(December 6, 2022 at 8:58 pm)Jehanne Wrote:(December 6, 2022 at 8:44 pm)Anomalocaris Wrote: Scientific theory is only of value if it accurately predicts something otherwise unknown. To say the theory is fact merely because it seems to have worked as well as can be expected upon what is already known doesn’t exactly guaranty its on-going value. Whether the theory would work as well in a new place where one previously have not looked can and should always be doubted and then tested. To assert that just because a theory worked in all cases hitherto tested therefore it is an all encompassing fact everywhere else as well is frequently the beginning of folly.
That our World is approximately 4.5 billion years old is a fact; such will never change, and it is unreasonable, in my opinion, to conclude otherwise.
But science is not just a collection of facts - it is primarily a method for arriving at a close approximation of those facts. It is not inconceivable that a different methodology will someday establish an age for the world of, say, 4.61 billion years or 4.48 billion years. In fact, it wouldn't surprise me to learn that somewhere there is at least one credible geologist or cosmologist working on refining this data.
ALL scientific knowledge is provisional. As it should be.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson