If the universe is billlions of years old... (pray, believe, exist)

[chielgirl]

Originally Posted by jdaelectro

Don't you think our galaxy alone would be littered with artifacts from these advanced societies?

Don't understand gravitational pull, or much else about space, do you?

[orogenicman]

Originally Posted by rifleman

Nah; you just watch, pro-geology man! There will be an outrageous and impossible story concocted to dismiss any and all new evidence. Stand by the Answers in Genesis website!

It never fails: no matter what hard and factual evidence is placed in front of these stubborn believers in the impossible, they'll find a way!

(Frankly, given the facts currently at hand, I'd be intensely embarrassed to be a part of such a grand conspiracy of stubborn ignorance!)

It really is sad the type of or rather the utter lack of education these people have received. I think their teachers (assuming that they ever went to school) should be held to account.

[Rafius]

Originally Posted by rifleman

Hey Rafius! I thought you were drinking tea!

I'm always drinking tea old chap.

(btw, it's v. cold and v. early here! [03:48a & -12˚ C]

You're 'avin a laf pal. -12C. I couldn't survive that. Get yourself down here mate where it a balmy 25C.

[QuixoticHobbit]

Originally Posted by jdaelectro

Don't you think our galaxy alone would be littered with artifacts from these advanced societies?

Guess you don't realize how BIG our galaxy alone is...

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by jdaelectro

What do you think the plausible method of space travel would be if we were to inhabit another planet? Faster than light is pointless. We need a faster method. Bending space (Warp) is so far off that it is only a dream.

We are a very young species in the galactic timeline. This is a "fact" taught by the old universe pushers. There should be many other mature beings roaming the cosmos. Yet they evade us.

If the universe is billions of years old and has many life sustaining planets then surely we would know by now.

The old populated universe is a paradox. This is explained by the Fermi Paradox.

Fermi paradox - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

What are your thoughts?

Not much more to say than 'perhaps' this, 'perhaps' that. Until we start directly exploring other planetary systems beyond our own, there is mostly just supposition.

Maybe interstellar travel is so resource-costly that there is little incentive for civilizations to undertake it after that initial "Hey, we can do this now, so let's go check out Alpha Centauri!" phase.

Maybe civilizations tend to be like humanity, acquiring technology and capabilities at a rate faster than their ability to deal responsibly with those technologies, and thus eliminate themselves, either through violence or some sort of Malthusian collapse.

Maybe some of the variables in Drake's famous equation are simply not as large as we think.

Until we can begin to survey a number of star systems more directly than we can do now from afar, all we can do is make marginally-educated guesses.

[QuixoticHobbit]

Originally Posted by orogenicman

It really is sad the type of or rather the utter lack of education these people have received. I think their teachers (assuming that they ever went to school) should be held to account.

That would probably be their parents. Homeschooling is big with this bunch. It's a great way to keep one's children from being exposed to inconvenient facts like evolution, etc.

[orogenicman]

Originally Posted by QuixoticHobbit

That would probably be their parents. Homeschooling is big with this bunch. It's a great way to keep one's children from being exposed to inconvenient facts like evolution, etc.

I have always had a problem with homeschooling. There doesn't appear to be a lot of oversight, and apparently the requirements that must be met are either inadequate, or unenforced.

[Voyageur]

Originally Posted by jdaelectro

Wouldn't this mean every species started evolving at the same time?

No.

Star systems form at different times. Our own, approximately 4.55 billion years old, is far younger than the oldest known star in the Milky Way (approximately 13.2 billion years old). Even arguing that the first star systems would have lacked the heavy elements that make up the bulk of the planets/moons in our solar system, those elements were present in sufficient quantities billions of years before our own solar system formed. And, of course, star systems have continued to form since the beginning of our own.

And all this merely speaks to the formation of planetary systems -- there is no reason to think that life would necessarily occur/develop at similar rates even in very similar planetary systems. There's nothing special about our system that would have precluded the rise of complex, sentient life a billion years before it happened, or a billion years after. A coment, an asteroid, or a nearby supernova can change things suddenly. And when a particularly critical mutation might first occur and then survive long enough to spread through out a species is not fixed, either -- could be sooner, could be later.

[PanTerra]

If the universe is billlions of years old...

We should be able to see galaxies that are billions of light years away.

Well, look at that! We do, we do!!

[Rafius]

Originally Posted by PanTerra

If the universe is billlions of years old...

We should be able to see galaxies that are billions of light years away.

Well, look at that! We do, we do!!

Accursed heathen! Don't you know all that was put there by Satan to deceive us?