I don't wish to denigrate any individuals beliefs, but I am curious how this story is received by those who follow religion and the origins of the earth taught through religion.
Do some Christians take the biblical accounts of creation literally, believing that they describe exactly how the universe and human beings were created.
Hypotheses are more unlikely if they are conditional on certain obstacles being overcome. The greater the number of required things that have to be true, the less likely the hypothesis is to be true. This is about as basic a statement of probability as you can get.
You still have to weigh different ideas against each other, to be sure, but it stands to reason that explanations requiring fewer events ought to get priority. If nothing else, because it is simpler to rule out the simple, and simpler to confirm it.
//Certainly that applies to us – but it didn’t, allegedly, apply to ancient man so where did his ideas come from? //
I would be happy to listen to the opinions, about the ancient art, of a remote tribe who have yet to have had their worldview contaminated by modern communications equipment or even travelling theatre groups.
Divebuddy, The Nazca lines have been shown to be most likely related to the Nazca system of record keeping which used knotted thread. Probably just a daft idea dreamt up by some ignorant archaeologist for all I know.
/I think we can safely rule this out as Alien baggage didn't turn up in the lost property at Heathrow./
It will all be at the bottom of that hole corroded in the arrivals bay floor.
//Hypognosis, read what you said and think about it. //
Okay, done that. So, what words should I write and in what sequence, in order to elicit, from a stranger, how much they know about the early universe?
Don't forget that, at the time I asked that question, I was unaware that you had read a specific thing which Stephen Hawking had said which *I* hadn't even heard about or read, myself. (The 4bn years thing).
Perfectly straight lines in the desert ? easy-peasy, you only need 3 sticks; insert 1 and 2 in the ground and by sighting along them, line up no. 3, remove no. 1 and do the same with that and so on for a hundred miles if you feel that way inclined. Don't forget your sun-hat though, it's pretty damn hot out there.