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Replying to Diagoras]
So how would you test which theory past events were true? Maybe you would agree with this article from the University of Berkeley.
In an article from the University of Berkeley entitled “Predicting the Past� the author makes the case for scientifically proving the past. He claims the key to proving the past is the following axiom. “The key is to remember that we are figuring out what we would expect to observe today, if a particular event had happened in the past.� (
https://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/%3C ... science_03)
I personally do not believe that the past can be proven scientifically because the past is not a repeatable event. I would not be saying that the past is unknowable. I would simply be saying that science is not the mechanism in which history can be proved. Science would simply be one piece of evidence that can be used to predict what happen in the past.
Many do believe that science can prove the past and the above axiom is used to prove the validity of the scientific claim. Basically the claim is saying, if a theory of an event in the past can predict what we are observing today, then the theory can be verified as correct.
Creationist Walt Brown made the following predictions before the subsequent observations were made.
1. Beneath major mountains are large volumes of pooled saltwater. (Recent discoveries support this prediction, first published in 1980. Supercritical saltwater appears to be below the Tibetan Plateau, which is bounded on the south by the largest mountain range on Earth.)
2. The crystalline rock under Gibraltar, the Bosporus and Dardanelles, and the Golden Gate Bridge will be found to be eroded into V-shaped notches. (This prediction, first published in 1995, was confirmed for the Bosporus and Dardanelles in 1998103 and for Gibraltar in 2009 and 2018.)
3. By 2020, satellites in low-Earth orbits will predict the locations of major earthquakes several days before the quakes. The satellites will measure electrical changes in the ionosphere that are produced by piezoelectric voltages building up in stressed rock around the focus of the coming earthquake. If the focus is above the crossover depth (220 miles below Earth’s surface), upward escaping magma may also produce detectable heat around the epicenter days before the quake.
Now the 2020 date may be off by a little, but the rest of the prediction is correct as indicated by this article from December 2015, “Science� entitled“Can electric signals in Earth’s atmosphere predict earthquakes?� by Julia Rosen. In this article Ms. Rosen makes the argument that it may one day be possible to predict earthquakes by monitoring the ionosphere.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/12 ... arthquakes
4. Soil in “erosion� channels on Mars will contain traces of earthlike soluble compounds, such as salt, from Earth’s pre flood subterranean chambers. Soil far from “erosion� channels will not. (This prediction was first published in April 2001. Salt was first discovered on Mars in March 2004.93
5. Asteroids are rock piles, often with internal ice acting as a weak glue. Large rocks that began the capture process are near the centers of asteroids and comets.
Four years after this prediction was published in 2001 (In the Beginning, 7th edition, page 220), measurements of the largest asteroid, Ceres, found that it does indeed have a dense, rocky core and a mantle primarily of water-ice.10
On 23 January 2014, it was announced that two jets of water vapor were discovered escaping from Ceres at a combined rate of 13 pounds per second.
6. Most of the rocks (pebble-size and larger) comprising asteroids and comets will be found to be rounded to some degree. (This rounding occurred as the rocks tumbled and were eroded in the powerful fountains of the great deep, just as rocks are tumbled and rounded in fast flowing streams.)
The European Space Administration announced on 18 December 2014 that very large, rounded boulders — 1 to 3 meters in diameter — are stacked “layer upon layer� “all over� Comet 67P. [See Figure 184 on page 340.] They jokingly call them dinosaur eggs, and believe they could be the basic building blocks that clumped together to form� comets.
7. A deep, penetrating impact on a large asteroid, such as Ceres, will release huge volumes of water vapor. (This prediction has now been confirmed.
“Here we report the detection of water vapour around Ceres, with at least 10 26 molecules being produced per second, [13 pounds/sec] originating from localized sources that seem to be linked to mid-latitude regions on the surface.� Michael Kuppers et al., “Localized Sources of Water Vapour on the Dwarf Planet (1) Ceres,� Nature, Vol. 505, 23 January 2014, p. 525.
All of these predictions were confirmed by observation. So does this prove that the Genesis Flood happen, according to the university of Berkeley’s criteria it does.
Creationist Russell Humphreys has predicted the smoothness of the cosmic microwave background radiation without any "make believe" inflation theory. The theory also gets rid of the need for dark matter and dark energy. Because this theory does not need unobserved phenomenon.
In most circumstances this would mean that this theory would be accepted.
What test would you suggest that could determine which theory is correct?
It is not about what science may discover in the future but what can science prove.
