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This happens age after age. In the early 1800s geologists met with violent condemnation because they differed with the Genesis account of creation. Later in the same century, geology was safe, but theories of evolution were condemned and the teaching of them forbidden. This most likely continues. "At every crossway on the road that leads to the future, each progressive spirit is opposed by a thousand men appointed to guard the past. "Every age has one or more groups of intellectual rebels who are persecuted, condemned, or suppressed at the time;but to a later age, they seem harmless and often essential to the elevation of human conditions.
這種事情一個時代接著一個時代發生。19世紀初，地質學家們因同《創世紀》有關創世的敘述相左而遭到強烈譴責。同一世紀的晚些時候，地質學安全了，但關于進化的理論卻遭到譴責，被禁止講授。這種情況很可能會繼續下去。“在通往未來的每一個十字路口，每一個具有進步思想的人都會遭到受命維護過去的千名衛道士的反對。”每個時代都有一批或幾批叛逆的知識分子在當時遭到迫害、譴責或鎮壓，但對后一個時代來說，他們便似乎無害了，而且對于改善人類的狀況往往還是必不可少的。
The enormous success of science has led to the general belief that scientists have developedand ate employing a "method" --- a method that is extremely effective in gaining, organizing,and applying new knowledge. Galileo, famous scientist of the 1600s, is usually credited withbeing the "Father of the Scientific Method." His method is essentially as follows:
科學的巨大成功導致人們普遍產生了這樣一種信念，即科學家們已經制定出并正在運用著一種“方法”——一種在獲取、組織和運用新知識方面極為有效的方法。17世紀的著名科學家伽利略通常被認為是“科學方法之父”。他的方法主要如下：
1. Recognize a problem.
1. 確認一個問題
2. Guess an answer.
2. 猜測一個答案
3. Predict the consequences of the guess.
3. 預言這一猜測的后果
4. Perform experiments to test predictions.
4. 做實驗以檢驗這些預言
5. Formulate the simplest theory organizes the three main ingredients: guess, prediction, experimental outcome.
5. 用公式表述能概括猜測、預言和實驗結果這三大要素的最簡明的理論
