• nialv7@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    this argument isn’t going to work on someone who believes god created said lead… and also, pretty sure not all lead was created from nuclear decay.

    i get dunk on people feels satisfying, but this is just bad science communication through and through

  • affiliate@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    unfortunately i don’t believe in uranium or numbers higher than 200, so this argument doesn’t work on me

  • LovableSidekick@lemmy.world
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    6 hours ago

    Technically this could all be true even if the universe were created 4000 years ago. As somebody says in Robert Heinlein’s novel Job: A Comedy of Justice, “Yes, the universe is billions of years old, but it was created 4000 years ago. It was created old.” (approximate quote from memory)

    I absolutely agree with science, but strictly speaking we can’t know for sure the universe isn’t the creation of some superbeing operating outside of it - or it could even be a simulation.

    • nfh@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      We can’t prove that the world we live in wasn’t created last Thursday, with our memories, the growth rings in trees, and so on created by a (near) omnipotent trickster to deceive us. But science and rationality give us tools for determining what’s worth taking seriously, and sorting out the reasonable, but unconfirmed, claims from the unverifiable hogwash.

    • madeinthebackseat@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      We can’t know anything with 100% certainty. We can always imagine some razzle-dazzle, imagined scenario to counter the rational explanation if we like.

      The point of the scientific method and logical reasoning is to pick the explanation with the most evidence.

    • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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      5 hours ago

      How did the matter that constitutes the universe come into being? What was the single point that signifies the beginning of time? What set time in motion? Will time continue after the death of the universe?

      None of it is worth trying to wrap our tiny little monkey brains around as far as I’m concerned. Go have a pint and listen to music that makes you happy.

  • InverseParallax@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    Yeah, this is broken because all lead did not have to come from polonium, that’s how half-lives work.

    It’s still 100% bullshit in every way, someone just needs to have chatgpt4 sort out the current mass fraction to explain why, I’m way too lazy to argue against insanity.

  • iAvicenna@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    I assume someone saying this is a creationist and can just say god created Earth already with the lead in it. Therefore it is a pointless discussion.

    • Ultraviolet@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Which raises the question of why he would create a planet with the illusion of age and send you to hell for falling for his own trick.

      • NostraDavid@programming.dev
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        5 hours ago

        “for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God” - Exodus 20:5

        Says it all, really. This whole character trait is that he’s a jealous little asshole. He’s like Dolores Umbridge.

        I’m aware Christians may make counter-claims, but I’ve read the old testament, and all he does is to come off as an absolute asshole - you either worship me, or else!

        I wasn’t too surprised (but it made sense) that he (Elohim) originally came from the Canaanitic pantheon. How else can you be the only god, yet people shouldn’t worship other gods? He’s not, that’s how.

        /rant

        • redhorsejacket@lemmy.world
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          4 hours ago

          Not that it really matters, but trying to learn about (Christian) God by reading the Old Testament is like trying to perform maintenance on your 2024 vehicle using a manual from the 2000 version of that car… Like, yeah, that was relevant once, and there’s some overlap, but the situation has evolved since then. It’s called the Old Testament because it is based on something outdated (again, from a generically Christian perspective). The Old Covenant (which is what the Old Testament is testifying to) was between God and the Jews, and was based around compliance with the law. That’s why the OT is so full of rules and punishments.

          Then, Jesus arrives on the scene and changed the game. His birth, betrayal, and death, represent a new contract between God and humanity (not just the Jews) wherein mankind is saved by God’s grace alone. In fact, God has done a 180 on the whole obedience to the law thing. Turns out, God loves sinners, and prostitutes, and tax collectors, and prodigal sons, and all sorts of ne’er-do-wells that the God of the Old Testament would have reviled. From the death of Jesus forward (and maybe retroactively too, I don’t know dogma all that well), the only thing necessary for your salvation is God’s grace, and that is given to all, as long as you accept God into your heart or something like that. Basically, God is Darth Vader, and he has altered the deal, pray he does not alter it further.

          Of course, as with anything A) religious and B) 2000+ years old, there’s a lot of disagreement on like every aspect of the above. But, I think I’ve got the gist of it correct from a generic, if Catholicism influenced, perspective. It’s been a long time since I had to sit through a theology lecture.

          With all that being said though, I imagine that the reason the OT has stuck around in Christianity is that it’s characterization of God as vindictive and capricious and obsessed with toeing the line is a very useful tool for keeping the plebs compliant. They get to have their cake and eat it too, as it were. “God loves you unconditionally sweetie, remember that, but also if you have sex before marriage you are DAMNED to HELL for ETERNITY!”

