World's Oldest Object

[STSF Laura 0]

Dating systems may not be infalliable, but they do tend to return results in clusters. When test after test puts the age of the earth at a couple billion years, it seems much more likely that the earth IS a couple billion years old and not a couple thousand or a couple trillion, even if occasionally a test returns a much smaller or larger value. It's an Occam's Razor thing.

 

Actually, I have an anecdote about this very thing. Just before Christmas, I covered a 5th grade science class. They were doing properties of matter, and one of the things on their lab was measuring the boiling point of water. Seven out of eight groups got results between 98-102 degrees Celsius. One group recorded 72 degrees. Now, I can choose to assume that their water actually boiled at 72 degrees; I can assume the other seven groups were wrong, in method or equipment; or I can assume that the one group did something wrong, or had faulty equipment.

 

Likewise for the age of the earth. The body of evidence says that it is roughly between 3.8 and 4.8 billion years old. To argue that it's mere thousands of years old or that it's trillions of years old discards a far larger body of evidence than the 4.5 billion commonly accepted does.

[Grom 0]

Dating systems may not be infalliable, but they do tend to return results in clusters. When test after test puts the age of the earth at a couple billion years, it seems much more likely that the earth IS a couple billion years old and not a couple thousand or a couple trillion, even if occasionally a test returns a much smaller or larger value. It's an Occam's Razor thing.

 

Actually, I have an anecdote about this very thing. Just before Christmas, I covered a 5th grade science class. They were doing properties of matter, and one of the things on their lab was measuring the boiling point of water. Seven out of eight groups got results between 98-102 degrees Celsius. One group recorded 72 degrees. Now, I can choose to assume that their water actually boiled at 72 degrees; I can assume the other seven groups were wrong, in method or equipment; or I can assume that the one group did something wrong, or had faulty equipment.

 

Likewise for the age of the earth. The body of evidence says that it is roughly between 3.8 and 4.8 billion years old. To argue that it's mere thousands of years old or that it's trillions of years old discards a far larger body of evidence than the 4.5 billion commonly accepted does.

::chuckle:: Ok, I'm sorry I'm not getting my point across, that's probably my fault. I shall simply say that I believe that we should, as rational beings, not be so quick to latch onto a science that cannot be proved. Science is just as fallible as anything else where there are humans involved in the input. B) Does this mean that we stop trying to discover more about the unified nature of the universe? Certainly not. What it does mean, however, is that we ought to treat the scientific community under the same level of scrutiny as politicians, religious leaders, etc.

[STSF Laura 0]

What it does mean, however, is that we ought to treat the scientific community under the same level of scrutiny as politicians, religious leaders, etc.

Do we not, though? The standards by which scientific results/discoveries are judged are well-founded, and certainly far more stringent and less subjective than the standards to which we hold politicians and religious leaders.

[Nemesis 0]

Grom, the one constant in life is that nothing can be "proved" heck this very statement can not be "proved". Which is why I say the ultimate wisdom is the acceptence that knowledge is irrelevant.

[LoAmi 0]

I think this post just summarized 1000 years of philosophy in one day.

[STSF Laura 0]

I think this post just summarized 1000 years of philosophy in one day.

Fun, innit? B)

[Grom 0]

I think this post just summarized 1000 years of philosophy in one day.

LOL...agreed. B)

 

Though, I don't agree that knowledge is unobtainable. :P

[Nemesis 0]

LOL...agreed. B)

 

Though, I don't agree that knowledge is unobtainable. :P

Not unobtainable but irrevelent, for we we never know that what we know is actual facts. Like I could say we're all pure energy and this world is nothing more then our collective conciousness, that would throw out basically all of our laws of physics and basically everything we thought we knew. The best part about that theory I can neither prove nor disprove it.

[Captain Huff 0]

If I dropped a group of amnesiac empiricists on a desert island, they would probably start with the same set of assumptions as the ancients, and probably make the same sets of mistakes as the ancients on their way to a better view of the universe, aside from the other historical influences that tried to maintain the status quo in the name of maintaining their own power.

No, they'd figure out how to roast coffee. :D Well, if they didn't die from roasting and eating every other noxious weed and berry on the planet first... Oh, wait, what's an "amnesiac empiricist"? (haha, just kidding, please don't launch into an explaination, lol).

[Nicolas Lepage 0]

By 500 yrs ago, educated people knew that the earth was round. The ancient Greeks figured it out. :-) That said, for an ancient, the idea of a flat earth wasn't a bad assumption. (Granted, that the ancients did not know about empirical science.) For that matter, neither was geocentrism. They fit everything the ancients saw on a day-to-day basis about the world. If I dropped a group of amnesiac empiricists on a desert island, they would probably start with the same set of assumptions as the ancients, and probably make the same sets of mistakes as the ancients on their way to a better view of the universe, aside from the other historical influences that tried to maintain the status quo in the name of maintaining their own power.

My point simply was that we should always question what we think we know. Not to the point that we do not believe anything science found out but in a way that what we know today might just be the beginning of understanding the truth.

[Saek tr'Vosh 0]

The reality is, dating rocks is why I found this article so...interesting.

B)

 

Um..Grommie..au gotta get out more man...the right girl is out there..au'll see B)

 

:P

[Darrik 0]

what about Marvin? he's atleast 37 times older then the universe.

 

 

17 days until the Earth comes to an end.