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Len,

In some ways I like your analogy about what you understand as tied to what you can observe.  But I will now suggest that an understanding of the age of the earth compared to an understanding of electricity or light should be no different.  In fact the forces that formed and shaped the earth are easier to observe than the atomic level forces involved with light or electricity.  A great example just took place: Sandy.  Huge amounts of sediment were moved in a matter of hours. The earth is a dynamic entity.  Earthquakes, volcanoes, floods are the forces that we use to understand the age of the earth,  Fossils are part of it, as well as radioactive decay, and a number of other forms of observable evidence.  Much easier than trying to watch actual photons or electrons.  I think your bias is strictly a product of your scientific proclivities: you probably know more about physics than geology.  And when I think about my own education as well as my teenage daughters the pecking order of science started with physical sciences, followed by biology, and earth science came last.  One of her HS science teachers just decided to completely skip the chapters on evolution and the rest of the geology stuff was a skim over.

We need our fellow citizens to be well-rounded in all the sciences.  Everyone will have their favorites, and some will always reject parts, but it still needs to be a good mix. 

There seems to be a trend toward taking things out of the educational mix when they are deemed hard to understand or bump up against other beliefs.  Certainly our elected officials are not helping in any great way.

Erich Rose

Erich Rose Design
807 The Living End
Austin, TX 78746
512-626-9930; [log in to unmask]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/erichrose/




On Nov 20, 2012, at 10:39 AM, Len Adams wrote:

> ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
> Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
> *****************************************************************************
> 
> If I'm honest, I'd have to say I don't really know how old the earth is, either.  I can take the word of people I trust, and I can say I think the earth is 4.5 billion years old, but I'm taking the word of various text books and teachers, and the arguments they make.  I don't have any first-hand knowledge about this, not like the knowledge I have about how electricity behaves or how light behaves.
> 
> On some level my inkling that the earth is 4.5 billion years old is not so different from a biblical or other faith-based understanding of the age of the earth.  I think there are a lot I take on faith, that I haven't seen for myself first-hand, that I sometimes take as fact.  The trick for me is remembering the difference; that I've seen for myself that under certain conditions light travels in a straight line, on the other hand being able to conceptualize 4.5 billion years is a little outside of my realm of experience.
> 
> Mr. Rubio was trying to walk a political tightrope, but on a certain level I think I'm right there with him.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> - Len

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