NavigationUser loginLinux NewsClick the above for your daily dose of Linux news. Food for ThoughtWindows Error: 002 - No error yet ... Spam?See spam posts on this site? If so, please don't reply to the spam! Instead, just report the URL to the webmaster. |
More lies from the creationists ...I saw this featured on 'Yahoo news': The short story is that Noah had dinosaurs on his ark. What an underhanded way to attract the kids. Dinosaurs were long gone before humans were ever on the scene. This thing is only possible in religion where the entire universe is less than 8000 years old. Anyone remember the old religious response to fossils? I've heard 'the devil put them there' and 'god put them there' and 'god made them appear old even to scientists just because he wants to test your faith'. So to add to all that bullshit it's now "yes, there really were dinosaurs and they were on the ark". I wonder what those folks have been putting in their bourbon. |
More lies from the
Hey, the main idea in creationism is that rational thinking doesn't work on long temporal scales. No point in trying to disprove it. No point in discussing it.
Sufficient tonnage
Making a vessel of sufficient tonnage to carry all that just using hand tools is quite an achievement! Don't forget that there would have to be sufficient capacity for food and water too. Cutting the trees, carrying them to a central location, milling out the timbers and then actually building the vessel is an undertaking of almost biblical proportions.
Perhaps some of the polymath readers of this site can come up with some estimated dimensions for such an ark. Bigger than an aircraft carrier I'd imagine.
Oh dear
I've heard of this place. Of course, if you move in the same circles I do, that's to be expected. It's not a new lie --- the idea that the dinosaurs were on the ark has been around since Creationists realised that fossils really did exist. The fossils were largely created during the Flood, and the dinosaurs (and their descendants) that were rescued didn't survive for long after, because the new world climate didn't support them.
I'm not sure why you call this underhanded --- they might be wrong, but that doesn't mean they're being sneaky or deceptive. If they thought they were lying, fair enough, but take my word for it, they believe the whole thing. In their minds they're doing the kids a big favour.
I'm a little disturbed at the protests going on. If the church has taught us anything it's that protesting an event or a place only serves to give free publicity.
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
Underhanded
I'd say its underhanded to try to alter the historical time frame. Carbon dating pretty well establishes that the dinosaurs had been and gone well before the timing of the story of the ark.
As for protesting an event (can't come up with any reason to protest a place ) - I think I'd be capitulating on all of my principles if I did not protest the illegal invasion of Iraq by the bush admin.
Underhanded?
They're not altering anything. They have two sets of conflicting data to reconcile. Most Christians (American style fundamentalists are a minority) reinterpret Genesis to allow for a long time frame and evolution. The rest, for whom the biblical data cannot be questioned, reinterpret the scientific data by whatever means they have available. They see it as correcting -- not altering -- the historical timeframe which has been devised by people with an erroneous set of assumptions.
As for the protest thing, how many things have received publicity because somebody organised a protest? Where would Andrew Lloyd Webber be if Christians hadn't given Jesus Christ Superstar such a lot of free advertising?
You're right about protesting the Iraq war though. It seems that wars, operas and museums have different publicity needs!
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
Is there proof of G_d or Carbon Dating?
How does one prove carbon dating?
Is there a fossil properly registered and dated so that scientists can adjust their machine?
Is the faith in carbon dating the same faith used to accept a benevolent G_d?
Is either side provable without some degree of faith?
“While the rest of the species is descended from apes, redheads are descended from cats.”
Mark Twain
Is there proof of G_d or Carbon Dating?
Carbon dating is extremely reliable and reproducible - characteristics never associated with any god. It relies on the halflife of the 14C isotope, produced primarily in the upper atmosphere via collisions with very high speed particles streaming from the sun. The production rate isn't quite constant, but it doesn't vary too much - without techniques for compensating for the varying production you'll get age estimates off by a few decades, but certainly not 100s or 1000s of years. Dinosaur fossils contain no measurable 14C because they're just too old. The theories of the evolution of the sun can be used to estimate 14C production over the past few billion years and the claims of these theories are consistent with all other observations and consistent with themselves. Religious 'theories' contradict not only themselves but various other religious claims, and most importantly they contradict observed reality. There is no faith in science; it remains believable because there are no contrary observations or self-negating claims.
