Positive Atheism

[rjh4 is back]

How long does it take for a solar system to develop, Void?

That's irrelevant.

If it takes millions of years for a solar system to form and we have only been able to observe any one of them for a relatively short time (100 years or so??), there is not that much change to make much of a conclusion on any one. So it is relevant to our observations of any one solar system.

The point theVOID was making is that there are millions of Solar Systems we can look at, and they are all in different stages of formation. To use a metaphor, if you were investigating a crime, and had a CCTV tape that was 48 hours in duration, nobody would expect you to watch the entire 48 hours to see the crime develop. Instead, you would watch sections (every 10 minutes) until you could determine what lead up to the crime taking place.

If solar systems rapidly went through changes, I would agree that it is impossible for us to understand them. The thing is, solar systems slowly develop over millions of years. They are in different stages of development for long periods of time, thus allowing us to observe multiple solar systems in different stages of development.

So how do we know that each of these millions of solar systems that we can observe are in different stages of the same kind of development? If we have only had a chance to observe each individual solar system for a relatively short period of time, as above, how can one be sure that is actually what we are observing? Don't you have to assume this? Then doesn't the whole line of reasoning result in either circular reasoning or begging the question?

In other words, one questions how solar systems are formed. We can observe millions of solar systems out there but each one only for a relatively short period of time. So how do we use this information from millions of solar systems to answer the question of how solar systems are formed? Let's assume then that each of these solar systems is in a different stage of the same kind of development. We can now use this and model how solar systems are formed. We can now compare this model with what we observe and the model fits (no big surprise).

So maybe I am missing something. Please tell me where I am going wrong?

Also, I would like to know where all these millions of solar systems are documented along with all the data (types of data and measurements) for each of these. Note, I would just like to look at all that information. Did the information from all these millions of solar systems go into the model of how solar systems are formed?

Note, I admit I am just a layman relative to this issue so all these questions are not rhetorical. I really would like to hear the answers.

I would also like to know what Void's credentials are relative to this if he is willing to share. (It sure sounds like he knows what he is talking about (that is intended to be taken at face value and is not intended as sarcastic).) I personally only have a B.S. in Chemical Engineering so I admit I have a lot that I can learn in this area.