Anyone with eyes can tell that there’s at least one rock in the sky: the MOON. And they’ve seen shooting stars. I’m sure both Lavoisier and Jefferson were aware of Newton’s explanation of planetary motion as a continuation of earthly laws, and of Galileo’s observations of the moons of Jupiter. There are legends of rocks that fell from the sky (e.g. Excalibur was said to have been forged from meteoric iron)
With all of this, it’s a bit of a mystery to me how it could be a stretch to suppose that some rocks do fall from the sky.
All this is of course aside from your general question, but really.
Anyone with eyes can tell that there’s at least one rock in the sky: the MOON. And they’ve seen shooting stars. I’m sure both Lavoisier and Jefferson were aware of Newton’s explanation of planetary motion as a continuation of earthly laws, and of Galileo’s observations of the moons of Jupiter. There are legends of rocks that fell from the sky (e.g. Excalibur was said to have been forged from meteoric iron)
With all of this, it’s a bit of a mystery to me how it could be a stretch to suppose that some rocks do fall from the sky.
All this is of course aside from your general question, but really.
An interesting question is what ideas are we discounting today in an equally irrational manner.
Bingo. That’s roughly what I was going to say.
It’s a lot easier to be smart after the facts are in.