Interesting. When scientifically trying to explain past phenomena, such as what killed off the dinosaurs, generally abductive logic is employed rather than deductive. That is, since we cannot observe what happened directly, what currently acting cause best explains the observations?
So when we observe a thin layer of ash around the world, above which dinosaur fossils disappear, what best explains their demise? Not a global flood. Not huge earthquakes. Not a terrible Ice Age. Possibly a gigantic bout of vulcanism such that the entire world has an ash layer. Possibly a big asteroid hit which would turn the skies into an oven and throw out searing hot fragments across the planet.
How to decide between volcanoes & asteroid? Well, the ash layer contains unusually high levels of iridium. Meteors & asteroids tend to be rich in iridium, but volcanic ash is not. Thus, our inference to the best explanation is an asteroid impact, though we must keep an open mind if further evidence turns up that runs against that conclusion. Until then, alternative explanations are considered (tentatively) falsified, or at least quite unlikely.
Penrose & Hawking used mathematics to conclude the universe had a beginning, along with space, time, matter & energy. Their findings have been confirmed by physicists & mathematicians. In fact, more recently other astrophysicists found that any universe that is expanding on average must have had a beginning, again by peer-reviewed math. They do indeed have faith in math, as do I, even though Godel showed that math rests upon foundations that cannot be absolutely proven.
I like for a hypothesis to become stronger as time goes by & more evidence comes in. Design in molecular biology is one of those.
Last edited by anthropic; 10/23/21 02:39 AM.
