Now we know better...

October 18, 2006 9:15 AM

The world isn't flat and pluto isn't a planet. What are some other things that the majority of the population were taught, believed, or were led to believe that we have since found out otherwise?

In another venue there is a great debate raging about opinion and belief. There is a very closed minded individual stating her belief/opinion and that nothing anyone says or does will change her mind.

She went on to say that "you'd be surprised how many people think the way I do." Well, I wouldn't be surprised, actually. My response included the two examples above as well as a WMD and Salem Witch Trial reference. But that got me to thinking about all of the other things in this vein. What are they?

posted by FlamingBore to society & culture (61 comments total)

Let me be the first to say that the Pluto thing doesn't really fall into the same category. It was determined to not be a planet by those involved in the scientific community. And I'd argue that huge parts of religious doctrines espouse theories of things that were later proved to be false (we've been here longer than 6,000 or whatever years).
posted by ninjew at 9:19 AM on October 18, 2006

it took us some time, but we eventually figured out we don't exist in a swimming pool full of aether.

(the pluto-isn't-a-planet thing isn't a discovery, it's just the application of a completely arbitrary line)
posted by soma lkzx at 9:20 AM on October 18, 2006

The Pluto being a planet thing is due to changing definitions, not due to any change in what we consider the facts.

In any case, spontaneous generation used to be considered fact (that in order to create a mouse, one need only put a bit of cheese in a dark corner). People used to believe that the space between the earth and the stars was filled with a kind of aether. The sun revolved around the earth. Everything was made of fire, water, earth and air. And so on.
posted by solid-one-love at 9:22 AM on October 18, 2006

Is this going to turn into another discussion about Richard Dawkins?

Seriously, if you measure over all time, just about everything is wrong. That whole Greek "earth, air, water & fire" elements thing. And basically everything they thought, except for a few mathematical things.

Unless this question hinges on the "majority" part of the equation, in which case most of history is excluded as the bulk of the global population before, say, 1800 (or some point), was completely ignorant and uneducated.

And "wrong" is a little slippery... was Newtonian mechanics "wrong"? I mean, it's "correct enough" if you're not an astronomer.

Anyway, how about the belief that you get a cold from getting physically cold? Seems to be pretty widely held, not really supported by the science.
posted by GuyZero at 9:24 AM on October 18, 2006

People thought that Earth was centre of the solar system/universe for a long time (there had been some proponents of a heliocentric model of the heavens in Ancient Greece and India) but not until Copernicus to eliminate epicycles did the geocentric model gain any wide acceptance.
posted by KevCed at 9:25 AM on October 18, 2006

We used to think ulcers were caused by stress. They're actually caused by viruses and infections and such.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 9:26 AM on October 18, 2006

God(s) created the Earth and/or people.
Earth is at the centre of the Universe.
Women aren't suitable for education.
Kings/rulers are annointed divinely.
posted by biffa at 9:26 AM on October 18, 2006

Humours.
Classical elements.
posted by solotoro at 9:27 AM on October 18, 2006

The Earth was created 6000 years ago. Man is a special creation. Jewish rituals require the blood of Christian children. Blacks are a genetically inferior race. Homosexuality is a choice. Physics is deterministic. The Donation of Constantine. The four humours. Phlogiston. Spontaneous generation of pests. Possession by demons a cause of seizure, illness. Women don't contribute to their children's genetic makeup. A worldwide flood. Troy was a myth, not a real city. Outer space is made up of "ether". Alchemy. Venereal disease can be cured by sex with a virgin. Cartesian dualism. Katyn Forrest was a German atrocity. Atlantis.
posted by orthogonality at 9:28 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

There's the rest of Aristotle's Physics, including the part about how heavier things fall more quickly, and the fact that it doesn't account for inertia....
posted by graymouser at 9:29 AM on October 18, 2006

Infectious disease is caused by bad air or evil vapor, or a supernatural source.
Tomatos are a vegetable.
posted by luftmensch at 9:30 AM on October 18, 2006

Jesus is god, Allah is a god, Jehovah is a god etc etc etc.

OK, it hasn't been proven/disproven... but just you wait and see.

