Re: Out-dated theory

Ken Down wrote:

In message <87hd6s4dfw.fsf@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Gareth McCaughan <Gareth.McCaughan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

I understand, but I think you impression is wrong (or at least
ill-founded). The idea goes right back to Einstein, and the
reason why they were able to propose it as an explanation of
the universe's accelerating expansion is that it was already
known that it could do that.

Dark energy goes back to Einstein? You surprise me.

He didn't call it "dark energy". But his equations include
something called the "cosmological constant", which you can
think of as representing a certain amount of energy associated
with space "just being there", and it has pretty much the
right properties for "dark energy" as currently proposed.

Which doesn't mean it's right, of course. Einstein put
the "cosmological constant" in his equations for a different
reason, and later came to think he'd made a mistake in
doing so. And, believe it or not, I find the whole business
pretty unsatisfactory and hope there's a better theory
lurking round some (dark?) corner. My point was simply that
there's a reason why, when the expansion of the universe
was found to be accelerating, scientists were able to say
"hmm, well *this* ought to be able to cause that", and it's
nothing to do with anxiety.

No one believes that our current theories are perfect.

Just heaven help a Creationist if he questions them.

You'd prefer the other guys to help instead?

Anyway: questioning is just fine. You are welcome to
question anything you like, including relativity and
arithmetic and evolution. What will get you either
upbraided or mocked is misrepresenting your questions
as real scientific problems, which you (like many
other creationists) persist in doing without any
sort of justification beyond an apparently settled
unwillingness to understand and a love of tweaking
noses.

--
Gareth McCaughan
..sig under construc
.

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