This ark with dinos is underhanded - yet another impressive display to fool people. Kids are impressionable and may equate magnificence with truth - after all the Catholic church (and other cults before and after) have been playing this game for over 4 millenia - the great pyramids, the great churches through the ages, the Grecian and Roman temples, the two temples of Solomon, the mormon temple in Salt Lake City, the Valley of the Dead - the list just runs on.
These religious proofs are always good for a laugh. In perhaps the most famous case in the past 800 years we have the Shroud of Turin. It is an ancient and beautiful piece of art (even with the fire damage). The date of the artwork can be pinned down fairly accurately due to the church archiving numerous letters on the subject from the era it was created. 14C dating has demonstrated that the shroud was indeed created around the time claimed by these letters. Case closed? Oh no, "god zapped the shroud during the resurrection so its 14C content is much higher than any normal piece of cloth from that era". The image isn't produced by any sort of staining by animal fluids (or god fluids for that matter), the image shows traces of substances used as pigments from the era in which the shroud was produced. Ok, so it's a fake after all? Oh no, god's essence transformed the cloth. Of course the most damning evidence are the letters from the various clergy who investigated the shroud when it first appeared and concluded that it was a hoax. For centuries the church in Rome did not acknowledge the shroud as a holy relic, but it remained popular and around 200 years ago it seems that even Rome decided it must be genuine.
More lies from the
Which means that radioactive techniques are themselves dependant on assumptions we have about relative abundancies of different isotopes. And, as you have already pointed out, these depend on our model of solar system evolution. So, again there is a chain of assumptions, only this wan is currently widespread. What kids need to know, in my humble opinion, is not to trust to anybody blindly. Only in this way we'll have a possibility of scientific (r)evolutions. Heck, whenever you look at the most fundamental physical hyptothesis, you'll find starting premises which are just planted there to uphold the rest of the bulk. Take them out and plant another set consistent with the observable consequences and everything's ok, but our primary hypothesis is different -> our underlying philosophy is different, but Nature doesn't really care much about it.
You've gotta have faith!
Well said Number One!
Without faith, we have no science or religion.
pathway to wherever it leads us
I am not a religious person but I am very reverent toward the universe. At this stage of my life I have no difficulty owning up to my heavy load of limitations. I feel sure that many splendid and wonderful things beyond my ability to recognize or comprehend are going on all around me. However, I'd like to live in a world of animation and curiosity where people try to uncover and understand these processes. To hammer things we do not understand to fit into a religious dogma is to stall out curiosity and exploration. It is even possible that our exploratory path may someday end up at the doorstep of a god of some kind, but let's travel the path as sentient human beings. To do otherwise is to betray humanity
More lies from the
Well, the entire world will be waiting to hear of your wonderful new hypotheses which are consistent with all observations. Until then you're talking out your ass.
All good scientists don't take things for granted, but in the past 100 years we haven't been able to find a hole in the bottom of the boat. While Isaac Newton was alive he and his contemporaries were well aware of a fault in his mechanics and yet there was nothing better. Over 200 years later Einstein pointed out the flaw - no force, including gravitation, acts instantaneously. However, the conditions needed to observe this fact are certainly not commonplace on earth and so generally beyond most peoples' experience. It had troubled modern astronomers (past 400 years) for some time though - the equation of motion for the planet Mercury just didn't quite fit Newton's laws. Einstein's insight was a new discovery - he solved a problem which had plagued Newton for decades. So was Newton wrong? Not quite, he just didn't have as good an approximation of reality but his mechanics are still perfectly accurate for anything you do on earth which doesn't involve accelerating particles to ridiculous speeds.
It's not for lack of trying that we haven't scrapped modern physics - it simply hasn't been scrapped because no one can find any evidence against it whatsoever. Religion on the other hand has the peculiar characteristic of denying all facts, all reality.
Isaac Newton, Believer.
“This most beautiful system [The Universe] could only proceed from the dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being.”
Isaac Newton
“I can calculate the motion of heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people.”
Isaac Newton
Genius does not preclude a belief in a higher power just a wariness of mankind.
Isaac Newton, Believer.
Isaac Newton was also a rabid believer in the occult - raising the dead, commanding nature, and all that sort of stuff. His notes on the occult aren't worthy of printing except perhaps by a philosopher who's obsessed with the minutiae of why he failed. Newton also had numerous incorrect hypotheses about light and color, but as admirable as his work was on celestial mechanics, they had no bearing whatsoever on his work on light and colors; in modern books Newton barely scrapes by with the credit of discovering the infrared region of the spectrum.
