"Jeff" wrote in message
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* KLC Lewis wrote, On 4/4/2007 7:10 PM:
"Jeff" wrote in message
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When I was a wee little lass in Elementary school, yea, even when I was
older and graduated from High School, the "concensus view" was that there
was, once upon a time, a critter called a "Brontosaurus," who lived in
marshes and dragged his tail. It was also the concensus view that this
critter, and those like him, died out because they "got too big."

No. That's a cute story, but fantasy. Although there were much
speculation as to what might have caused the extinctions, there was
certainly no consensus on the topic. To quote the Encyclopedia Britannica
from 1973:

"What caused this sudden extinction? The answer is not at all clear.
Temperature changes, epidemics, eating of dinosaur eggs by early mammals,
have all been suggested but are far from satisfactory."

Perhaps in your school system the teachers made up fairy tales; that could
explain a lot.

The Denver Public School System, in the 60's, was rated very highly. And
regardless what the Encyclopedia Britannica would say in the next decade,
the story I related was accurate.



The "concensus view" in science changes almost faster than peer-reviewed
papers can be published. I see no reason to believe that the concensus
view regarding Global Climate Change will be carved in stone any time
soon.

I don't disagree, but it doesn't change the fact that there is a consensus
view.

And a concensus view does not mean that they are correct. The concensus view
of the medical community some twenty years ago was that ulcers were caused
by stress.