Africans were sub-human so it was ok to enslave them.

the black death was caused by Jews

The earth is the centre of the universe

Smoking is good for you
posted by twistedonion at 9:32 AM on October 18, 2006

Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong and Lies Across America: What Our Historic Sites Get Wrong by James W. Loewen.
posted by ericb at 9:35 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

There's the whole splitting the atom thing. We used to "know" that the atom was the tiniest thing known to man, and then, wouldn't you know it..."they" split that thing apart, and all this crap came out. (Wow! That was mighty scientific of me.)
posted by AlliKat75 at 9:51 AM on October 18, 2006

Stomach ulcers are incurable. If you travel over 60 mph, all the air will be sucked out of your body and you will die. If a woman doesn't wear a corset, her internal organs will collapse (this was widely disseminated, at least by corset-makers, but especially rich considering how much of human history had passed before the invention of the corset). AIDS is a gay disease. You shouldn't watch TV without the light on (a myth started by lamp salesmen). Mercury always shows the same side to the sun (disproven in the 1960s, I think). The only reason the Earth doesn't have a runaway greenhouse effect like Venus is because the Moon strips away the excess atmosphere (disproven in the 1970s, I think). Mars has canals (an illusion resulting from limited optics in earlier telescopes).
posted by adamrice at 9:52 AM on October 18, 2006

Many people still don't understand that the moon's movement across the sky is caused by the earth's rotation. The actual movement of the moon is in the opposite direction, causing it to rise about fifty minutes later every day. When you look at the setting sun just as it is touching the horizon, not only is it not "setting" (the earth is rotating), but it isn't there. It's below the horizon. You're seeing the light that originated in the sun eight minutes ago. Similarly, when you look at the stars, they are not where you see them. A star that is a thousand light years away may have blown up five hundred years ago, but we won't know that for another five hundred years. Other stars might be forming, but their light has not yet reached us, so we see nothing.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 9:53 AM on October 18, 2006

Rusty nails cause teatnus (or just: getting cut by rusty metal gives you teatnus).
posted by Four Flavors at 9:53 AM on October 18, 2006

Women don't enjoy sex, only freaks masturbates, as well as the rest the misconceptions corrected by The Kinsey Report.

And Newtonian physics.
posted by gmarceau at 9:55 AM on October 18, 2006

Asimov has a wonderful short essay entitled The Relativity of Wrong on this topic. He argues that a lot of these types of things weren't really "wrong," just that we now have a more accurate understanding. Basically, according to Asimov, right and wrong are not absolute terms in science, they are relative, and for the record, the earth isn't really a sphere either.

Science advances by seeking to become "more right," not by dwelling on the fact that previous theories were "wrong."
posted by zachlipton at 9:56 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

1) While I'm so tempted to say "God," let's stick to what he's actually asking here. I think he's searching for past claims which were agreed upon by the scientific community. So, geocentrism, for example.

How about Alchemy--turning lead into gold? Something that was just accepted for quite some time.

2) Seriously, if you measure over all time, just about everything is wrong.

Mmm...no.
posted by Lockeownzj00 at 10:01 AM on October 18, 2006

Any number of nutritional issues fit this bill. Less than 20 years ago health advocacy groups campaigned for a switch from "unhealthy" saturated fats to "healthy" trans-fats. Oops.
posted by w_boodle at 10:01 AM on October 18, 2006

Bush won in 2000 and 2004.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 10:03 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Eggs are good for you.
Eggs are bad for you.
Eggs are good for you.
posted by Bookhouse at 10:05 AM on October 18, 2006

Tomatos are a vegetable.

Nope, I'll have to fight you on that one. That's a question of definition--like Pluto being a planet or not--rather than a question of fact.

Botanists consider the tomato a fruit. Chefs do not. This is not a contradiction, but merely due to the fact that botanists and chefs do not define "fruit" in the same way.

The botanist observes that the tomato is the enlarged ovary of a fertilized plant, it has seeds, etc., and concludes that, according to his definition of "fruit," the tomato is a fruit.

The chef observes that the tomato is primarily used in savory dishes, not sweet ones, and thus the tomato is not a fruit, according to his definition; it is a vegetable.

