it is entirely inappropriate to criticize them for that
Chas V’shalom! I’m just saying that they also used better methods than that.
From R’ Aharon Feldman:
Leshem Shevo Ve-achlama writes:
The main thing is: everyone who is called a Jew is obligated to
believe with complete faith that everything found in the words of the Sages whether in halachos or agados of the Talmud or in the
[the Sage] [that he knew this because]
Again, I’m not saying someone who doesn’t holds like this is a kofer; there were some minority opinions who held that Chazal’s science was only based on the current available information (although that doesn’t explain how Chaza’l knew scientific information which wasn’t known to scientists until hundreds of years later).
But there’s no reason for me to accept that minority view.