Quoting Newton's own thoughts about the preternatural is nothing more than a fallacious appeal to authority. I prefer Einstein because he had a sense of humor: Only two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not too certain about the universe. Of course there are modern scientists who do believe in the great bogeyman - perhaps one of the best known is Freeman Dyson. However, the majority of scientists cannot believe in a god despite the fact that some make the awful mistake of saying things like "it's as if it were designed by a sentient being" and misusing the word 'god' in a non-religious context.
More lies from the
"However, the majority of scientists cannot believe in a god despite the fact that some make the awful mistake of saying things like "it's as if it were designed by a sentient being" and misusing the word 'god' in a non-religious context." - Pinniped, The Unbeliever :)
awful mistake? non-religious context?
Ok, I understand that for you context where you use the word "god", "creator" et al. might be allowed only in things like Hanzell und Grethel, Red Riding Hood and 1001 Nights, but even if there was only Einstein as the one example of a physicist/scientist who believed in more-than-mechanical composition and evolution of the Universe it would be enough to refrain of saying how that kind of thinking or heurisics is an "awful mistake".
However, there is the problem of religions being inherently conservative systems. This stuff you mentioned about Noah and dinosaurs is of course a very bad move. The only fair thing would be to question traditional teachings and adjust them thoroughly by getting rid of obviously wrong notions.
More lies from the
I have to say some people have more faith in evolution compared to what religous people have faith in their God/s
as Evolution has so many flaws its not funny and proof is scarce, not to start metioning all the hoaxs of people who so desperately wanted to believe in it. I will admit the other half of Evolution as in adaption I think i fine but
mutation, NO! The conditions required for the kind of change suggested would kill any living organisim.
not to metion theres now an occult of science
Scientology- which is maddness in itself.
the thing with the ark - there is mention of beasts of water and sky which could resemble several types of dinosuar. Hey who knows maybe there were still a couple hanging around. Getting them on the ark sounds pretty damn hard to do but we all know the flood did happen - theres proof in many cultures, hey where do you think the chinese came up with dragons cuz they sure as well resemble dinosuars.
(Humans have been round thousands of years and were still just as Guillible and making the same if not worse mistakes
I say were de-evolving)
Good thing this isn't Slashdot!
If this were Slashdot I'd say you were trolling. And if this were Slashdot you would have been modded right into oblivion.
Part of the problem with creationism is that gives scientifically illiterate people a few simple 'facts' which are somehow supposed to convince others of the rightness of their claim (and by extension the truth of Christianity.) This seems like a really bad strategy, but it seems to work in societies in which science is pursued for profit and not learning.
In other words, if you want to be taken seriously by anyone with any sort of scientific education you'd be far better off just not posting. I don't mean to offend, but that's the way it is.
I could start addressing your position (some of which I happen to agree with) but there are better rebuttals around. For example, try Scientific American: 15 Answers to Creationist Nonsense.
Again, I sympathise with what you're trying to say. Twenty years ago I believed the same way you do. Age brings wisdom, along with the knack of learning both sides of an argument. Sometimes you learn a little more than you expect...
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
true
i guess im just trying to say you cant say ether are right and the other is wrong. Othough I myself have a different veiw.
one reason why you cant reject ether is becouse there isnt any solid enough facts around.
two. both have good reasoning and support there for cannot be taken as "silly" or otherwise.
I re-read my argument and there are points within it which your right, that couldnt be taken seriously be anyone scientific education.
olso there are good arguments towards things like the big bang and creation in a scientific manner. like the point their is an abundance of fossils on the earths crust in the top 3rd i believe and before that is pretty well nothing.(i read this quite a while ago)feel free to prove me wrong.
also saying creation is for scientificly illiterate is very stereotypical as many scientifically illiterate believe in evolution.
true
Using that reasoning means we can't say anything's right or wrong. We can't be one hundred percent sure of anything (except, if Descartes was right, the existence of our consciousness) because all knowledge relies on other knowledge. But whilst we can't be completely certain of anything, we can approximate it very accurately. And we can say that some things are more right than others. That's what's happening here. Of course, I respect your right to disagree.
