Science or Faith: Comets?
By andy77e
@andy77e (5156)
United States
July 21, 2011 9:27pm CST
Comets are pretty cool. (no pun intended) Massive balls of dirt and ice, some as large as cites, flying through space, with trails of gas and dust behind them.
As most of you know, when a comet flies past the sun, the sun obviously melts some of that ice and dust, which becomes the tail of the comet which we can see in the sky.
But I noticed a small problem. Obviously since the sun is melting these comets away, it should only take a few dozen trips around the sun before there is nothing left.
So since the universe is billions of years old, how are they still around?
Well clearly they come from the Oort Cloud. What is the Oort Cloud? It's a mystical magical cloud that exists somewhere, that has the amazing ability to create new comets, or has trillions of comets just sitting there, and for some unknown reason randomly spits a few out now and then, which then travel around our solar system.
In addition to that, some come from the Kuiper belt, which spits out comets. Granted we have never seen it do that, nor have we found any comet sized objects in that area.
So now that we have dismissed the Kuiper Belt, then we have the 'scattered disc', an area of our solar system which has icy planets (icy simply because of their distance to the sun). For no other reason than a lack of an alternative area, this must be where comets come from.
Of course, me being a theist, who believes in a God that created the universe, I have an alternative theory.
Perhaps, just maybe the reason why comets still exist is just because... Our universe is only 6 or 7 thousand years old, just as the book of Genesis in the Bible claims.
But of course that is partly faith, right? Well... sort of... I mean there is no evidence for the universe to be a few thousand years old... except... for Comets.
"No no, Science says that comets are created naturally."
By what?
"The Oort cloud."
The Oort cloud that no one has seen, no one can find, and there is not a shred of evidence for from any telescope in existence? That Oort Cloud?
"Well maybe the Shattered Disc area"
The shattered disc area that we have never seen a comet come from, or have any evidence there are any comets in? That area?
Tell me... is what you propose "Science" or "Faith"? And when you answer that, then explain how your view is more supportable than my view?
1 person likes this
3 responses
@Gordano (795)
• United States
24 Jul 11
Certainly I'm a supporter of the fact that both science and faith are cooperative, simply science prove faith, certainly -as a Muslim- I don't depend on the Bible for these matters, the Bible is full of errors and scientific absurdities, the Bible say that there was light on the earth before the creation of the sun, it is not a dependable source to confirm that Our universe is only 6 or 7 thousand years old.
out of curiosity, Can you please tell me How the Existence of Comets leads to the conclusion that universe is only 6 or 7 thousand years old??
How it comes that your are an atheist while believes in a God that created the universe? because I think atheism is widely defined as "the rejection of belief in the existence of deities"
I don't really know about the age of the universe, I didn't read much about this, But I know that The Holy Quran (1400 years ago) describe the formation of rain at the time when people used to think that it rains when the sky weeps !! also the same verse refers to Mountains of Ice come from the sky!! you can search about the verse 24:34 of the Holy Quran.
useful links:
http://www.islamicvoice.com/september.2001/science.htm
@andy77e (5156)
• United States
24 Jul 11
I see my error. I said I am a 'theist', not atheist. A 'theist' is someone who believes there must be a God.
I do not believe, nor have I been able to find, errors in the Bible.
As for scientific absurdities, unless you can scientifically prove a negative, then absurdities are largely in the mind, not in science.
Read about Quarks for example. Quantum physics will make your head spin. Try it.
As for God, I find it no more 'faith based' to believe that God who created the entire universe, and make some light before he created the sun, than it is faith based to believe that there is a magical 'Oort' cloud hiding somewhere creating comets.
Can you please tell me How the Existence of Comets leads to the conclusion that universe is only 6 or 7 thousand years old??
I didn't. I said the existence of comets is compatible with the conclusion the universe is only 6 to 7 thousand years old.
What the existence of comets is *not* compatible with, is the idea the universe is 16 Billion years old.
There are two theories. One is the universe is billions of years old. And the other is that it is not.
Comets do not support the billions of years old theory, but they are compatible with the other.
1 person likes this
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
29 Jul 11
this is what the good example that i want to share....
if comets only treated like an AK47 Assault Rifle.....
the question is:
why does the AK47 Assault Rifle never depleted it's bullets although we know it that the maximum amount of bullets in the AK47 Magazine is 30 bullets or 60 bullets i think?????
therefore....
here is the situation:
if you as an observer...
you only see the Area-A
but you cannot see the Area-B
because of it's extremely far away distance and dark all over....
now i will go to Area-A and i show you my AK47 Rifle with magazine fully loaded with bullets,
as soon as i arrived, i immediately burst to fire to fired all of the bullets inside my magazine....
as i continue running to the next Area-B and my rifle magazine the bullets are all depleted...
now, when i arrive at Area-B,
you no longer see me because that area is too dark and far away but you didn't know that there are plenty of backup magazine bullets there because that Area-B there are one room there has a machine that can manufacture bullets...
now i reload my rifle and ready for firing again....
when i arrived again at Area-A,
now you see me oncoming....
now i start firing again all my bullets as i have to go back then to Area-B as soon as i passed the Area-A....
see my point?
that is what the comets do also as i guess but i am no so sure....
only God knows if this is His natural ways to do it....
i really love the way you think @andy77e......
@bird123 (10658)
• United States
22 Jul 11
Comets are remarkable. They don't disappear because their mass has gravity that keeps them together as they travel. They do run into planets from time to time like the one that hit Jupiter. There are lots of rocks like meteors and comets flying around out there. It's sauce for the goose. Beliefs are nothing but a patch that covers the gap when the truth is not known. Without beliefs, we would lock up just like my old computer when all the facts weren't known. We must see beliefs for what they are. They point to a direction by which we can search for the truth. We can never assume beliefs of any kind are truth because so very often they prove not to be. Let's all go out and discover the real truth. We can't depend on mere beliefs.
@bird123 (10658)
• United States
23 Jul 11
One must remember that all science starts with a belief. Isn't creationism a belief??? It merely points the direction you might investigate. Science has hard evidence, however they are far from having all the answers. Their advantage over religion is that they will change with new knowledge rather than blindly keeping the story the same based only on beliefs. This is the real reason I believe science will discover God before religion even though religion believes God exists first.
@mantis36 (4219)
• Philippines
29 Jul 11
@andy77e,
you know? i really like the way you're thinking, because it makes me more resourceful and i really like your question....
now i'll try to answer it, but i am no so sure if i pass the way i answer....
to me, i think that the comet if repeated passed to orbit sun therefore,
maybe at 8 times of revolution to orbit around the sun it's icy parts will only melt until no more ice and it will no longer called a comet....
but i think and i am not so sure but....
if the comet backs again to it's source destination in the depths of the certain very far away area, there is a scattered massive icy area
(like those of asteroid belt found between mars and jupiter)
but instead of asteroid, it's a full of icy debris and icy dust to soon collects to assemble again to the melting portion of the newly arrived comet came from the sun....
and then that comet is re-structure or re-assembled again with ice....
like an AK47 assault rifle that been depleted with bullets, is to insert again another full ammo magazine... because that rifle is passed again in the armory room...
that for a billions of years to passed, iced particles supply there will never depleted....
although i am very not so sure, but this is what i am thinking as a possible reasons....
so issue on comets is solved.... to support that the universe is 16 billion years old....
and to my own reason, i believe that the universe is more or less 16 billion years old is because i believe that the FOSSIL FUEL will not develop or will not mature if it will not passed by billions of years....
if thousands of years only i think those fossil fuels will not be made....
fossil fuels that runs our machinery and generator....
