Science uses evidence to explain the processes that we observe in nature. The best evidence suggests that Earth was formed by the collision of many particles of dust and rocks that orbited the Sun approximately 4.6 billions of years ago. The collisions created a lot of heat and basically fused the rocks together. You can imagine having wet mud (or snow) thrown to a pile of wet mud and sticking to it. As you throw more mud to the pile, the larger the pile gets. The early Earth was bombarded by many rocks and the collisions were so intense that it had a molten surface. As the planet cooled and collisions waned, the rocks solidified and formed the planet. Although many other interesting events occurred from 4 billion years ago to the present that had a great impact on the earth such as the presence of water, the origin of life and oxygen in the atmosphere. Without these three key characteristics, earth would look more like the other inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars); barren.
Hi Jitty, this is a really interesting question!
On the Earth formation, Daniel indeed already gave a nice overview on the topic. When I look at the stars in the sky, I also ask my self similar questions. We are so tiny, how come we are here? A fascinating fact is that human understanding is now so advanced that we can actually formulate answers like the one Daniel gave. We can actually observe, with the telescopes, stars being born and dying, planets more or less similar to Earth wandering around our galaxy: we really have a privileged point of view on our Universe, and all started because we asked ourselves similar questions: How was the Earth created?
We started thousands of years ago with mystical and religious answers, but then as long as we proceed with our knowledge, we found ourselves able to give more robust answers, based on observations and reasoning.
Science, however, does not have an answer to everything, so do not think that you have to be atheist, or “without religion” to be a scientists. there is absolutely no contradiction between the two approaches: they both arise from curiosity and wonder at Nature!
Hi Jitty, I think Daniel and Anna have given some really great answers! And I agree with them. I would just add that advances in science and technology are changing are views on how the Earth formed all the time. For example, just recently, a co-worker of mine at CRPG discovered that the Earth and the Moon might actually be 60 million years older than we previously thought! (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140610144654.htm) Which is pretty cool! So we have come a long way in our understanding but still have quite a long way to go!
The great debate between creation and evolution! 🙂 The other scientists have already discussed it into great depth. What I would say is that both religion and science satisfy some of our curiosities, hence they do not need to cancel each other out. I know of a lot of great scientists who also have a great devotion to their religion. 🙂
The other geoscientists have already discussed this in great detail so I won’t write too much more!
Advances in science really show that we don’t know the answer to everything and that any ideas have to be questioned in great detail. So as Jesse mentioned, perhaps the earth could be older than we think. Or the temperature of the ocean at certain periods in time could be completely different depending on what you use to work that out. Scientific ideas really do change all the time!
Science uses evidence to explain the processes that we observe in nature. The best evidence suggests that Earth was formed by the collision of many particles of dust and rocks that orbited the Sun approximately 4.6 billions of years ago. The collisions created a lot of heat and basically fused the rocks together. You can imagine having wet mud (or snow) thrown to a pile of wet mud and sticking to it. As you throw more mud to the pile, the larger the pile gets. The early Earth was bombarded by many rocks and the collisions were so intense that it had a molten surface. As the planet cooled and collisions waned, the rocks solidified and formed the planet. Although many other interesting events occurred from 4 billion years ago to the present that had a great impact on the earth such as the presence of water, the origin of life and oxygen in the atmosphere. Without these three key characteristics, earth would look more like the other inner planets (Mercury, Venus, and Mars); barren.
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Hi Jitty, this is a really interesting question!
On the Earth formation, Daniel indeed already gave a nice overview on the topic. When I look at the stars in the sky, I also ask my self similar questions. We are so tiny, how come we are here? A fascinating fact is that human understanding is now so advanced that we can actually formulate answers like the one Daniel gave. We can actually observe, with the telescopes, stars being born and dying, planets more or less similar to Earth wandering around our galaxy: we really have a privileged point of view on our Universe, and all started because we asked ourselves similar questions: How was the Earth created?
We started thousands of years ago with mystical and religious answers, but then as long as we proceed with our knowledge, we found ourselves able to give more robust answers, based on observations and reasoning.
Science, however, does not have an answer to everything, so do not think that you have to be atheist, or “without religion” to be a scientists. there is absolutely no contradiction between the two approaches: they both arise from curiosity and wonder at Nature!
0
Hi Jitty, I think Daniel and Anna have given some really great answers! And I agree with them. I would just add that advances in science and technology are changing are views on how the Earth formed all the time. For example, just recently, a co-worker of mine at CRPG discovered that the Earth and the Moon might actually be 60 million years older than we previously thought! (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140610144654.htm) Which is pretty cool! So we have come a long way in our understanding but still have quite a long way to go!
0
The great debate between creation and evolution! 🙂 The other scientists have already discussed it into great depth. What I would say is that both religion and science satisfy some of our curiosities, hence they do not need to cancel each other out. I know of a lot of great scientists who also have a great devotion to their religion. 🙂
0
The other geoscientists have already discussed this in great detail so I won’t write too much more!
Advances in science really show that we don’t know the answer to everything and that any ideas have to be questioned in great detail. So as Jesse mentioned, perhaps the earth could be older than we think. Or the temperature of the ocean at certain periods in time could be completely different depending on what you use to work that out. Scientific ideas really do change all the time!
0