True, to a point. The facts we do have point overwhelmingly in one direction, though. There are anomalies, but one anomaly doesn't mean we have to throw the theory out --- it means we need to revise it. And contrary to popular belief most scientists are willing to change their theories to accommodate new evidence.
Happens to the best of us ;-)
There is evidence in the fossil record that is consistent with special creation and a flood. That's not proof though, because there is evidence that is inconsistent with it as well.
On the Big Bang theory, I can't understand why creationists don't seem to like it. It seems to be the most Genesis like part of the whole process. According to the current theories the universe started as nothing, which exploded into all the matter and energy we have today. According to the Bible, the universe started with nothing, which was suddenly spread out (cf. Psalm 104:2) to become the matter and energy we see today. Spreading out everything we have from a singularity seems like a pretty Big Bang to me!
That's true, although that's not quite what I meant. Your summary simply means scientifically illiterate people aren't able to make properly informed decisions about what to believe. However, there are far more scientifically literate people believing in evolution than in creation. If we're looking for the scientifically credible position, I think that's the direction we need to be looking.
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
Who can challenge the scientists?
"According to the current theories the universe started as nothing, which exploded into all the matter and energy we have today."
cammoblammo,
Are there any provable examples of something, anything, evolving from a total vacuum?
It appears to me that Big Bang is a theory not a proven fact. G_d is a belief not a proven fact.
How many scientists, not in their field, understand Hawking or Einstein? What percentage in their field understand them?
Within that small percentage, how many are capable of challenging these men's theories?
"A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or are the others crazy?"
Albert Einstein
Main Entry: big bang theory
Function: noun
: a theory in astronomy: the universe originated billions of years ago in an explosion from a single point of nearly infinite energy density -- compare
Merriam-Webster
Main Entry: steady state theory
Function: noun
: a theory in astronomy: the universe has always existed and has always been expanding with hydrogen being created continuously -- compare BIG BANG THEORY
Merriam-Webster
"Stephen Hawking said that the fact that microwave radiation had been found, and that it was thought to be left over from the big bang, was "the final nail in the coffin of the steady-state theory.""
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steady_state_theory
Point taken...
A lot of people decry the fact that the priests of yesterday have largely been replaced by scientists. I see the point, but I don't think it's a problem. Truth is truth. It's merely the object of the truth that has changed. Interpretations of the truth... now there's an argument waiting to happen!
Science has become very difficult to follow, and the average Joe like me has to take the word of the Hawkings and Einsteins as gospel truth, just like peasants 500 years ago had to trust the preacher was preaching the Bible. Some, like me, are expected to be able to understand both. A little fudging now and then is allowed, isn't it?
I'm not sure what your point about the Big Bang was. Perhaps it was that Merriam and Wikipedia are good sources of information. It seems we agree then!
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
Point taken...
Well, the thing is that scientists do not take Einstein's word (or Hawkings for that matter) as gospel truth. Einstein was mistaken about many things - so what, he was still a great scientist. The 'Big Bang' is in the realm of cosmology - the cosmologists are mostly very 'special' people. Lots of hypotheses, but so hard to devise experiments to support or disprove them. So for the most part other scientists just don't believe the cosmologists; they tell nice stories though.
I am not aware of any fossil evidence which:
a) supports the biblical flood
b) supports creationist dogma
I really can't understand why creationists consistently make those claims. As for the Chinese and dragons - lizards are everywhere. Many people are scared of lizards. There are numerous gigantic lizards. Now if those lizards could only fly they'd be terrifying monsters. Ooo - monster story! For a number of years some Chinese have been digging up fossils because they were 'dragon teeth' and had magical healing properties when ground up and mixed with - I don't know - maybe Rhino horn and elephant dick or something suitably disgusting.
Easy there big fella...
When I talk about evidence 'supporting' or 'confirming' a hypothesis, I mean it in the technical sense, which means something like, 'is consistent with'. So there is lots of fossil evidence that supports a biblical flood, because there are many fossils which were clearly preserved by a flood of some type. That doesn't prove the Genesis account -- it simply doesn't disprove it.
On the other hand, such evidence will also (generally) support the evolutionary hypothesis. Of course, the evolutionary account can account for a lot more of the evidence taken as a whole. It can explain why certain types of animal only appear in certain strata and never others, which creationism can't. Creationism isn't disproved by any of the evidence, but it does find it hard to stand against the evidence when taken as a whole.
