My Scientific Method Challenge

[AV1611VET]

Show me how they used the scientific method to confirm the Flood was not global.

I'll try first:

1. Purpose- What do you want to learn?

I want to learn if the Flood in Noah's time was worldwide.

(Whoever Noah is.)

2. Research- Find out as much as you can.

Let's see ... um ...

• Read the Bible's account of the Flood: can't determine if the earth was one giant supercontinent or seven continents, so it must have been seven continents.
  
• Searched around the earth for fossils -- found some all over.

3. Hypothesis- Try to predict the answer to the problem.

Let's see. Found fossils all over the earth. Looks like the Flood was only a local one.

4. Design a test or procedure to confirm or disprove your hypothesis.

Well I don't know what gopher wood is, so I'll just use this oak ... or maybe this pine over here.

Whatever.

I don't have any pitch, whatever that is, so I'll just use nails and screws and metal bolts.

Not sure where I'm going to get enough water for even a local flood to lift it higher than the mountains of Ararat.

Forget it.

I'll reinterpret the fifteen cubits to mean the Ark just lifted 22½ feet off the ground.

Still, though, not enough water.

Oh, well.

The Ark would have fallen apart anyway.

5. Analysis- Record what happened during the experiment.

The Ark fell apart.

6. Conclusion- Review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct.

The Flood didn't happen as stipulated in the Bible: however they interpret it.

Your turn!

 

[Goonie]

Trying to keep straight face.

Hypothesis: flood is worldwide.

Evidence: ancient religious text. Physical evidence zero.

Hypothesis falls at first hurdle.

 

[AV1611VET]

Hypothesis: flood is worldwide.

You went right to STEP 3!

Evidence: ancient religious text. Physical evidence zero.

What happened to "fossils all over the earth"?

Hypothesis falls at first hurdle.

It should have falled at the third.

What happened to the research, and what happened to all those fossils?

 

[Hieronymus]

Physical evidence zero.

Really now?

 

[Goonie]

You went right to STEP 3! What happened to "fossils all over the earth"?It should have falled at the third.

What happened to the research, and what happened to all those fossils?

Just cutting to the chase, I was on break did not have time to fully answer.

1. How to test for a global flood?

2. Test DNA strands, after all if human population fell to just a few members as ancient religious text says then this would show up as a bottleneck.

3. Result, no bottleneck detected for 10,000's. Of years.

Conclusion, there was no flood in the time period described in the ancient religious text.

 

[Goonie]

And yes folks! I am as much a scientist as AV

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

The hypothesis comes BEFORE the research. You don't do the research then form the hypothesis.

 

[HitchSlap]

The hypothesis comes BEFORE the research. You don't do the research then form the hypothesis.

He's a creationist with no formal scientific training and believes whatever his pastor tells him, what did you expect?

 

[SkyWriting]

5. Analysis- Record what happened during the experiment.

The Ark fell apart.

6. Conclusion- Review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct.

The Flood didn't happen as stipulated in the Bible: however they interpret it.

There used to be a video of an Ark in a big tank.
The model they used didn't hold up to the waves
they made. But as are no waves in the story, I
couldn't imagine how they decided the correct height.

 

[SkyWriting]

He's a creationist with no formal scientific training and believes whatever his pastor tells him, what did you expect?

Is there some certificate or certification by some board, a test, or yearly training
...in your dreams?

 

[HitchSlap]

Is there some certificate or certification by some board, a test, or yearly training

Ignorance is a choice.

 

[SkyWriting]

Ignorance is a choice.

I don't fault you your decision.

 

[HitchSlap]

I don't fault you your decision.

Nor I, yours.

 

[AirPo]

And yes folks! I am as much a scientist as AV

I think this might be the jump the shark challange.

 

[AV1611VET]

The hypothesis comes BEFORE the research. You don't do the research then form the hypothesis.

What are the steps to the Scientific Method?

 

[jayem]

Show me how they used the scientific method to confirm the Flood was not global.

I'll try first:

1. Purpose- What do you want to learn?

I want to learn if the Flood in Noah's time was worldwide.

(Whoever Noah is.)

2. Research- Find out as much as you can.

Let's see ... um ...

