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To: Havoc
What assumptions are you referring to?

All I did was suggest that a bit of calculus could determine initial heat conditions given the speculation that the speed of light was faster in the past and has been slowing down. Are you suggesting that we can not make those calculations?

It was a simple 'what if' exercise to show the mathematically derived consequences of using those creationist speculations. As far as I can tell, the only 'assumptions' I've used were contributions from creationists.

If you see other assumptions there could you point them out?

I do understand that you are trying to convey the idea that it is impossible to 'know' what occurred in the past, to know initial conditions at the time of 'creation' and thus can not be sure which conclusion is correct. In this view, creationism and the current Cosmological ideas of the start of the universe are equally likely.

In that case, if we can not 'know' the past, why bother with the scientific investigation of the past at all?

The answer is of course that what happened in the past can affect the present, and can help us predict what may happen in the future. If those predictions are born out, then the probability that those assumptions we made about the past are correct increases. Even if the probability never reaches 1, the closer we get to 1 the better equipped we are to predict the future. Science is about making errors, correcting them and then trying again. In this way our knowledge of the past becomes more and more accurate over time.
2,059 posted on 12/22/2005 7:44:11 AM PST by b_sharp (Science adjusts theories to fit evidence, creationism distorts evidence to fit the Bible.)
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To: b_sharp
In that case, if we can not 'know' the past, why bother with the scientific investigation of the past at all?

Good question if a little sarcastic. See, not knowing whether you're being sarcastic or not, all I can do is try to infer that by assumption. Your track record would suggest you are - which gives me more to go on than you have for your postulations about the beginnings of earth. What's so wrong about not knowing. What's so wrong with admitting you don't know. Investigating the past isn't a crime. Nor is it necessarily foolish. But when you don't know or can't know something is so, it is better to say so than to make stuff up. Truth is always preferred over the lie in my book. In the book of others, that is not the case - agendas seem to get in the way sometimes..

2,062 posted on 12/23/2005 6:34:42 PM PST by Havoc (President George and King George.. coincidence?)
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