Both are correct. It's a question of definition, not a question of mistaken belief on the part of one or the other.

But what about calling the tomato a vegetable? Merely by using the term "vegetable," you've already declared that you're in the culinary realm, not the botanical one! Botanists, AFAIK, do not use the term "vegetable" to describe anything.

So yes, tomatoes are a vegetable.
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:12 AM on October 18, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Phlogiston, bitches!
posted by danb at 10:16 AM on October 18, 2006

The one thing that creationists and evolution faithfuls can agree on, that Lamarkism is bad science.
posted by Gucky at 10:19 AM on October 18, 2006

I don't know if the majority ever believed this, but how about the most common and often repeated urban myths? Things like the idea that we only use 10% of our brain, or that the Great Wall of China is the only man-made object visible from space.

In your particular situation, if you want to quote logical fallacies at them (I wouldn't suggest it, as it's a bit prattish to do so), what this person seems to be doing is termed an Argumentum ad populum.
posted by Paragon at 10:22 AM on October 18, 2006

How about Alchemy--turning lead into gold? Something that was just accepted for quite some time.

no, something that was believed to be possible, based on the assumption that all matter is ultimately the same "stuff" in different arrangements, which we now still take to be the case - and we finally did produce gold atoms from other elements in the 20th century. of course it takes so much energy to do, and we don't value gold inherently anymore, so it's not useful, but it is possible.

also, no scientific mind that I know of ever made a case for a flat earth. It was vaguely believed by people who didn't think about it, but the greeks had earth as an immovable sphere at the center of the cosmos, and any sailor knew the horizon curved.

and as above, our knowledge about pluto didn't change, just our choice of classification.

I'd agree with that asimov essay above - most of the stuff that we look back on and think was "wrong" was not as wrong as you think. "aether", for instance, is in a way making something of a comeback in that "space-time" is not considered a void so much as a potentiality. The real difference is that space-time on earth and in the heavens is the same, but the idea that there is no void fits pretty well with modern physics.

I would say the biggest alteration is probably an awareness of how little of the universe we make up, in space and in time. However, there have always been arguments that the universe is infinite in both space and time, so again that's not really true. But usually it was either argued to be infinite or like 10,000 years, but not 15 billion years, which makes it contained but way beyond our comprehension. Still, the notion that the earth, with all its life and movement, is a teensy portion of a vast and seemingly largely empty universe is far more widely understood than times past, in large part due to our ability to actually physically see further into space.
posted by mdn at 10:27 AM on October 18, 2006

Left-handedness is not evil.

Masturbation will not cause your palms to become furry.

Sickness is not caused by demonic possession or an imbalance of humors.
posted by luriete at 10:28 AM on October 18, 2006

Santa Claus exists.
posted by rjt at 10:46 AM on October 18, 2006

Flapping a Polaroid picture back and forth does not actually help it develop faster or better, despite popular belief.
posted by bondcliff at 10:48 AM on October 18, 2006

Kiveris Vein: "Since the breasts and the uterus were created to perform the same function, they have common arteries and veins."
posted by kittydelsol at 10:53 AM on October 18, 2006

Lately you mean?

There's the classic Newton > Einstein > Quantum physics change.

The causes of many ailments have been shown to be wrong. Yet there are still many people who still believe cold weather causes colds or that spicy foods cause ulcers (they might, but most ulcers are a viral infection.) Yet, there is research showign us that cold weather may affect someone so that a virus latent in their body can infect them. Same with stress. So its not as cut and dried as you might think. Also its easy to read careless studies about "x is caused by genetics" but difficult to weigh the study and hear from its critics. Many things we assume to be 'genetic determism' today may only be partly genetic.

Thanks to the internet many urban legends and conspiracy theories are pretty much dead in the water. I think this is culturally significant in many important ways. Holocaust deniers, moon landing hoaxers, and 9/11 conspiracies would be a lot more prevelant without the net.

Also, im skeptical about the assumption of the flat earth. Learned peoples from almost every cultrue have been saying the opposite for 1,000+ years. (this brings up another question. are you asking what the most ignorant people believed or what the educated believe?)

Pluto's planetary status isnt some grand discovery. Its just a reclassification of something of an arbitrary system.

