Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
or up, for that matter
Interesting conversation.....
- Thread starter Andy_R
- Start date
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.
jonny jeez
Legendary Member
- Location
- Chislehurst, Kent, UK
the answer that you need is
"good question- I'll give you one week to come back to me and explain how. If you succeed in explaining it to me in a convincing way, I'll give you a fiver too"
Fnaar
Smutmaster General
- Location
- Thumberland
A forest in China
Profpointy
Legendary Member
...and maybe tickets to Stokholm to meet the King of Sweden
Tin Pot
Guru
I think you'll find they are expressing a theory. When evidence is presented to the contrary, they will adjust their worldview - such is science.
mybike
Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
- Location
- Not 'emel 'empstead
No, a theory is backed by observation. The evidence may be interpreted a number of ways, hence it is their belief.
Tin Pot
Guru
I had a similar conversation a few years ago with my kids, quite a bit younger than yours - the important thing is not to shut him up at all, but have him continually questioning.
(And if he can't get the answers from Dad, let him know where he can find out more and teach Dad about it afterwards.
)Roughly what I said to them is, we don't know if the universe is infinite or not. If There were an end, what would be on the other side? Would we keep going and come back to Earth?
Only twelve people have ever stood on the moon out of 7 Billion people alive on Earth today, no one has even been to Mars. The ideas we make here, could turn out to be true or not - what do you think?
Lots of people on this thread have posted their Dads various "shut up" responses. Those responses are the reason we don't have better answers today.
Tin Pot
Guru
You are confusing the issue - we could argue the semantics and both be right, however an expanding universe is a scientific theory.
End.
mybike
Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
- Location
- Not 'emel 'empstead
No, it is a belief, just as Evolution is. Science works in the here and now, not in the past nor far away. That some speculate does not make them scientists.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
I contend that I own a cat - is that science or just a belief?
mybike
Grumblin at Garmin on the Granny Gear
- Location
- Not 'emel 'empstead
Depends on the observation.
Profpointy
Legendary Member
well I saw her earlier. My question was serious. My theory is that I do own a cat, but there are maybe other explanations - such as a robot or hollogram, or I'm loopy and she only exists in my head.
However stating the expanding universe or evolution is (just) a belief is true in the same sense a "belief" as my belief in my cat. If some other explantion comes to light to explain the redshift, cosmic background radiation and what not, then the theory changes, just like my "I have a cat" theory. To call either merely a "belief" is philosophical smart-arsery.
Now calling "string theory" a belief, as it isn't "a theory" in the normally accepted sense - though could become one if there was compelling evidence
Inflation is definitely a theory. There have been large amounts of data, the CMB through WMAP and other things to check it. Alan Guth and the other scientists who contributed greatly to cosmology were somewhat smarter than journalists these days make out.
Gravity Aided
Legendary Member
- Location
- Land of Lincoln
Just a belief. No one owns a cat. They just find a person they can tolerate, and live with them.
