HUH?

Could be the same one that whacked Brigette Bardot.

You need to read the article. It incinerated large parts of the earth. Coal does not do this. It puts CO2 into the air. It was a huge fireball that caused the damage..

Rich, I think you may need to check your biology notes, especially where it comes to photosynthesis and producers.

1st of all these "facts" are nothing but conjecture. These scientists are guessing, 10 years from now they'l have another guess. Earth isn't as old as they are saying.

Sounds like vain babblings and oppositions of science falsely so called. The earth divided in the days of Peleg, Genesis 10:25.

LiberalsRCommies: I'm curious. Did you ever graduate past the 8th grade?

There is every reason to hold to a 4.5 billion year old Earth... And as to religion, of the Jews I've heard from, even they never took to story of Genesis all that literally with their 5,000 year old Earth, and whatever else; and it was their own danged book that the early Christian church, under Roman council chose to cannonize...

And no, burning coal, or other CO2 producing forms of fuel won't have the same impact. For one thing, unlike an asteroid which comes slaming into the Earth's surface, there is no impact zone, there is no shock wave, and there is no matter being ejected into the Earth's atmosphere, which can obscure the sun. A volcano, or an impact from a nuclear weapon would more closely approximate the effects of one of these bad boys hitting the Earth in terms of these secondary effects. Using your car won't cause a massive impact to the planet, cause earthquakes? (depending on how the shock waves impact the tectonic plates), or whatever else.... We're also talking the energy released from a high speed projectile, of very large size, density, and mass striking the planet. Or burning up above the planets surface, aka Tunguska, 1908 or there abouts (except this would be much larger then what came down there)...

Even our largest atomic weapons aren't even close to being large enough to cause such a wide scale impact on the planet's eco system these very large asteroids (here we're talking 10 km around, elsewhere has been mention of one about 50 km around) would cause. In fact these, if anything could, could throw enough debree into the atmosphere to create nuclear winter like conditions for some time to come. Forever, of course not, but for some time... That debrie, obscuring the sun, would also impact how much light would reach the surface for plants to photo-synthesize.

LiberalsRCommies, your simply wrong about everything you've said. The very nature of science doesn't allow those who practice it to guess; it's based on facts, whether you agree with them or not doesn't change the fact that they are facts. The world is as old as they're saying it is; that's a fact. There is a plethora of fossils that prove it.

M K Estes, are you serious? Did you actually cite Genesis as your source? You do realize that the Bible and every book in it was written hundreds of years ago with absolutely no factual grounds whatsoever right? It's the babbling of ignorant, possibly even delusional, so called prophets that simply made it us as they went. There is NOTHING to support the validity of anything in the Genesis, nor are there any factual foundations for the majority of the books in your so called source.

Nuadormrac, you sound like a reasonable and intelligent, not to mention educated person. Thanks for trying to educate these ignorant religious nutcases; but honestly I fear we're both just wasting out time. Faith in nonsense generally rots any part of the brain that is used for logical reasoning.

LiberalsRCommies:

The story of the earth unfolding, after such a short time of us as a species, getting so much smarter as we look around, seems to me far more interesting than the "story" I think you are referring to.... If the Bible is your source for "evidence," I imagine even the writers and compilers of stories of that book, if alive today, as wise and thoughtful as they were, would not be holding on to what limited knowledge they had of the story of earth at the time.

Sherron, you are wrong. There are no facts in science! As a scientist, I can tell you that we try to answer questions through observation and testing. We observe the behavior or qualities of something and then develop a hypothesis (our best guess) to explain it. We then test the hypothesis and if the tests uphold the hypothesis it becomes a theory, and if many, many more tests by many other scientists agree with the original findings it becomes a law, but never, never a fact. Even after hundreds of years and thousands of tests it will not be considered a fact. Once you consider something a fact, you become close minded and stop questioning, which is anathema to the scientific process.

I might also mention that the idea of a 5000 year old Earth is not from the Bible, but from scientists who tried to determine the age of the planet 400 years or so ago. It was based on the best science of the time, but because science does not deal in so called facts, we have changed our guess as to the age of the planet and the universe as better testing and the observable data has dictated. it has changed at least 4 times in the last 2 decades, with the largest jump coming shortly after the launch of the Hubble telescope and will probably change again.

Nothing shows a persons ignorance more then when they claim to know a scientific fact!!!

There is a paradox when so little carbon produces all of life, but intelligent life believes everything but.

There is a paradox, when someone speaks of some profound truth, and says absolutely nothing.

After reading the comments from the loons on the loose, I must say I dream of retroactive birth control.