There are a lot of semi-recent discoveries in astronomy that I think are worth mentioning. In less than 100 years we've gone from a simple understanding of the skies to a complex and testable cosmology. The big bang and the expanding universe/hubble's constant were/are controversial things.

On a smaller scale (ignoring religion and politics) there's some interesting things like how hypnosis and lie detectors have been found to be next to useless in finding the truth, yet there is no shortage of people who would consider "putting someone on a lie detector" better than a trial.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:53 AM on October 18, 2006

1. Women do not get strangled by their wombs, requiring "servicing" by male doctors.

2. All peoples, barbarians included, are, in fact, human and logical.
posted by mammary16 at 10:56 AM on October 18, 2006

Didn't Einstein sort of put Earth back into the center of the universe?
posted by one_bean at 10:59 AM on October 18, 2006

The flat Earth thing is itself a popular myth. They laughed at Christopher Columbus because he thought Asia was as close to Spain as America is, and he was indeed wrong.

Goldfish memories and cigarettes.
posted by cillit bang at 11:11 AM on October 18, 2006

there are still many people who still believe...that spicy foods cause ulcers (they might, but most ulcers are a viral infection.)

A bacterium, actually.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:18 AM on October 18, 2006

That Columbus discovered the Americas (they were "discovered" on at least three separate occasions by indigenous Americans (ca. 14,000, 12,000 and 8,000 years ago), as well as 1200 years ago by Polynesians and 1000 years ago by the Norse; in all likelihood also independently discovered around 1500 by Iberian peninsula fishermen). Nonetheless I think people are still being taught that Columbus was first.

Also, did people ever really think the Earth was flat? Were they taught that? The Greeks knew it was spherical. I have an inkling of a recall that the "people thought the earth was flat" is just recent hokum.

That Stonehenge was "built by druids" (complete bullshit) and that it is some kind of gigantic 'clock' (slightly adulterated bullshit).
posted by Rumple at 11:20 AM on October 18, 2006

That there is a biologically-sound basis for the concept of "race" in humans.

Most people still believe that, though it is totally untrue.
posted by mikel at 11:46 AM on October 18, 2006

I know a good one: that putting out forest fires (and prairie fires) helps save the environment. We now know that much of the diversity in natural environment we inherited in the plains states was due to constant fires. Plants and animals are well adapted to fires. Without fire, fuel builds up and catastrophes occur.
posted by ontic at 11:51 AM on October 18, 2006

...9/11 conspiracies would be a lot more prevelant without the net.

That's ridiculous. 9/11 conspiracies thrive because of the net. The net allows quicker dissemination of looniness, like it allows quicker dissemination of all information.
posted by I Am Not a Lobster at 11:54 AM on October 18, 2006

Heaven used to be situated above the sky and hell was below the earth.

Where Jesus went to when he ascended into the sky is anyone's guess. I suppose he's floating around in space somewhere.
posted by unixrat at 11:58 AM on October 18, 2006

Lots of stuff. Just watch the Mythbusters a whole lot, you'll find all kinds of things.
posted by drstein at 12:02 PM on October 18, 2006

The vacuum. For the longest time the church didn't like the idea of "nothing" (because god was everywhere, but how could he be somewhere where there was nothing?) It took the invention of the barometer (and its reservoir of vacuum) to change this. (Although with quantum physics I suppose you could say that the vacuum is really full of virtual particles which blink in and out of existence.)

Continental drift wasn't accepted until well into the 20th century.

Speaking of the earth - there has always been pressure from religious types to see the earth as static, unchanging. Thus concepts like the old earth, sun-centered solar system, continental drift, global warming (climate change), etc have been at various times challenged by the church or religious types.

Contrary to popular belief most people in the past knew that the earth was a sphere - although there was much speculation over it's size and shape. (Hint: you can see the part of earth's circular shadow cast on the moon most nights.)

For the most part such "wrong knowledge" is perfectly fine. I mean how many of us are really impacted on a daily basis by the fact that the earth is billions rather than thousands of years old?

It's when "wrong knowledge" is used for political gain that it becomes dangerous. The early church would have been a much more benign institution in the middle ages had it not insisted on such a ridged and short sighted view of an unchanging world.

