shubla wrote:It's how tobacco companies were able to deny the probability of cancer for so many years.
One could argue that these days the process of doing science/statistics etc. is way more rigid and refined than it was 100's of years ago so you cannot compare these two.
Hundreds? More like a couple decades. (The major US tobacco companies were still denying the health risks of tobacco right up to the point they lost a civil suit in US courts in the 1990s.) And if anything, education has only declined if what one reads off of Facebook, reddit, etc the last few years is any indication. (It isn't, but it sure shows the general difference between those who've gone and gotten advanced degrees and those who merely have "basic education." The recent trend of 'yellow journalism' to sell news hasn't helped, either.)
The only real difference between the scientific processes of today vs the days of Newton (and the general Renaissance) vs Classic Greek is the base of knowledge and the technology to further delve into how things work.