Table of Contents
Charlatan
Dictionary definition
A person falsely claiming to have a special knowledge or skill; a fraud. “A self-confessed con artist and charlatan.”
Origin:
Italian: ciarlare: to babble —> ciarlatano —> French: charlatan (early 17th century)
Early 17th century (denoting an itinerant seller of supposed remedies): from French, from Italian ciarlatanı, from ciarlare ‘to babble’
- So “charlatan” initially meant what today we would call a “snake oil salesman.” And this is what cosmologists are, high priests of charlatanism selling supposed remedies that answer all your cosmological questions. The only thing is that cosmologists are not itinerant salesmen any more because they do business by using the names of reputable universities.
Charlatanism
- “High priests of charlatanism”
Why are cosmologist high priests of charlatanism
- I’m not using the word charlatan as an insult, no, I’m using it as a technical term.
- Cosmologists are charlatans because they “falsely claim to have a special knowledge or skill.” Don’t they? Yes, they do.
- They claim to know the universe as a whole but they don’t know the universe as a whole and they know that they don’t know the universe as a whole. This is the definition of a charlatan.