Conflicting theories with same predictions?

[lenny]

If you had not grown up with it, wouldn't you consider the the special properties Einstein assigned to the speed of light both ad hoc and counter-intuitive?
No, I wouldn't.

not even counter-intuitive? do you feel that way about quantum mechanics also?

One of the things I specialize in is giving talks about Special Relativity to popular audiences.

Thanks for noting the potential conflict of interest.

the qualitative derivation of SR, and there's nothing ad hoc about it.
Lorentz even admitted that his theory was ad hoc.

Sorry, i should have been more explicit: i was not claiming that Lorentz's work was not ad hoc., nor did i mean to imply that the mathematical development of SR was somehow particularly ad hoc.

the ad hocary slips in only when making unprincipled claims that SR is a precise description of reality. [where i use precise in the mathematical sense.]