They must not be allowed to breed, or at minimum, not be allowed to vote.

Their God gave them a brain, but didn't tell them to use it.

Obviously education has been wasted on the majority (or at minimum, the vocal minority).

The idea that any scientist EVER stated that the world was 5000 years old is nonsense. It was Biblical scholars following the timelines set in the Bible that determined the Earth was created in 4004 BC.

It was Biblical scholars following the timelines set in the Bible that determined the Earth was created in 4004 BC

well, that and the Jewish calender, which is supposed to start at "the beginning".

for whatever thats worth (not much, IMO)

yakfitguy

LiberalsRCommies: I'm curious. Did you ever graduate past the 8th grade?

Don't need more'n an 8th grade edukation. He gotst his other edukation from Sunday skool.

Their God gave them a brain, but didn't tell them to use it.

Maybe they lost the instruction manual? Maybe that's the lost book of the Bible: Brain, Chapter 1, verse 1...

Big rock?! Hahahahaha!!!

I think we will eventually kill ourselves long before another extinction capable rock hits us.

Meteor strikes are not uncommon. What happened in Russa was a once in a Decade event. While the Tunguska air blast of 1908 was in the thermonuclear range when it finally exploded. Car sized meteors hit about once a year.
And yes, a lot of them are big rocks in space.

Why does the idea about having the stones, for an impact from one of these bad boys come to mind? Yeah, I know my sense of humor is a lil twisted :D

I think we will eventually kill ourselves long before another extinction capable rock hits us.

I think in the act of destroying ourselves, we will ignore the threat from "big rocks from space." We will destroy ourselves, but whether from active destruction or willful ignorance or gross negligence is the question.

Skip, don't forget that it is also flat, and the center of the universe! And that fossils were placed here to test our faith! We need to bring Jeebus back into government, as the seperation of church and state is false! We are a Christian Nation!

AmIdoingitright?

You forgot about buring the non beleiving heretics at the stake but otherwise you'd make a good altar boy. :)

@KJNG Does the Bible actually make those claims? Flat earth and fossils? Ive never read those scriptures before.

It's called "Sarcasm" there buddy HeWilblahblahblah...

Please learn that on these here interwebs people can say what they want. Even if it goes against what mommy and daddy taught you.

He forgot about Jesus riding into Nazareth on a Berantasaurus, yelling "forget T. Rex I'm the king of the jungle, not that big lizard" /lol

Hmm, I do believe someone created a "Creationist Museum" with scenes just like that, for the visitor to look at :o :D

Here's the true account of creation:

Chapter 1

1. In the beginning God created Dates.

2. And the date was Monday, July 4, 4004 BC.

3. And God said, let there be light; and there was light. And when there was Light, God saw the Date, that it was Monday, and he got down to work; for verily, he had a Big Job to do.

4. And God made pottery shards and Silurian mollusks and pre-Cambrian limestone strata; and flints and Jurassic Mastodon tusks and Picanthopus erectus skulls and Cretaceous placentals made he; and those cave paintings at Lasceaux. And that was that, for the first Work Day.

5. And God saw that he had made many wondrous things, but that he had not wherein to put it all. And God said, Let the heavens be divided from the earth; and let us bury all of these Things which we have made in the earth; but not too deep.

6. And God buried all the Things which he had made, and that was that.

7. And the morning and the evening and the overtime were Tuesday.

8. And God said, Let there be water; and let the dry land appear; and that was that.

9. And God called the dry land Real Estate; and the water called he the Sea. And in the land and beneath it put he crude oil, grades one through six; and natural gas put he thereunder, and prehistoric carboniferous forests yielding anthracite and other ligneous matter; and all these called he Resources; and he made them Abundant.

10. And likewise all that was in the sea, even unto two hundred miles from the dry land, called he resources; all that was therein, like manganese nodules, for instance.

11. And the morning unto the evening had been a long day; which he called Wednesday.

12. And God said, Let the earth bring forth abundantly every moving creature I can think of, with or without backbones, with or without wings or feet, or fins or claws, vestigial limbs and all, right now; and let each one be of a separate species. For lo, I can make whatsoever I like, whensoever I like.

13. And the earth brought forth abundantly all creatures, great and small, with and without backbones, with and without wings and feet and fins and claws, vestigial limbs and all, from bugs to brontosauruses.

14. But God blessed them all, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and Evolve Not.

15. And God looked upon the species he hath made, and saw that the earth was exceedingly crowded, and he said unto them, Let each species compete for what it needed; for Healthy Competition is My Law. And the species competeth amongst themselves, the cattle and the creeping things; and some madeth it and some didn't; and the dogs ate the dinosaurs and God was pleased.

