“Stephen Hawking Smoked My Socks” Sparks Controversy in Science World
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) November 21, 2014 -- Why did Stephen Hawking become so famous? What is it that makes Albert Einstein so instantly recognizable? Why have they become icons to rival film stars? South African-born physicist, mathematician, astronomer and author Hilton Ratcliffe seeks out the answers to those questions, and discovers that they have nothing at all to do with science. In "Stephen Hawking Smoked My Socks" (Muse Harbor Publishing, November 21, 2014), launching the same week as the Hawking film, "The Theory of Everything" hit theaters, Ratcliffe puts it plainly:
“It is profoundly important that I state up front what this book is about: The power and influence of belief over data-driven science in creating our opinions, and the eternal, polarising conflict between belief and instinct in the development of our mindset. This book is not about my scientific theories, nor does it promote my personal models of the Universe. Please bear in mind that I am not proposing an alternative model of anything; I am merely tendering a method that favours objectivity in the development of all theories and philosophies, whatever they might be.”
In the prologue to "Stephen Hawking Smoked My Socks", Ratcliffe says, “The aim of this discourse is not to prove either of us right and the other wrong, but for us both to find an accurate and realistic way of looking at the world. I contend that everyone, without exception, is powerfully affected by personal belief, so I suppose I have at last produced a book that is relevant to 7 billion people!”
Against the backdrop of his own worldview as a philosophical astrophysicist, Hilton Ratcliffe:
-Examines Dr. Hawking’s career and what he achieved;
-Describes the empirical scientific method, exposing its inherent weaknesses and how untested theory-stacks lead to the so-called standard models;
-Investigates the nature of belief and the influence of dogma;
-Illuminates the synergy between scepticism and pragmatism;
-Drills down into defensive social groups, including sects, gangs, cults, conspiracy theorists, and the scientific elite;
-Reveals the territorial imperative as a fundamental instinctual driver of human behaviour;
-Offers a solution to all these dilemmas—an investigative method called scientific pragmatism.
"Stephen Hawking Smoked My Socks" is available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes and museharbor.com.
On the issue of recent theories on black holes, Ratcliffe believes this video, "Einstein Said There are No Black Holes" by Chief Scientist, Focus Fusion Research, LPPhysics.com, Eric Lerner, addresses the issue best.
Dr. Cliff Saunders, Cybernetician, says, “South Africa’s very own Dr. Hilton Ratcliffe shows, in this remarkably entertaining book about the physics of reality, the inevitable and tragic hubris of Prof. Stephen Hawking and most of all, he shows me my very own place in this Universe, this folly we call home.”
South African-born astrophysicist Hilton Ratcliffe has garnered respect amongst the global scientific community for his classical approach to space science: His belief system is based upon observation rather than esoteric theory, a reversal of the standard approach to cosmology. The author first exposed the suffocating control exercised by an entrenched scientific orthodoxy of which he was once part. He opposes the stranglehold that Big Bang theory has on astronomical research and funding, and to this end became a founding member of the Alternative Cosmology Group (an association of some 700 leading scientists from all corners of the globe).
Based in Santa Barbara, CA, Muse Harbor Publishing was founded in 2011 as "writers helping writers, in service to our readers."
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Margaux Hession, Muse Harbor Publishing, http://www.Museharbor.com, +1 (805) 452-0902, [email protected]
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