While watching the videos today in class I thought of how we were talking about how theories have been disproven and are, basically, forever changing. For example, the video said just 80 years ago the universe was thought to have been around forever and now there is the “Big Bang” theory. So I started looking, further, into earlier theories of the creation of Earth and earlier methods of dating the Earth.
First I found information about John Philips calculating, in the 17th century, the Earth’s age using stratigraphic concepts (which I still don’t really understand) and finding that the Earth was about 96 million years old. Mikhail Lomonosov thought that the Earth had been created on its own in the 18th century. There were a few other people who tried to date the Earth in different ways and found it to be 75,000 years old, but we get the idea that these old naturalists seemed to be way off.
In my research, William Thomson, seemed to be a big name that kept coming up. He found the Earth to be near 20 million years old. He was also the person who introduced the theory that the Earth was created of completely molten rock.
Overall, what I took from this class and this research is that scientists can come up with as many ideas as they want, about how Earth was created or how old Earth is, but in a matter of minutes these theories can be disproved. While looking through these different theories I kept thinking these same questions over and over: Is it worth it to come up with such theories or is it more for personal fulfillment that we seek these answers? Is it really relevant to find answers that may be incorrect or is it just a waste of time?
Though I completely respect your opinion, I have a slightly different one. On the one hand, it is valuable to learn our history, but mostly for the cause of keeping it from repeating itself. For example, the theory of a life form that was here before humans, when the atmosphere was toxic to us, which then polluted the atmosphere with oxygen and died out, making way for humans, reminds me very much of our own role on earth. We are slowly polluting the air with toxic substances and ruining the ozone layer. Is it possible that we will do exactly as this theoretical previous species did and die out, leaving an atmosphere that is toxic to us, but will come to support another form of life? If we knew more about this supposed previous species would we be able to learn from their mistakes and save our species?
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, it is impossible that we will ever be sure how the earth formed. It happened so long ago that while we continue to uncover relics from the earth's past, all that we can do with this evidence is hypothesize. We will never be able to prove these theories. Yes, our scientists are very good at explaining phenomena and making their hypotheses seem reasonable and offering "proof," but there is no possible way we will ever completely understand the history of our planet. We can make educated guesses, nothing more.
Maybe it is a waste of time to come up with theories, but if you think so, you don't have to come up with them ;) haha.
ReplyDeleteI was more interested in the fact that so many scientists have tried to figure out the earths path to through the solar system, how many have been wrong when they tried to date the earth, or theorize how it had been created. I mean, it used to be thought that the earth was the center of the solar sytem, and now we know for sure it is not! There is BIG proof. We can even see past our own galaxy!! This is all because of the theories that have been thought up.
So I think it all depends on how you look at things. Maybe theories are a waste of time, its more fun to just live with what we got and we don't need to think past that. OR maybe theories are great and help us advance our technology because in essence, theories are just ideas that pop into someones head and they decide they want to look forward into it. Also, its not like all theories are about the earth, theories also helped us with technology...and we do like our technology :)
anyway. I liked that you looked up some facts about other scientists and how they've tried to date the earth. I do wonder if we still have it wrong and that 80 years from now scientists will say, oh, wow, can you believe we used to think the earth was 4.5 billion years old? haha wouldn't that be crazy? Because I am sure back in the day a lot of people believed strongly in what those scientists had to say, and it didn't make them any righter...We believe strongly in what todays scientists say, but does that make them right?
I think it is a good thing for humans to question things and want to know how we and our environment originated but at the same time sometimes I feel as if humans dwell too much on the past. It is very interesting to know how the earth was formed and that it is 4.5 billions years ago but ultimately what does it prove? It is just another fact to memorize. It is not like we are going to see the earth re-form again or try to clone earth using the same process because that would be impossible. I am not saying scientists should stop trying to figure out events that happened in the past but I believe perhaps it is more important to focus on the future of earth instead. There are so many issues from over population to climate change that are causing huge changes to our environment. Some of these issues potentially threaten the health of the human race and the earth itself. I know that a lot of scientists are studying these problems currently but clearly ultimate solutions to these problems have not been reached answers so more brainpower could help. Therefore, sometimes I feel like the scientists who focus their life on the past should potentially think more about the future since it will provide more benefit than becoming a fact in a textbook.
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