Why do cosmologist always forget to say "we don't know"?

Because the try and think outside the box.

I enjoy listening to lectures on cosmology. Geeky, I know. The scientists I've heard speak are usually right up front about what they don't know. A good example is Dark Energy. I heard a lecture from the scientist heading the team who discovered it. "We don't know" was a phrase used repeatedly throughout his talk - it became kind of a main theme! I used to teach science and I told my students the wisest thing they could say many times is, "I don't know."

Their theories can be a little hard to grasp - especially when working in areas where human intuition and logic fail - but they are self-consistent to an impressive degree. I've heard several times where one scientist's work has been verified by another group using an entirely different approach.

I personally am deeply impressed by just how complex this universe is. I love that. I also love learning about new discoveries. Those discoveries could not happen if people refused to admit they didn't know something!

Perhaps because it's obvious and apparent enough, at least to them that they don't know and that is why they are so busy working on theories and trying to prove them. Repeatedly saying "we don't know" is of course, necessary at times to keep an ego in check when it become too convinced of it's absolute validity. (I can picture a room full of top scientists, around a table arguing about a particular theory, and one scientist raises his voice "But we don't know dammit!" and brings the room to a hushed standstill, the stern voice of realization that there is indeed, much humanity does not know about the origins of life and the cosmos.) Perhaps though in a lecture, it would be too demoralizing for the professor to continuously restate how little we do know, compared to huge, unanswered questions of what we don't know. So that is why we try to be positive and focus on what is known and work from there, slowly building credibility with proof and truisms and experiments that can be performed with the same results repeatedly without fail. I don't think it's the typical case that a cosmologist would try to ignore the fact that they did not know how the universe was formulated, and presume that they did. Presumably, if that were the case, there would be no work for that very silly cosmologist.

EDIT- Um, I don't understand your remark about crossing the street...urm, does that mean I overexplained the details or something? I'm sorry, I just tried to explain my feelings.

They know a lot.

A theory isn't just a guess.

its an EDUCATED prediction based on strong evidence and proof. Just because there mathematical equations don't make sense to you does not mean they're wrong.

At least they are working on the problem, What have you done so far, nothing.

Without these scientists you wouldn't have your computer your TV, we would be cavemen.

So please go play your little x-box and let the big people do there work.

on an answers forum, questions call for answers.... if the only answer given here was "We don't know", there'd be little reason for the forum... and kids wouldn't get ANY information that might tickle their curiosity and have them looking for more.... we have to get the best 'guesses' then, from whoever has the best info... would you like us all to put 'we don't know for sure yet' in the 'source' box at the bottom of every post reply?... duh...

so ,in answer to YOUR question.... "We don't know"......

We know quite a bit, actually. It's apparent that you haven't been paying attention. But your ignorance is your own fault, not ours.

They've probably learned that bad habit from religious authorities.

Cheers!

Like you could do better.

Go read your Bible.

Ahhh, idiots will be idiots.