16. And God took the bones from the dinosaurs, and caused them to appear mighty old; and cast he them about the land and the sea. And he took every tiny creature that had not madeth it, and caused them to become fossils; and cast he them about likewise.

17. And just to put matters beyond the valley of the shadow of a doubt God created carbon dating. And this is the origin of species.

18. And in the Evening of the day which was Thursday, God saw that he had put in another good day's work.

19. And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness, which is tall and well-formed and pale of hue: and let us also make monkeys, which resembleth us not in any wise, but are short and ill-formed and hairy. And God added, Let man have dominion over the monkeys and the fowl of the air and every species, endangered or otherwise.

20. So God created Man in His own image; tall and well-formed and pale of hue created He him, and nothing at all like the monkeys.

21. And God said, Behold I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of the earth. But ye shalt not smoketh it, lest it giveth you ideas.

22. And to every beast of the earth and every fowl of the air I have given also every green herb, and to them it shall be for meat. But they shall be for you. And the Lord God your Host suggesteth that the flesh of cattle goeth well with that of the fin and the claw; thus shall Surf be wedded unto Turf.

23. And God saw everything he had made, and he saw that it was very good; and God said, It just goes to show Me what the private sector can accomplish. With a lot of fool regulations this could have taken billions of years.

24. And the evening of the fifth day, which had been the roughest day yet, God said, Thank me it's Friday. And God made the weekend.

Regarding Point 15, just a minor correction; it was the dingoes that ate the dinosaurs...... Dogs are domesticated, dingoes aren't.

Awesome riff!

Chapter 2

1. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all in five days, and all less than six thousand years ago; and if thou believest it not, in a sling shalt thou find thy hindermost quarters

2. Likewise God took the dust of the ground, and the slime of the Sea and the scum of the earth and formed Man therefrom; and breathed the breath of life right in his face. And he became Free to Choose.

3. And God made a Marketplace eastward of Eden, in which the man was free to play. And this was the Free Play of the Marketplace.

4. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow four trees: the Tree of Life, and the Liberty Tree, and the Pursuit of Happiness Tree, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Sex.

5. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, This is my Law, which is called the Law of Supply and Demand. Investeth thou in the trees of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness, and thou shalt make for thyself a fortune. For what fruit thou eatest not, that thou mayest sell, and with the seeds thereof expand thy operations.

6. But the fruit of the tree of the Knowledge of Sex, thou mayest no eat; nor mayest thou invest therein, nor profit thereby nor expand its operations; for that is a mighty waste of seed.

7. And the man was exceeding glad. But he asked the LORD God: Who then shall labor in this Marketplace? For I am no management, being tall and well-formed and pale of hue?

8. And the LORD God said unto himself, Verily, this kid hath the potential which is Executive.

9. And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every fowl of the air, and brought them unto Adam to labor for him. And they labored for peanuts.

10. Then Adam was again exceeding glad. But he spake once more unto the LORD God, saying, Lo, I am free to play in the Marketplace of the LORD, and have cheap labor in plenty; but to whom shall I sell my surplus fruit and realize a fortune thereby?

11. And the LORD God said unto himself, Verily, this is an Live One.

12. And he caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he took from him one of his ribs, which was an spare rib.

13. And the spare rib which the LORD God had taken from the man, made he woman. And he brought her unto the man, saying:

14. This is Woman and she shall purchase your fruit; and ye shall realize a fortune thereby. For Man produceth and Woman consumeth, wherefore she shall be called the consumer.

15. And they were both decently clad, the Man and the Woman, from the neck even unto the ankles, so they were not ashamed.

That's pretty good, Tony. I'm gonna print this and blow it up and put it up on my wall, and when some lame religious fanatic comes in, I'm gonna show it to them.

But, saturnsrim, wouldn't that theory only work if the Universe was static? Wouldn't the galaxy have moved in its own path? Like our own humble solar system, we orbit the galactic central point, right? In the GALAXY, Time also equals Motion. How much has our galaxy drifted away from the Universal central point in one galctic year? That is the distance we have travelled away from that shooting gallery.
Unfortunately, the shooting gallery has also drifted along it's own path from Universal central point. Cosmically speaking, the odds are very good they were not on an identical path.

That shooting gallery may very well be a part of our OWN galaxy.

Just as our own solar system has a static asteroid belt between mars and Jupiter and other belts have been seen by telescopes around near stars our solar system may well have belts associated with particular regions of space in our system. They may be associated with the gravitational pull between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy as our galaxies approach one another and are projected to collide in 3.75 billion years.

