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On 2002-11-24 11:14, veritron wrote:
I'm actually of the opinion that all worlds are simulations of varying degrees of detail. It's impossible for a denizen of the simulation to truly understand the simulation himself, hence there is no way to understand where the universe came from, or the meaning of life, or anything. Is the world just an elaborate game? Is there some jackass 12-year old boy watching the mayhem and pointing and laughing?
Or perhaps this is just a piece of online fiction controlled by a bunch of stupid fanboys who like to call themselves "watchers"? (Anyone who doesn't get what I just said: read the Road Trip thread in the RP section.)
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And you really can't prove or disprove anything using science, you can only establish relationships. Just blankly stating "science" is not good enough to disprove the steady state model. I BELIEVE that the universe was created at some point, but I don't have the reasons of how or why yet. The theory of evolution is just that - a theory. So is the big bang theory. We don't have sufficient resources to prove them yet, if ever. You can attempt to prove steady-state wrong by giving data that conflicts with what it predicts, but it's impossible to "prove" anything using science, or indeed, the scientific method. We cannot simply say that steady-state theory is false because of science - we must use the scientific method to "disprove" it.
I hate it when people (usually creationists) say "but evolution is only a THEORY!" Evolution is a theory, the big bang is a theory, the idea that we're made of atoms is a theory, the idea that the Earth is round is a theory. See, in scientific terms (as opposed to popular usage), "theory" doesn't mean "an unestablished idea". It actually means quite the opposite - a well-established idea, one that is generally backed up by a good amount of empirical evidence.
Sure, theories are still not absolutely proven and definite, but when you get right down to it nothing is. We know absolutely nothing for certain about anything. After all, we're getting all our information through our senses, which for all we know could be dead wrong. You can't prove anything for certain. However, there are some things that educated people accept as given since (for now at least) they're by far the best explanations we have. This includes atomic theory, Newton's laws, the big bang, and evolution.
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"Religion is the opium of them asses." - Karlm Arx
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: IcyMonkey on 2002-11-24 14:34 ]</font>