You make a good point about the geniuses we've been blessed with. They made mistakes and were (generally) happy to admit it. Cosmologists are interesting, and they can be ignored, mainly because their discoveries tend to have little practical value.
And since when has elephant dick been disgusting? Elephants seem to like them...
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
I'm not sure where this comment fits best
I read this article in the guardian this morning.
The teaser is :
The science of belief
Believers and scientists have moved on: now the debate has turned to an exploration of how faith and science can be compatible with each other.
Here's a tiny url to the article: http://tinyurl.com/2ap2m5
|...
I just want to insert yet one more quote and it is from the final pages of the third volume of Runciman's History of the Crusades. It reads " Faith without Wisdom is a dangerous thing."
I'm not sure where this comment fits best
Uhm... that's nothing new - that's been going on for over 2000 years. In the last few years of pope John Paul 2 he pondered that very question: can science and religion be reconciled? He ultimately decided they can't be. However, the "intelligent design" cult has been pushing this for a long time - insinuating that science and religion can be reconciled. This is an attempt to belittle science and scrape up more support for intelligent design. This is similar to the nobility of the UK attempting to demean real engineers by calling auto mechanics and garbage collectors "engineers".
Following the assertions of William of Ockham, we can simplify Runciman's statement and yet retain the truth: "Faith is a dangerous thing."
profound questions
I was more hoping to draw peoples attention to the final paragraph where the writer said "In the final analysis, the scientific method has been astoundingly successful at investigating the natural world. Still, this should not be allowed to obscure the fact that the tools of science are powerless to answer some of our profoundest questions such as "Why did the universe come into being?", "What is the meaning of human existence?" and "What will happen to us after we die?" and yet there is clearly a deep-rooted human desire to seek answers to these questions."
When I was younger I studied genetics in graduate school and was quite arrogant about the wonders of it all. Now that I'm older I do find the profound questions such as the ones the referenced writer mentioned pretty interesting.
profound questions
That is an old sleight of words used for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Religion cannot answer those questions either. Some questions simply have no answer. For example, why did the qwerty? That's probably a bad example, but mathematicians (maybe it was Lewis Carroll) had established this and I'm sure they've got better examples. The argument is specious as well even if I cannot recall any technical name for the fallacy. It happens to be a non sequitur as well.
And your point is...?
I'm not sure where you're going with this. You're right in that some questions have no answer, and to be honest, even if we found the answers we probably wouldn't know. That said, we'd have a problem if we didn't ask the questions anyway.
For example, the question, 'What's the meaning of life?' probably doesn't have an answer. Or, 'what is the difference between right and wrong?' 'What is the difference between a work of art and a semi polished turd?'
None of those questions can be adequately answered in a rationally convincing way. However, the simple act of pondering them is a worthwhile pursuit in itself, and can be the source of inspiration for great works of art, improvements in human governance and many other things that few would doubt to be simple wastes of time.
Whether or not religion can or cannot answer those questions is moot, because even if it did, we couldn't know, unless of course the correct one allows for an after life. Information from the afterlife is probably too unreliable for our purposes!
That doesn't mean religion should be disqualified from attempting to answer these things. Recent (and not so recent) events have proved some versions of religion capable of an extreme level of evil. However, religion has also proven itself a useful way to ask some of the important existential questions, and there have been a lot of surprising results in that quest. If we as a society were to simply discount religion because it isn't guaranteed to give us the answers, I would suggest we've already forgotten the questions. And if we do that, non sequiturs are inevitable.
--
A tidy house is the sign of a stolen computer.
Poets might be better
I'm not religious and don't want to leave the impression that I'm suggesting that religious figures can answer these profound questions. Probably more imaginative and certainly more readable explorations into these areas have long been a topic of poets. I actually don't expect those questions to be answered but I do hope that stating and tussling with them will dampen down an overload of hubris.
An obituary about Dr Ida R. Hoos in the NY Times ( http://tinyurl.com/372yun ) contains a quote from her that reads "“A kind of quantomania prevails in the assessment of technologies,” Dr. Hoos wrote in 1979 in the journal Technological Forecasting and Social Change. “What cannot be counted simply doesn’t count, and so we systematically ignore large and important areas of concern."
