Dinosaur… or winosaur?
Certain pieces of God’s creation aren’t here anymore, but there is much that we can learn by studying fossils. There’s also just as much, if not more, that we’ll never learn.
About dinosaurs, for instance.
Sometimes our speculations (I resist the urge to call them flights of fancy) are a little hard to swallow.
But I do think God the Father likes His children to exercise their brains. Some of those speculations have to turn out to be right!
I say those “feathers” are actually evidence that dinosaurs had haute couture millinery shops. Prove me wrong if you can. 😛
You peeked.
One thing I’ve noticed is that people will speculate on some notion, reasoning and rationalizing until they come up with an explanation that fits their idea. The idea is presented, and if it finds acceptance with a group of people, that speculative idea can very quickly be regarded as irrefutable truth, if not divine writ.
I’ve seen this in religions, and I’ve seen it in science. What is amazing, is that once speculation is accepted as fact, people will defend that idea zealously, even if there’s no actual proof.
I used to watch a lot of science programs, such as The Universe. I’m very interested in how things work, and I watched these in good faith. Many if their evolutionary arguments seemed sensible, and I accepted some of these, with reservations on my part to allow for the Creator’s hand. But after some time, I realized that much of what they taught was highly speculative. It was plausible, but not unassailable. Eventually I came to the conclusion that a lot of this was merely speculation, masquerading as fact.
Paleontology has taken fossil evidence and created an elaborate narrative, but that is not to say that their narrative is factually based. There’s a lot of speculation, presented as established fact.
Another area where speculation is rampant is the subject of exo-planets; planets they have detected orbit8ng distant stars. The chief way they detect these is through studying the timing of periodic dimming of light from that star. Orbital intervals are very regular, so if there is a slight dimming every year, and they have an estimate of the mass of the star, then they can estimate the orbital distance of the planet.
Interesting and based upon well established scientific principles, but from this scant information, we are now reading about the character of these exo-planets as if they had detailed climatological information. I wouldn’t be surprised to read that these exo-planets have solved income inequality and all of their other social problems. 🙂 All of this from minuscule periodic dimming of a far distant star. At this point, I’m skeptical. This dimming could be from orbiting planets, and regularity would suggest an orbiting planet, but this is far from proof. Keep in mind, this isn’t an eclipse of the star, just a minute dimming from a relatively small planet passing in front of the star. That’s far from a guarantee.
As for speculating on skimpy evidence, I don’t think we can help it. Part of living in a fallen world, I guess.
But T. rex as an overgrown canary just doesn’t float my boat.
Agreed. One of the hardest things I had to learn was that my opinions and notions were not the last word in what was right.