One thing is clear though: What you know changes who you are. Our direct ancestors living just a few centuries ago would have happily burned most of us at the stake for expounding such hypocrisies as the old earth or heliocentric model. They might as well be hostile extraterrestrials in so far as knowledge goes...
posted by wfrgms at 12:20 PM on October 18, 2006

I was super-bummed when I learned that the whole Coriolis effect-drainwater-directionality thing was a crock.
posted by Skot at 12:23 PM on October 18, 2006

Rumple writes "Also, did people ever really think the Earth was flat? Were they taught that? The Greeks knew it was spherical. I have an inkling of a recall that the 'people thought the earth was flat' is just recent hokum."

I think you could probably find it as a common folk belief and an element of some primitive cosmologies, but, yeah, the fact that the Earth is spherical was known to the ancient Greeks, and certainly no educated European in Colombus' time thought that it could possibly be flat.
posted by mr_roboto at 12:28 PM on October 18, 2006

There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.

posted by kirkaracha at 12:33 PM on October 18, 2006

Creationism.
posted by The Michael The at 12:54 PM on October 18, 2006

Skot - I think it's important to clarify your statement about the Coriolis effect. From Wikipedia:

In reality, the Coriolis effect is a few orders of magnitude smaller than other random influences on drain direction, such as the geometry of the sink, toilet, or tub; whether it is flat or tilted; and the direction in which water was initially added to it. Note that toilets typically are designed to only flush in one rotation, by having the flush water enter at an angle.

It is not a factor in the direction of water flow in a sink or toilet drain, but still a factor in meteorology and ballistics etc.
posted by youngergirl44 at 1:57 PM on October 18, 2006

Lactic acid causes burning and is bad
posted by MetaMonkey at 2:29 PM on October 18, 2006

Huh, no-one posted the wikipedia list of popular misconceptions.

If this sort of thing is your bag, snopes.com and the straight dope are bursting with wacky things people believe.
posted by MetaMonkey at 2:42 PM on October 18, 2006

Brains don't grow any new brain cells. (First it was found that songbirds do grow new neurons. Then it was discovered in mammals. Then in primates. And finally in humans. And the biological research community attacked the new idea the entire time, while a few brave reseachers fought back, and won.)
posted by billb at 3:48 PM on October 18, 2006

Miasmas (bad smells) cause disease.
posted by andraste at 4:02 PM on October 18, 2006

(Hint: you can see the part of earth's circular shadow cast on the moon most nights.)

wtf? You have a lunar eclipse most nights where you live?

Phases of the moon are most definitely not caused by shadows of the earth.
posted by Wet Spot at 6:20 PM on October 18, 2006

The brain doesn't grow new neurons.
posted by rleamon at 6:41 PM on October 18, 2006

Trust your president.
posted by rleamon at 6:43 PM on October 18, 2006

Masturbation is evil.
posted by rleamon at 6:44 PM on October 18, 2006

The structure of the atom is one that comes to mind. In middle school I was taught that they looked like a planetary system, with electrons circling around the nucleus in a fixed loop. In high school I was taught the current model.

Eating too many sweets causes acne. Staying exposed to cold weather for too long will give you a cold. Women should be prohibited from high-activity sports, such as the hurdles, for fear of tearing their ovaries. It was once believed that visible birth defects were caused when mothers recieved a large fright from something while pregnant.

The visual appearance of Jesus Christ the historical figure (ie what he would have most likely looked like during the period when he was alive) compared to how he is usually depicted in western cultures would perhaps qualify.
posted by kosher_jenny at 10:40 PM on October 18, 2006

People used to think smoking was good for you - hell, scientists in those days also agreed.
posted by badlydubbedboy at 10:04 AM on October 19, 2006

Phases of the moon are most definitely not caused by shadows of the earth.

Harvard grads disagree.
We don't have to look in the past to find misconceptions about our world.
posted by solotoro at 12:22 PM on October 20, 2006

Whoops! I misremembered my astronomy... of course the phases aren't caused by the shadow of the earth.
posted by wfrgms at 8:03 PM on October 20, 2006