Darren New <dne### [at] sanrrcom> wrote:
> Warp wrote:
> >   That may be because we can check the theory of relativity here and
> > now, 

> 99.44% of the world cannot - they accept the word of experts.

  It depends on the subject. When the experts say, for example, that they
have to take GR equations into account for GPS to work, that just using
Newtonian laws would not be enough, then sure, you just have to take their
word for it, but it's quite improbable that they are all lying. You can
go and buy a cheap GPS device and check that it works. Now you either
accept that it works correctly because of those GR equations, or you claim
that all the experts are lying. There's no reason why they would do the
latter.

  This is an example of a measurement which we can do right here right now.
It doesn't require humongous amounts of time.

  As for things like the expansion of the universe, it's a lot more of a
hypothesis. The current consensus among scientists is that the universe
is expanding, but without the millions of years of measurements it's a
lot more of guesswork. I don't believe science says otherwise.

  There's a difference between saying "I believe scientists when they say
that GPS needs GR equations to work correctly" and "the current consensus
among scientists is that the universe is expanding". There's a categorical
difference between these two.

  Now, if I say "the current consensus among scientists is that the theory
of evolution is mostly correct", that doesn't mean I have the same degree
of confidence in it as with the GPS thing.

>  And we 
> can check the theory of evolution here and now - it has been done 
> repeatedly.

  In the exact same way as we cannot check how the expansion of the
universe has occurred during millions of years, we cannot check how
evolution has occurred during millions of years. We can speculate from
some of the consequences, but it's only speculation. We cannot measure
here and now.

> > but we can't go back in time a few million years to check evolution

> Sure we can. That's what fossils are for. Same way we check things like 
> binary stars obeying GR and black holes obeying GR.

  Says the person who takes expansion of the universe and dark energy
with a grain of salt, and seriously considers alternative theories...

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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