Originally posted by tyrantt23+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(tyrantt23)</div>
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My contention wasn't that the belief that the universe is so young is reasonable, it was that it is just as reasonable as the belief that the universe is 14 billion years old. Neither position is justified.
Sure you can say that the universe is but a few thousand years old, but that statement would go against the constantly persistent laws of physics, chemistry, etc etc that have been accurate ever since the beginning of science. Stating that the universe is over 13 billion years old is much more coherent with all the scientific laws than saying it is but a few hundred thousand years old. That is the main reason we can rely on scientific laws and principles is because of its consistency. Thats why its a lot more reasonable to accept all the inputs from the universe than to disregard them and make up reasons to why they're not correct.
Like Peregrinus said, reality can be a lot different than what we especulate however to us, to our reality, our senses is all we can count on. Just because you see your monitor that doesn't mean that its actually there. However, because
all your senses are consistent in acknowledging that it is there, and because your monitor doesn't simply vanish on random days of the month, a more rational aproach would be to say that yes, your monitor does exist in our reality.
If Peregrinus wasn't able to convince you about being rational already, then I really have little hopes of doing so myself.
However I will end this with a statement of my own, and that is, I think you've been watching The Matrix waaaaaay too much. Its all good and dandy to ask yourself if something along the lines of that movie is actually happening, but try to stick to what you know for sure. If you believe you live in a dream world, then well, in that dream world your senses are real, your monitor exists, and Earth is 13.7 billion years old.[/b]