I understand where you are coming from but don’t agree. It’s simply not fundamental to anything, except perhaps to further studies of astronomy.
And yet a lot of people can’t and function just fine. Which implies that you are the one with flawed understanding of humanity. That sort of “they don’t think like me, something must be wrong with them because they are different than me” mentality is not a pretty thing.
Flat earth isn’t a good comparison to bring in here, because those people are choosing to contradict a scientific finding for various reasons. The people who can’t remember whether the earth revolves around the sun or vice versa are simply not remembering a piece of trivia. I’m sure if you gently corrected them they’d happily agree.
As for the parenting thing, that’s a whole different debate ;-)
How can you make case that it’s willful ignorance? For someone not interested in science classes or not raised on sci-fi this was just a another irrelevant fact floating by in a boring class. I think back to some of the classes I took that bored me at the time, especially some date-memorization-heavy poorly-presented history classes and I’m sure I’ve forgotten 95% of the crap I was forced to rote learn.
Calm down tiger. This is P&R, people disagree a lot. I’m not trying to pick on you personally, I don’t think any less of you as a person, I simply disagree with your view as expressed in this thread. Even my arch P&R nemesis Robert Sharp and I would probably get along just fine if we met over a beer IRL and chatted. Well as long as he didn’t try too hard to hold my hand or cuddle.
And as for splitting your post and responding point by point, that’s sheer laziness on my part. It’s harder to write one coherent reply that addresses all the variant tangents and I’m not some fancy pants professional writer dude like some of the QT3ers. So I take the easy way out.
Why not someone who just can’t recall whether the earth is flat or not? They aren’t out to make some political statement, it’s just some boring factoid that floated by in class one day.
Given that sexing chicks is an art that people like ElGuapo train others for today, I have no trouble believing a biblical hero like Noah could sex eggs.
I can’t see many people getting that one wrong. Considering just about every classroom I was ever in during grade school had a globe, students get several orders of magnitude more exposure to the idea that the earth is round.
How can you honestly say it’s not fundamental to anything? It’s the reason there are 365 days in a year! It’s the basis for changing seasons! Eclipses! It illustrates concepts of gravity!
Apparently you have not been taking notes. :P My first post in this thread clearly states the following:
"I tend to assume that everyone knows everything that I know, and that everyone has the same priorities I do. Experience has taught me that this is seldom the case, which leads to enormous quantities of frustration at my end. I’ve put a lot of time, thought, and effort into establishing my list of priorities, so naturally I think they’re the best ones. I find it insulting and offensive when people don’t take it upon themselves to, you know, know shit."
…and after "know shit" I probably could have added “that I expect them to know.”
I’m fine with it. Really. I find it completely reasonable for me to have a low tolerance for shit that annoys me.
Yeah, I made a poor comparison here.
I can’t make the case for willful ignorance. I just think there are things that everyone should know, and this is one of them. I don’t see it as useless trivia at all. Comparing this to learning history dates, for me, is inaccurate. Basic function of the universe trumps War of 1812 in my opinion. I agree with Mike’s post completely.
I have no idea either. I don’t expect others to know what a kernel is, or the use of an XOR gate.
When I was young, I resented snobbery that expected me to know that Carmen is performed in French, or who Rembrant is. As I grew older I understood different people are like, different. You have no right to roll your eyes at women shopping for LV bags when you drool over a new smartphone. Same drilled in behavior to buy and own, just different things.
My personal pet peeve is subject-verb agreement. I wince inside and try not to correct people. Example: “None of you claim responsibility for this incident?” is incorrect.
I was talking to a practicing Catholic and an evangelist (as in they went to Church regularly.) I told them the following joke:
Eve’s running around the Garden of Paradise looking for Adam. He finally finds him crawling out of some bushes, out of breath and flushed. Adam’s puzzled and asks Eve what she’s doing. She replies, “Counting ribs.”
I had to explain the joke. They did not believe me when I told them Eve’s origin in Genesis. OKAY!
P.S. DeepT’s a genius. He just explained how Noah caused 50% of the dinosaurs to go extinct. Someone go write a paper,maybe you’ll get a grant.
Just to be clear, my quotes were from the first Sherlock Holmes story, ‘A Study in Scarlet’. It’s interesting merely because the great Sherlock Holmes doesn’t know that the earth goes around the sun. If you were living in Victorian England, you probably would have heard of Thomas Carlyle.
So that’s what the Shadows over Baker Street story A Study in Emerald was referring to… was that original story about a murdered aristocrat by any chance?
I think it was a murdered American. The Mormon church was tied in there too, but I don’t remember how it went. Mostly I just remember Watson’s description of Holmes and his mysterious ways.