      • Zink@programming.dev
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        6 hours ago

        And use his omnipotent power to hide from you while watching your life play out in exactly the way his omniscience let him know it would before he even created the earth or you.

      • AstridWipenaugh@lemmy.world
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        6 hours ago

        Because believers will listen to Christianity’s divinely inspired interpretation of the Bible that says that. Non-christians won’t listen to that. Therefore anyone who believes the earth is older has rejected Christianity. He did it to help identify the non-believers because he’s a petty bitch.

  • hope@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Not to argue for creationism, but this argument sucks. Lead can be produced by supernova, not just through decay of heavier elements. But even that’s besides the point, since if you believe some entity created the universe, surely said entity could have created whatever ratio of lead to uranium they wanted. It’s not a falsifiable claim, there’s really no disproving it, unfortunately.

    (Not so fun fact: the environmental impact of leaded gasoline was discovered by trying to estimate the age of the earth using the radio of lead to uranium in uranium deposits, but the pollution from leaded gasoline was throwing the measurements off.)

    • TaTTe@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Also I’m amazed by how people don’t seem to understand what half-life is. It’s not the time it takes for an atom to decay. It’s the time it takes for half of the atoms to decay, meaning there will be some U-238 that decay into Ra-226 in just a couple of seconds.

      So even if the Earth was created 4000 years ago with uranium but not lead (for some weird reason), some of that lead would have decayed into lead by now.

    • PaintedSnail@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      This is why you can never disprove creationism sufficiently to convince a young Earth creationist. The hypothesis is unfalsifiable.

        • tetris11@lemmy.ml
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          7 hours ago

          There’s a fun belief in physics regarding this “superdeterminism”.

          It essentially states that two entangled particles exhibit entanglement not because of any property between them but because they share the same cause origin point (the big bang) and that their respective spin states correlate more with the big bang than each other. Essentially the spin experiments will always appear to show entanglement, but it’s actually a byproduct of the big bang.

          Which, as we can all maybe agree, is fucking weak by order of being disprovable

    • StaticFalconar@lemmy.world
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      7 hours ago

      Well there’s also no way to disprove that everything was created last Tuesday including the memories of things/events happening before last Tuesday.

    • Empricorn@feddit.nl
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      7 hours ago

      Also, we could be way off on the age because we just don’t know. Sure, we can collect data and extrapolate for billions of years and assume that all elements have always decayed at the same rate, but short of living through it and accurately measuring it with modern instruments, molecules-to-man “macro” evolution can’t actually be proven.

      This is why, using the Scientific Method, it is still a theory. A theory accepted by most scientists, but still. There’s a certain arrogance in declaring solved something we can’t actually know for 100% certainty.

  • LilDumpy@lemmy.world
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    10 hours ago

    Real question: Is the decay of uranium the only natural way to produce lead? If so TIL.

  • frezik@midwest.social
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    8 hours ago

    I’m not even sure how you get to 4000 years old from biblical literalisim.

    Edit: going strictly by the biblical account, Adam lived to 930 years, and Noah 950. IIRC, their lives did not overlap. Jesus lived 2000 years ago. A whole bunch of stuff happens in between Noah and Jesus. So even if you’re working strictly from the bible, how the hell do you get 4000 years?

    • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      The Bible has a long list of names with birthdays and who begat whom. It came from Irish archbishop and scholar James Ussher.

      If you believe in the Bible, you get a 4000 year old Earth.

      • frezik@midwest.social
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        7 hours ago

        Ussher calculated 4004BC as the start of the universe, which would be about 6000 years ago.

        That’s my point. Most YEC point to 6000 years. Even within their own framework, I don’t see how you get to 4000 years. My best guess is they saw 4004BC and forgot that 1 BC was about 2000 years ago.

        • xantoxis@lemmy.world
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          5 hours ago

          This is exactly what it is. When everything you believe is made up, it’s easy to accidentally make up the wrong number and then believe that instead.

    • finitebanjo@lemmy.world
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      8 hours ago

      There is a very old Jewish Holiday which celebrates new year on a calendar starting with the creation of the Universe, only about 5000+ years, but even that is obscure af.

  • psycho_driver@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Oh yeah, well were you there 4.5 billion years ago to see this so-called uranium 238?!?

    Check mate, science!