Poets might be better
Poets provide entertaining answers (or not) to those questions. MY favorites include "The Meaning of Life", "The Galaxy Song", and "The Bright Side of Life". For questions that have no answer, Socrates would have argued that they were good because they got you thinking. But once you work out that they have no answer, why pursue the original question? It's like continuing to attempt a solution to the problem of the Seven Bridges of Konigsberg after proving that there is no solution.
Sociology is another matter altogether; the problem with dealing with humans is that there are no set answers - humans do not behave in a regular or even sensible manner. Dr. Hoos' statement is still correct today. A lot of scientific research isn't being funded because the beancounters don't see any clear plan for benefit from it. If you don't tell a beancounter that your research will produce millions of jobs and gazillions of dollars in patent licensing, you simply don't get any money. However, science and discovery have never worked that way. The old Bell Labs used to (do they still?) sink hundreds of millions of dollars into research - most of it goes nowhere but some of it is responsible for creating a lot of the technology around us which we only take as granted.
The Bright Side
Agree the the fabulous Python philosophers are much better at answering the profound questions than Jerry Fallwell ever could have hoped to be. I own all their works and often hum the bright side as I go about my daily duties.
As for "research isn't being funded because the beancounters don't see any clear plan for benefit from it. If you don't tell a beancounter that your research will produce millions of jobs and gazillions of dollars in patent licensing, you simply don't get any money."
It's even sorrier than that. We have a cowardly and craven ( I know that's somewhat redundant, but I like the sound of it) idiot in the whitehouse that suppresses funding for stem cell research just so he can appeal to a bunch of totally irrational anti-abortionist who want to save babies so they can be blown to bits by an IED.
What a world...
Is genius required?
"I'm not sure what your point about the Big Bang was."
The creation of the known and unknown universe is central to all science. It's first before all.
This leads me to two questions.
1. Who provided the matter, in a vacuum where there was no matter, that provided the spark for the bang?
2. Who created G_d?
If we are not open to all possibilities how can we ever know?
Is genius required?
2. Who created G_d?
The Republicans.
1. Who provided the matter, in a vacuum where there was no matter, that provided the spark for the bang?
George W. Bush
anticapitalista
"Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it."
Is genius required?
I see you've been reading Dubbyah's autobiography. After stating that God made him attack Iraq and so on, I'm just waiting for him to tell the world that he's the messiah and has returned according to prophecy.
Conceptual Problem
Dear Jaclon,
leaving alone the question 2, I'd like to sort things out (or perharps confuse you even more) on the question 1.
You have formulated the latter assuming there was vacuum (empty space) before the big bang. That is the conceptual error!
The truth is, neither matter nor space existed before the big bang. Thus one can not speak about vacuum in this instance.
Both matter and space were created in the event of the Big Bang. If you consider the time evolution of all the matter and space in the Universe mathematically, than the so-called "Singularity", that is the initial state in which both don't exist, is just a natural starting point.
And the answers of anticapitalista to your questions is a 100% inarticulate mumbling of the alcohol/drug addict under the influence of the substance ;-)
inarticulate mumbling(s)
That substance being provided by g_d for all to share and make lots of money out of in particular if it is controlled by the CIA.
Otherwise bomb da bastaaaaaaaaaarddds....
BTW "answers is a inarticulate mumbling.." tut tut tut. What substance is you taking?
anticapitalista
"Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it."
Conceptual Problem
Andrej,
you speak like you've been there. Or, no, you weren't!? Oh, wait, you _believe_ in that explanation?
Not have been there
Of course I have not been there!
In physics there are theories, which can be verified directly by reproducible numerous experiments, and the ones that can only be checked by self-concistency and non-contradictory character of the theory itself. The latter is because the "experiment", or in this instance the big bang, is only one in a history and can not be staged/repeated again.
Do I believe in the given explanation?
To put it straight, I might have checked the mathematics myself and see if it is noncontradictory and selfconsistent.
Yet I am not working in astrophysics and have not done it so far. I take the word of my colleagues who do work in the field of astrophysics, who do the various checks of this theory on the daily basis and who in their majority inform me that it is correct.
On these grounds I believe in this explanation myslef. That should answer your question and explain my reasoning.
Fun at the Creation Museum!!!!
Somehow this seems like a thread that just will not die even though most of the people have made their points on the subject, but I just couldn't resist sharing this with you all.
http://tinyurl.com/ynll2e