“It is difficult to falsify the hypothesis of dark matter, because, as with Ptolemy's epicycles, true believers can always add additional arbitrary features and free parameters to overcome any conceivable difficulties that occur with the dark matter models.”

Source: Reinventing Gravity (2008), Chapter 10, Modified Gravity (MOG), p. 163-164

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John Moffat22

British-Canadian physicist 1932

Stacy McGaugh (1964) American astronomer

[Stacy McGaugh, http://astroweb.case.edu/ssm/mond/burn1.html, Why "Consider MOND?"] at astroweb.case.edu. Accessed 2014.

“If economic reality is actually so complex that it can only be described by complicated mathematical models that add epicycles to epicycles and externalities to externalities, then the reality should be simplified.”

Herman E. Daly (1938) American economist

Source: Steady-State Economics, 1977, p. 4

“The existence of exotic dark matter particles outside the standard model of particle physics constitutes a central hypothesis of the current standard model of cosmology (SMoC). Using a wide range of observational data I outline why this hypothesis cannot be correct for the real Universe.”

Pavel Kroupa (1963) Australian astrophysicist

[Pavel Kroupa, 2014, Lessons from the Local Group (and beyond) on dark matter, arXiv.org, http://arxiv.org/abs/1409.6302]

“It is important for people to know that no matter what lies in their past, they can overcome the dark side and press on to a brighter world.”

Dave Pelzer (1960) American author

Source: A Child Called "It"

“A good laugh overcomes more difficulties and dissipates more dark clouds than any other one thing.”

Laura Ingalls Wilder (1867–1957) American children's writer, diarist, and journalist

“Have the climate models been successful in predicting anything? They, of course, predict substantial global warming. This is not surprising given the expressed belief of some of the model builders in the global warming hypothesis and the many parameters in the model that need to be introduced. However, the models also predict unambiguously that the atmosphere is warming faster than the surface of the earth; but all the available observational data unambiguously shows the opposite! Truth in science is always determined from observational facts. One finds the truth by making a hypothesis and comparing observations with the hypothesis. It is absolutely essential that one should be neutral and not fall in love with the hypothesis. If the facts are contrary to any predictions, then the hypothesis is wrong no matter how appealing. "Truth by Assertion" is not science.”

David Douglass

http://www.gravett.org/bizarrescience/archives/003967.html
Letter to the Wall Street Journal

“The existence of dark matter particles can never be disproven by direct experiment because ever lighter particles and/or ever smaller cross sections just below the current detection threshold may be postulated for every non-detection. There exists no falsifiable prediction concerning the DM particles.”

Pavel Kroupa (1963) Australian astrophysicist

[Pavel Kroupa, 2012, The dark matter crisis: falsification of the current standard model of cosmology, page 28, arXiv.org, http://arxiv.org/abs/1204.2546]

“In estimating the amount of dark matter, cosmologists developing the standard model have to make some rather strong assumptions about their observations.”

John Moffat book Reinventing Gravity

Source: Reinventing Gravity (2008), Chapter 7, New Cosmological Data, p. 120

“Today, like the elusive planet Vulcan in the nineteenth century, dark matter is accepted by the majority of astronomers and physicists as actually existing. Dark matter, although it has never been seen, is part of the generally accepted standard model of physics and cosmology, which also includes the big bang beginning of the universe.”

John Moffat book Reinventing Gravity

Source: Reinventing Gravity (2008), Chapter 4, Dark Matter, p. 69

“No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“It is difficult to falsify the hypothesis of dark matter, because, as with Ptolemy's epicycles, true believers can always add additional arbitrary features and free parameters to overcome any conceivable difficulties that occur with the dark matter models.”

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John Moffat22

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