• Read the Bible's account of the Flood: can't determine if the earth was one giant supercontinent or seven continents, so it must have been seven continents.
  
• Searched around the earth for fossils -- found some all over.

3. Hypothesis- Try to predict the answer to the problem.

Let's see. Found fossils all over the earth. Looks like the Flood was only a local one.

4. Design a test or procedure to confirm or disprove your hypothesis.

Well I don't know what gopher wood is, so I'll just use this oak ... or maybe this pine over here.

Whatever.

I don't have any pitch, whatever that is, so I'll just use nails and screws and metal bolts.

Not sure where I'm going to get enough water for even a local flood to lift it higher than the mountains of Ararat.

Forget it.

I'll reinterpret the fifteen cubits to mean the Ark just lifted 22½ feet off the ground.

Still, though, not enough water.

Oh, well.

The Ark would have fallen apart anyway.

5. Analysis- Record what happened during the experiment.

The Ark fell apart.

6. Conclusion- Review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct.

The Flood didn't happen as stipulated in the Bible: however they interpret it.

Your turn!

Points # 4 and 5 address the question of whether a functional Ark could be built. That's a different hypothesis than if there was was a global flood. Those suppositions are not necessarily correlated, unless you assume that the impossiblity of building an Ark according to the Biblical description also rules out a worldwide deluge.

 

[AV1611VET]

Points # 4 and 5 address the question of whether a functional Ark could be built.

Do you have a better experiment?

Remember: in Step 2, the Bible was used to input information.

 

[jayem]

Do you have a better experiment?

First, you create a hypothesis: A flood occurred several thousand years ago which submerged the entire land area of the planet. It crested at a height of 15 cubits (8 meters or so?) above the highest mountains, and wouldn't have dissipated for at least a year. I'm not a geologist, but I know such a deluge would leave distinct geologic evidence. One example: As the water receded, it would wash trillions or more tons of sediment into rivers, lakes, and ultimately into the oceans. You'd expect to find a layer of terrestrial sediment in the floors of all the oceans, and a layer buried in the polar ice caps that all date to the same time. So you do deep sampling at various places in all the oceans, river beds, lake bottoms, and at the poles. (I know ice cores have been obtained dating to over 30,000 years ago. So it's possible to get deep enough.) If your flood hypothesis is correct, you'll find supporting evidence in the Earth's crust that all dates contemporaneously.

 

[Warden_of_the_Storm]

What are the steps to the Scientific Method?

I may have confused research with test.

 

[mindlight]

Show me how they used the scientific method to confirm the Flood was not global.

I'll try first:

1. Purpose- What do you want to learn?

I want to learn if the Flood in Noah's time was worldwide.

(Whoever Noah is.)

2. Research- Find out as much as you can.

Let's see ... um ...

• Read the Bible's account of the Flood: can't determine if the earth was one giant supercontinent or seven continents, so it must have been seven continents.
  
• Searched around the earth for fossils -- found some all over.

3. Hypothesis- Try to predict the answer to the problem.

Let's see. Found fossils all over the earth. Looks like the Flood was only a local one.

4. Design a test or procedure to confirm or disprove your hypothesis.

Well I don't know what gopher wood is, so I'll just use this oak ... or maybe this pine over here.

Whatever.

I don't have any pitch, whatever that is, so I'll just use nails and screws and metal bolts.

Not sure where I'm going to get enough water for even a local flood to lift it higher than the mountains of Ararat.

Forget it.

I'll reinterpret the fifteen cubits to mean the Ark just lifted 22½ feet off the ground.

Still, though, not enough water.

Oh, well.

The Ark would have fallen apart anyway.

5. Analysis- Record what happened during the experiment.

The Ark fell apart.

6. Conclusion- Review the data and check to see if your hypothesis was correct.

The Flood didn't happen as stipulated in the Bible: however they interpret it.

Your turn!

I guess the creation science argument would be on the lines of "Fossils form in sedimentary rock. The same broad geological patterns apply globally. so the flood was global."

There is no science that can prove otherwise. Only arguments by analogy to various scientific facts and things that can be scientifically verified.

The question of whether the flood is global or not is out of scope for the scientific method because there are no direct scientific proof either way.