Tom Van Flandern

Even though I get lost whenever I see the words gravitation or graviton, I relate to the words of the late Tom Van Flandern and I recently had the pleasure of meeting his oldest son (virtually)....=)

Here are my favorite quotes (so far) from Dark Matter Missing Planets and New Comets:

"In matters of religion, medicine, biology, physics, and other fields, I came to discover that reality differed seriously from what I had been taught. As a result of this questioning process, I was startled to realize how much of my 'knowledge' was indeed questionable. I was even more startled to discover a few 'extraordinary hypotheses' to be undeniably true, even while almost every reputable expert in those fields continued to deny that possibility." -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993

"It has been my sad observation that by mid-career there are very few professionals left truly working for the advancement of science, as opposed to the advancement of self. And given enough people with strong enough interests, professional peer pressure takes over from there. Peer pressure in science, as elsewhere in society, consists of alternately attacking and ignoring the people who advocate a contrary idea, and discrediting their motives and/or competence, in order to achieve conformity." -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993

"... many fields of knowledge contain widely accepted theories which are incorrect, not merely at the frontiers of knowledge, but in the fundamentals and from first principles." -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993

"... please try to find a way to coexist with those of us who are not satisfied with the answers we now have, and want so much more." -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993

"... there really are problems with the conventional theories which keep getting stranger and stranger." -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993

"If you want to find evidence refuting Big Bang Theory, just point a telescope at the sky!" -- Tom Van Flandern, astronomer, 1993