Originally posted by: CycloWizard
But the question he raised in his OP has nothing to do with the age of the earth. Two very fundamental questions still remain for science (among others, of course):
1. Where did mass/energy come from?
2. How did life begin?
Neither has been observed experimentally. That mass and energy could come from somewhere seems to be a fairly gross violation of the second law of thermodynamics. Has it always been here? This is the heart of his question. His anecdotes undermined it, to be sure, but there it is.
OK... let's ignore the additional constraint. So we are
not looking for a therory that is also consistant with the idea that the earth is only 10k years old.
1. How was the Universe created?
Last time I read up on this (OK, some time ago) the answer was:
1.1 Total Energy in Universe is zero
1.2 So a Universe can be created, and would be allowed to persist, by the normal operation of the Uncertainty Principle.
This theory has (had) the huge benefit that there is no discontinuity in the laws of physics. The actual creation process is entirely consistant with what we know and observe to-day.
The idea that total energy in the Universe is zero may come as a shock. It did to me. The key point is that graviational energy is nagative. Two masses have zero graviational energy if they are an infinite distance apart. If they are a finite distance apart they have a net negative energy , namely minus the energy needed to make them an infinite distance apart. Easy to calculate = G m1 m2 / D if I'm not mistaken.
Given that, it is clearly possible, in principle, for a universe such as the one we see to have net zero energy, with the negative gravitational energy exactly couterbalancing the mass energy.
I also understand that projects to estimate the total energy of our Universe were under way, and the answer did seem to be coming out very close to zero.
2. How did life evolve.
xdxforever has it pretty much as I understand it. Once you have groups of "molecules that reproduse themselves" (which also exhibit capacity for self organization) you are on your way. The details are horribly complex, with many areas of uncertainty - but the broad path is clear with no problem of principle.
Peter