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HarryT · 06-11-2007, 09:55 AM

Dawkins is a fascinating chap. See:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins

As far as the age of the universe goes, you may know that I started life as an professional astronomer before figuring out that IT paid a lot better

. One of the most interesting achievements of astronomy in the last 20 years or so is that there are a number of completely independent methods of measuring the age of the universe, and they all give the same answer - 13.7 billion years, give or take a few hundred million. That seems like a pretty definite number.

Doesn't answer the "last Tuesday-ists", of course, who claim that the universe was created last Tuesday, along with us with all our fake memories of the past implanted in our minds, galaxies receding from us to give the illusion of an ancient universe, etc etc, but there's just no answer to that

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06-11-2007, 09:55 AM	#57
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,557 Karma: 93980341 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	Dawkins is a fascinating chap. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Dawkins As far as the age of the universe goes, you may know that I started life as an professional astronomer before figuring out that IT paid a lot better . One of the most interesting achievements of astronomy in the last 20 years or so is that there are a number of completely independent methods of measuring the age of the universe, and they all give the same answer - 13.7 billion years, give or take a few hundred million. That seems like a pretty definite number. Doesn't answer the "last Tuesday-ists", of course, who claim that the universe was created last Tuesday, along with us with all our fake memories of the past implanted in our minds, galaxies receding from us to give the illusion of an ancient universe, etc etc, but there's just no answer to that .