It's far enough in our future for us not to care, and by 4 billion years our own sun will be very far on in it's own years (not necessarily a red giant yet, but nearing the end of it's life where 0.5-1 billion years latter (give or take) it could be about to enter the red giant phase. But we haven't seen anything yet...

That's about the time it's expected that Andromeda will begin it's own close encounter with the Milkyway, and the start date for a 2 billion year process which will finally see the 2 galaxies merge into one. It's expected the sun will get thrown about a bit, along with the solar system, until our final resting place (finally after the death of our sun) will be somewhere else, relative to galactic center for the new merged galaxy... Whoever's alive before our sun begins it's death throws is going to observe some rather interesting, to see the least, night skies, as the stars and the constellations will be changing around them...

Unfortunately, the shooting gallery has also drifted along it's own path from Universal central point

actually, there is no "universal central point", all point recede from each other equally, or it would be just as accurate to say that ALL points are "universal center".

So the "Big Bang" isn't the Universal cental point?? We don't orbit the UCP, do we? No, we don't.
We are all being pushed outward away from the point of origin, the Universal Cental Point, or UCP.
The Big Bang has given the Universe it's initial motion. Outward. All other motion started through gravitational conflicts.

Are we all receding equally from each other? Ask Andromeda.

My point was that, in one complete orbit of the Milky Way, are the same random meteor storms going to be in "OUR" path? Or will the Galactic orbital mechanics cause the meteor storm to be in a slightly different place then our direct path?

From the data I looked at it appears that extinction level events coincide with regions of space that we pass through and are associated with where our arm of the galaxy is at at specific times in the galactic year. These areas of space also coincide with where a debris field would be between our galaxy and the Andromeda galaxy as we are approaching each other and as our galaxies near one another this debris field would probably grow thicker.

well luke, one of the analogies used is "the ant on a balloon" if you have "galazies" on a balloon, and blow it up to twice its size, the "galaxies" are twice as far apart, but none are more "central" than any other to the ant walking on the surface.

the "surface" is actually the three dimensions we live in, and what we percieve.

as far as the meteors are concerned, we aren't occasionally floating through a "galactic shooting gallery" , the meteors all have their origins from the confines of our extended solar system. this is confirmed by analysis of isotope and element ratios of the rocks.

but a possibility is that an occasional passing star could perturb the orbits of the comets and other distant orbital debris of our solar system. this wouldn't necessarily be from galactic rotation per se, but from the various drifts of the various stars.

just like Andromeda is drifting towards us, but the overall "direction" of moven=ment of galaxies is away from each other. the drift within galactic clusters isn't changed by the large-scale, universal expansion.

"galazies"?

I really need to learn to type and spellcheck , lol

same for "moven=ment" (=movement)

No, we still had the tail too.

It will happen as soon as a country has the technology to guide them.

speculation and guess work is the palaeontologists main area of expertise.

Ah, you wouldn't know a 300 million year old scientist if he bit you on the spinal ganglion!!

speculation and guess work is the palaeontologists main area of expertise

ahh, the confused cry of the poorly educamated.

As opposed to? Faith, belief, and the idea that a book written by those who walked the Earth many thousands of years ago, said so? Is this really the sort of debate people want to have?

It was created in six days. God has no concept of time. The scriptures clearly tell us this. Day one in God's eyes could have been 30 billion years in our eyes. Day two could have been 3 seconds in our eyes. Are you beginning to see the picture?

imricklib, I always thought it strange that an immortal, omnipotent being would somehow limit its projects to a measly few thousand years.

by definition an immortal being would have a lot of time to play with.

Anything to make your fantastical stories work, right rick?

Then try to talk down to us, like we just aren't good enough to just 'see' it.

I like that you use the 'could have been' line, as to not make anything certain about anything, except that we just ain't good 'nuff. C'mon chump, you can do better, or maybe you can't.

Your god is the biggest joke of all if he made someone like you.

I'm sorry excel, but my comment wasn't to enlighten you. I was simply commenting on Paul's remark. My faith does not depend on your acceptance or understanding. I won't try to enlighten anyone that has their own mind made up. More power to you is all I'll say.

death to spammers!

especially this "savebunk" crap

actually it would be the second, the first would be photosynthetic bacteria/algae, which caused catacalysmic devastation among the anaerobic organisms that existed before.

imagine a rapidly reproducing creature that pumped out toxic, corrosive gas (in this case, oxygen)

Come on Sully99, reading the posts from the religious zealots and the way they get skewered by the people that gradgeated more than 6th grade, makes my day.

No, the dinosaurs did it, too. Their SUV's were HUGE.