MattusMaximus
Intellectual Gladiator
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2006
- Messages
- 15,948
Einstein didn't like or understand black holes, that's true. He also didn't accept quantum mechanics even though his own work on the photoelectric effect (for which he was awarded the Nobel) pointed directly to it. He spent the later years of his life searching for a unified theory, and failed. He was wrong about many things.
Exactly. Just like how Isaac Newton was wrong about alchemy and Galileo was wrong about the supposed perfect circular motions of the planets.
He was also the greatest genius in physics that ever lived. That's life - it's not black and white.
The opinions of any individual are totally irrelevant. What matters is the physics, and we understand the physics far better now than Einstein ever did. That's what 90 years of work on a theory will buy you.
I always find it interesting to see how many woos (like robinson and the plasma cosmology goofs) will try to quote Einstein out of context or point to him and state that their views of physics are correct.
It's the same kind of incorrect argument from authority that creationists make when they quote Stephen Gould out of context or try to appeal to old, defunct ideas such as Lamarckism when misrepresenting biological evolution.