Fairy Tales for Adults

Unfortunately, even in this modern 'scientific' world many of the basic things that people have been led to believe are not the least bit credible but are never-the-less widely held to be basic well-understood truth. It is even more unfortunate that they are offered as 'scientific' truth and it is well understood that one cannot argue with basic science. It is the 'Golden Calf' of the present age. While the general situation is pretty bleak, there are reputable scientists who diverge from the mainstream and stick closer to observation than conjecture. An example is the energy source for the Sun. It is commonly held that the Sun's source of energy is nuclear reactions and the detection of the neutrino confirms.it. However if the Sun was being powered by nuclear reactions it would be steadily getting brighter and hotter. However observation and measurement indicate that it is getting dimmer and cooler instead. Of course, if one is to stick with mainstream thinking this must be instantly dismissed as an anomaly in the overall behavior of the Sun. However these observations agree with the notion that the Sun is powered by gravitational collapse. This clearly couldn't be possible because everyone understands that the solar system has been here for billions of years, not just thousands. Misconceptions can easily lead to more misconceptions and if they reinforce one another the matter is settled!Now that we have the Atomic Clock time can be measured very accurately and it is clear that the spin rate of the Earth is decreasing - at a very rapid and alarming rate. This in turn means that the axial stability of the Earth will be short-lived and could not have been in existence very long either. This is very upsetting. However like a warming Earth, sooner or later reality must be faced. Fairytales for adults deals with eight ideas. Four of them are valid and four are not. It is hoped that the discussion will help people clarify their thinking.