Father George Coyne: Age of the Universe

Excerpt from Coyne's talk at the Commonwealth Club titled, "The Dance of the Fertile Universe: Are We Alone?" given February 19, 2009.

Full-length video and many other great videos can be found at http://fora.tv

Summary from website:
Father George Coyne, an astronomer and Jesuit priest, Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist, offer their unique perspectives on the question and potential of extraterrestrial life.

Is the Earth the only place where life was realized? Is it possible the physical universe offered other potential niches for life?

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• science
• astronomy
• religion
• christianity
• universe
• extraterrestrial
• life

[tuno182]

I made the counts and George Coyne could be wrong... OR NOT! cause I use the 13.7 followed by zeros and get another numbers for the results of Jesus, Galileu and Dinosaurs. If the life came to be on september 4, it would be around 4.4 billion years, and that's wrong, the corretly day is semptember 28, about 3.5 billion years ago. So can anyone give the other numbers of the 13.7 billion years? yeah, that's boring hahahah :-)

[gdmaverick]

@tuno182 lol, well I'm not gonna check your math, but if you are right, perhaps he meant to reference the beginning of Earth rather than life on Earth.

[Leny1777]

I taught it was trillions of old. Is he lying?

[gdmaverick]

@Leny1777 No. He's exactly right.

[Leny1777]

@gdmaverick this is based on the physical reality. I heard the spiritual reality is 100000 times older than this physical universe.

[gdmaverick]

@Leny1777 What exactly does "spiritual reality" mean? The idea that such thing exists and is 100,000x older than the physical universe is based on what?

[hansbo11]

this man is an inspiration. and i say that as a strong atheist.

[Jugglable]

@ElDuorPaso "Truths are what we can verify, test, falsify, observe"

Most of what we are reasonable to believe as true can't be absolutely verified. I can't prove absolutely that the Battle of Gettysburg happened, but I can make a darn strong case. I can't absolutely prove my dad's not a robot or that torturing a child to death is morally wrong, but I think I'm reasonable to hold those things as true.

What's more, you statement in quotes above can't be proven, but you hold it as true!

[Jugglable]

@ElDuorPaso "But how do you get to that truth, if there is no way to observe, test, verify, falsify it"

Natural theology is the branch of philosophy that deals with God's existence, and many of the greatest minds in history, believer and nonbeliever alike, have found it quite compelling. I suggest you go to channel wordonfirevideo and watch his video called "why believe in god?" or channel MatthewWarner and watch the video called "What Christians Mean By God" for a good short introduction.

[ElDuorPaso]

@Jugglable

... an infinite amount of time, it's not possible that one truth replaces the other. But that's speculation, as I said, we make our own truths up here, and all are possible. I would simply say, it could be possible of God's existence, but it's overly improbable.

I agree, one of us would indeed have to be wrong. But how do you get to that truth, if there is no way to observe, test, verify, falsify it? What if there is a God and no Heaven or Hell (he exists but you won't ever meet him)?

[ElDuorPaso]

@Jugglable

You misinterpreted what I meant by 'truth'.

Truths are what we can verify, test, falsify, observe.. etc. I don't know of any other truth, and the natural world seems to back me up here.

Anything outside of nature and the observable universe is pure speculation, and ultimately faith-based. Of course I was referring to subjective truths. It's truth is up to you, since, objectively, we cannot prove or disprove it. One of us may be wrong, but that doesn't mean given... cnt.

[Jugglable]

@ElDuorPaso Whether it is true is not "up to you." We are entitled to our own opinions, but not our own facts.  If I say God exists that might be true for me, and if you say he doesn't, then that might be true for you, but at the end of the day, one of us has to be wrong.

[Dathinkingman]

hes has made a pact with satan. universe is just 6000 years old. Jesus is comming

[255ad]

@JabberCT "kids can look anything up to form their own opinion" people (especially kids)very rarely form their "own opinion" usually they just appropriate the opinions of people they like or find convincing

[fiddich6666]

@dlbattle100 Truly



[tuno182]

@gdmaverick Or maybe he made de comparison with 14 billion instead of 13.7, but I'm not gonna do the math again hahah. Anyway, awesome video man!