Shaun Webb wrote in message
news
On Sat, 26 Jul 2003 13:58:53 -0700, greywolf42 wrote:


Patrick Reany wrote in message
om...
Some defamers of Einstein wrongfully charge him with being a nitwit
pretender who stole his work from others. Einstein's own generation of
physicists did not believe that. How is this contradiction to be
resolved? Simple. The defamers are liars.

Below is a testimony from Louis de Broglie about Einstein's huge
contributions to physics in all the areas he made contributions, found
in

A GENERAL SURVEY OF THE SCIENTIFIC WORK OF ALBERT EINSTEIN, p109--127,
Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist, Vol 1.

--- p.109 ---

For any educated man, whether or not a professional scientist, the name
of Albert Einstein calls to mind the intellectual effort and GENIUS
which overturned the most traditional notions of physics and culminated
in the establishment of the relativity of the notions of space and
time, the inertia of energy, and an interpretation of gravitational
forces which is in some sort purely geometrical. Therein lies a
magnificent achievement comparable to the greatest that may be found in
the history of the sciences; comparable, for example, to the
achievements of Newton. This alone would have sufficed to assure its
author imperishable fame. But, great as it was, this achievement must
not cause us to forget that Albert Einstein also rendered decisive
contributions to other important advances in contemporary physics. Even
if we were to overlook his no less remarkable work on the Brownian
movement, statistical thermodynamics, and equilibrium fluctuations, we
could not fail to take note of the tremendous import of his research
upon a developing quantum theory and, in particular, his conception of
"light quanta" which, reintroducing the corpuscular notion into optics,
was to send physicists in search of some kind of synthesis of Fresnel's
wave theory of light and the old corpuscular theory. The latter, after
having been held by such men as Newton, was, as we know, destined for
oblivion. Thus, Einstein became the source of an entire movement of
ideas which, as wave mechanics and quantum mechanics, was to cast so
disturbing a light upon atomic phenomena twenty years later.

[emphasis mine]


Patrick. Please don't waste everyone's time with appeals to authority.

Another classic relativist "invisible snipper."

My word, you really are that stupid?

The classic relativist ad hominem insult.

He's not appealing to authority to demonstrate the truth of the claim
"Einstein is a genius", or "Everything Einstein says is right."

But that is the essence of the quote, above. "Einstein is a genius"
(magnificent, greatest, imperishable fame, great, remarkable, tremendous).
A brief mention of Newton for the original corpuscular light theory. No
mention of all the others that preceded Einstein in the fields mentioned.

He is pointing to primary irrefutable documents to demonstrate the truth
of the claim "Einstein's contempories acknowledged that his work was
original."

There is no mention in the above quote about Einstein's "originality" -- or
rather any evidence against the "charge" of Einstein plagiarizing other's
work.

And the quote contains no data whatsoever. It is pure proof-by-assertion.
And Patrick's use of same is pure appeal-to-authority. Also non-sequiteur,
because it doesn't address his point.

Don't get me wrong, I think Einstein was a smart guy. But the fawning
worship of you and Patrick's kind make my gorge buoyant.

greywolf42
ubi dubium ibi libertas