From: dnomhcir@gmx.com   
      
   D  writes:   
      
   >> How would we have any conception of time if we did not recreate the   
   >> past from the present?   
   >   
   > My point it theorizing that does not lead to empirical evidence. As   
   > for time, it happens, a watch has a movement I can see. I don't really   
   > understand this point. Let me read on...   
      
   The evidence is always in the present. The watch is in the present. How   
   do you know the time on your watch changes? You compare it with your   
   memory, which is in the present. You cannot go into the past and check   
   what was there. The past is a theory without empirical evidence.   
      
   >   
   >> Scientists do it all the time. They worked out what had happened all   
   >> the way back to the big bang and possibly before, based on the   
   >> evidence of cosmic background radiation and quantum theories. Maybe   
   >> there is no point, or maybe curiosity is a point in itself.   
   >   
   > True. But it is based on empirical evidence, that is my entire   
   > point. The question about moons during the dinosaurs is meaningless   
   > from the point of view of empirical evidence.   
      
   This is very odd to me. These two are examples of the same thing, in   
   every way. How do you know that the cosmic microwave background   
   radiation is evidence of what happened before the big bang? There is no   
   way to go back and check.   
      
   How do you know that dinosaur fossils are evidence of dinosaurs? There   
   is no way to ever go back and look at them. (Don't mention birds). This   
   is the same thing in kind as electrons, and parallel universes. Perhaps   
   it is because I visualize things. Imagine a screen with a projector   
   behind it. We can't see the projector, only the screen. We theorize the   
   projector. You call the screen evidence, but it is the starting point of   
   the theory. The end point is to go behind the screen and look at the   
   projector. But we can't do that with dinosaurs, or electrons, or the big   
   bang, or parallel universes. They are all the same in kind. You can say   
   that dinosaurs are the most likely explanation. All others are too   
   fantastic. Perhaps the quantum ripples before the big bang are the most   
   likely explanation for CMBR as there was no explanation before.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)