Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site dciem.UUCP Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Newsgroups: net.origins Subject: Re: Dearest A Ray Miller Message-ID: <1435@dciem.UUCP> Date: Sat, 2-Mar-85 18:25:07 EST Article-I.D.: dciem.1435 Posted: Sat Mar 2 18:25:07 1985 Date-Received: Sat, 2-Mar-85 20:56:41 EST References: <208@cmu-cs-gandalf.ARPA> <168@spp1.UUCP>Reply-To: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor) Organization: D.C.I.E.M., Toronto, Canada Lines: 33 Summary: >> But all theories have their assumptions. Evolution bases quite a bit on >> fossil records and the age there of. Those ages, for the most part are >> based on radioactive dating techniques which assume that radioactive >> elements decayed in the same mannner that they do now. >The above argument seems to ignore a considerable amount of work that has >been done on the constancy of physical law in the universe. As it happens >we can observe the radiation coming from distant galaxies. The distance to >these objects is determined by a chain of inference which, although it >admits of some degree of error, leaves no doubt that the light from these >objects has been travelling for billions of years. The fact that the >radiation looks like light from nearby galaxies (allowing for the redshift) >leaves no doubt that billions of years ago, in other parts of the universe, >the same physics that applies here and now, applied with equal force then >and there. There is, of course, the loophole that if *all* of physics >conspired to change together in just the right way that this would be >observationally indistinguishable from a old universe with unchanging >physical laws. It would also be indistinguishable to anyone living at >any earlier time in our universe. In fact, it is just a trivial >redefinition of time and has no operational meaning. > >"Don't argue with a fool. Ethan Vishniac It was mentioned in either Science or Scientific American a few months ago that the existence of the Gabon reactor and its present state demonstrated the constancy of nuclear reaction rates over a period of some 2-billion plus years to within a very small range (I think it was parts per billion) -- Martin Taylor {allegra,linus,ihnp4,floyd,ubc-vision}!utzoo!dciem!mmt {uw-beaver,qucis,watmath}!utcsri!dciem!mmt