Size, my point is, a lot of science is educated guess. So don't worry about the possibilities that a comet could do earth in or a big enough meteorite could hit and kill every living thing or something that might happen in the future. Some of the things are mights and maybes and why lay awake at night worrying about them? So someday our sun may supernova. But not in the next few thousand years, so why worry about it now? If you read that they think it could happen 35,000 years from now, that is an educated guess. My dad told me exactly that when I was just a wee little thing and I was terrified for a while over that.
How do you keep your hopes up while in this doomed existence?
by sabastious 107 Replies latest jw friends
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FlyingHighNow
Here's an interesting article to illustrate the if's and guesses about things such as solar flares and supernovas and earth's safety:
http://www.howitworksdaily.com/space/could-a-supernova-destroy-earth/
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sizemik
When we fear what may never happen . . .
When we grieve what we never had . . .
When we regret what can't be changed . . .
When all we see just makes us sad . . .
When our hope is always sinking . . .
And nowhere feels like home . . .
We make the world a little colder . . .
And our own heart turns to stone.
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sizemik
Size, my point is, a lot of science is educated guess. So don't worry about the possibilities that a comet could do earth in or a big enough meteorite could hit and kill every living thing or something that might happen in the future. Some of the things are mights and maybes and why lay awake at night worrying about them? So someday our sun may supernova. But not in the next few thousand years, so why worry about it now? If you read that they think it could happen 35,000 years from now, that is an educated guess. My dad told me exactly that when I was just a wee little thing and I was terrified for a while over that. . . . FHN
Yeah . . . I knew that's what you meant. And you are right . . . I agree entirely.
But my point is . . . you need to go past articles like that . . . the author is not who I would call a scientist, but a blogger with an interest in science. Check him out.
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FlyingHighNow
You can find a hundred articles on the subject by scientists you respect and they will still be making educated guesses. There are things scientists don't guess about. We know that atoms exist and what the components to an atom are. We know what happens when they are split or fused. We know about evaporation and the water cycle and how plants turn light, carbon dioxide and water into food. There is much of science that is exact. The orbit of earth is so precisely measured that NASA could aim a rocket and land it on the moon. Scientists know that stars supernova. But they don't know when or if certain stars will. There comes in the educated guesswork. Other educated guesswork comes in on theories as to what made the dinosaurs become extinct. For our OP, it is hopefully going to be a comfort that scientists can only guess at this point about the things he mentioned.
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cyberjesus
Interesting that you come to find wisdom.. inside a doomed thread..
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cyberjesus
Your most valuable asset is time. You dont have much left. And regardless of how you view science your time as a human being is ending by the second. the fact that your father's sperm made it its a miracle. what you do with your minutes its up to you. you can spend them lamenting that you have so few. you could enjoy everyone of the many.
if all of us were to die tonight.... tomorrow the thoughts we had today wont matter.
life is indeed a roller coaster...some are afraid, some cry.. i just chose to smile and enjoy the ride.
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yadda yadda 2
Stop worrying about it. Just vote for leaders who care about the environment and nuclear non-proliferation. What else can you do? Don't do nothing, but do the little that you can by voting and supporting causes that support humitarian and conscience causes, but don't stress about it. Be the best, loving and kind father and friend you can to your toddler and family and friends, and help the poor and suffering a little, and to hell with anything else. Stop worrying about the end of the world.
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sizemik
OK . . .
A lot of science is guesswork . . . because of what some scientists say . . . because they're both the same. You didn't understand my post . . . I fully understand yours. I can live with that.
It's probably not worth bothering with science sab, most of it is just guesswork . . . that'll make it easier for you I expect.
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NewChapter
A hypothesis is guesswork. It is a part of science---part of the process. Science then takes that 'guesswork' and works on falsifying it. Ideas float around there all the time. It's good that they do. But to say that science is mostly guesswork is to underestimate and misunderstand how the process works. We start with guesses and work from there, true, but the well tested theories are not guesswork. They've gone far beyond that.
I think one problem is that not everyone is taking the time, or has the knowledge, to critically look at the source, and then critically evaluate the information. Sometimes findings are reported, to much fanfare, before they are properly peer reviewed and gone through the proper falsification process. It sounds like science, and it is, and it is exciting to think about, but it is early in the full process. That's how it works. Once subjected to rigorous testing, many of these exciting observations fall by the wayside. To someone that doesn't understand or respect the process, it seems like science doesn't know anything.
But as it turns out, science is simply not afraid to ask the question, guess at the answer, and then be proven completely wrong----or even better----not proved wrong---which is as good as it gets.
Also, probablilities matter. Not all things carry the same weight, simply because of probability. Take the teapot in orbit around the earth. It's possible. It can't be falsified. But the probability factor is very low, so why waste time searching for it? Do I give the same weight to the teapot hypothesis that I do to super novas? No.
Mortality is distasteful. We don't like to hear or think about it. Sab get's angry at science for revealing things that he doesn't want to focus on. Yet it is only by isolating and revealing these things that we can begin to work out the solution. Science does that all the time. Who wants to hear about what a tumor does to our bodies and what that leads to? I don't, but science addressed it anyway. NOW, who wants to hear about the leaps and bounds scientists have made in preventing that tumor from doing too much damage? We like that now, don't we? So rather than getting upset about the truths revealed, get excited that once we know and understand, we get to work on it.
I have a cancer that used to be terminal in over 90% of those afflicted. Unfortunately, science figured out what was going on, and what that meant. Mean science. Six years before my diagnosis, science came up with an effective treatment, and now, over 90% of those with this cancer live! Nice science.
Science is neutral. If it freaks you out, then ignore it. You will still benefit from the good stuff. We live in the here and now, and that's what we have. We have beaten all odds to be here in the here and now. It's okay to appreciate what we have, because the universe was against us. But we have it. It's amazing. With or without science, it would have happened. Science only tries to explain it. And as it comes to understand, it can intervene, and I think that's wonderful and hopeful, and not depressing at all.