Are these facts true?

Question

I believe in Evolution. However, in order to attempt to prove me wrong someone sent me an email that said the following:

"On the subject of evolution, scientific evidence proves that that is
not possible. The sun, for example,
40 million years ago would have been big enough to touch the earth.
Also, the earth is slowing in
rotation, so that means that it was going faster. What kind of life
do you think could have lived on a
planet that didn't have gravity to compensate for the rotation 40
million years ago? Everything on the
planet would have been flung off the earth. Those are just two facts
against evolution."

Are these facts true, or are they false and madeup. Please site your sources.

Answer 1

The evidence that the sun was large enough to encompass Earth's orbit 40 million years ago is based on a few observations that the sun had shrunk by a very small part over the course of a few years. Extrapolated backwards, had the sun always been shrinking at that rate, 40 million years ago it would been large enough that the Earth would have been in its corona.

However, the sun has not always been shrinking at that rate. The size of the sun oscillates slightly, but not to that extent. It's like watching the tide go out on a beach. The shoreline can change by a foot an hour. If you were to assume that the ocean were to keep retreating at that same rate, you would conclude that the oceans were going to disappear within a month.

So the conclusion is based on faulty assumptions about the fluctuations of the size of the sun.

The second point is entirely out to lunch. The gravity of the Earth's pull has absolutely NOTHING to do with the speed of rotation of the planet.

Also, neither of these 'facts' has anything to do with biological evolution, which states that frequencies of favourable adaptations in a population of organisms will increase over time. Natural selection does not require 40 million years to operate, nor does it require gravity. The fact that there were than 40 million years to operate shapes the diversity of life that we see today, but it has nothing to do with the actual theory.

Answer 2

The Sun was not bigger in the past. Actually, it was slightly smaller, but that was way more than 40 million years ago.

Yes, Earth's rotation is slowing, but not fast enough to make an important difference in the length of a day over time scales as short as 40 million years. 620 million years ago the day was about 22 hours long. That is a little faster, but not nearly fast enough to throw things off by centrifugal force. Satellites in low Earth orbit go once around in 90 minutes, so that is the rotation rate that just balances gravity without throwing things off.

Answer 3

1. No matter what the speed things can't be flung of the earth cause of gravity.

2. The sun is evolving. In about 1 million years it was be a red gaint and have destroyed life on earth.

3. Those facts are not true. Evolution is real and is happening, bacteria have evolved to know the address on a cell membrane to get in the cell. That is what makes us sick. If evolution wasn't real we would not be able to get sick.

Answer 4

If the Sun was large enough to touch Earth 40 million years ago... how did the dinosaurs live 75 million years ago?

These are completely false, and whoever wrote this is obviously completely misinformed, or just utterly stupid.

Do a little research and you'll figure that out quickly.

Answer 5

1. The sun shrinks and expands over a cycle. The "fact" about the sun depends on if the sun only was contracting and never expanded.

2. The second "fact" can only be true if the first one was true. This is circular reasoning and is not allowed under the rules of logic.

3. I do not believe in evolution, but neither of these "facts" have anything to do with evolution.

Answer 6

These are just meaningless extrapolations of recent measured trends. They often using incorrect models, since an exponent can really make things seem to happen quickly. The Sun did shrink in the recent past. Then it grew, and it's currently fairly stable. If you take the shrinking phase only, you can get meaningless numbers.

I haven't seen a false extapolation on the Earth's rotational slowing. Please cite your sources.

Answer 7

The effect of gravity would not have been overcome by the increased rotation of the earth. (see first link)

As for the sun, when it first fired up (4.5 billion years ago) it would have been smaller than today not larger. (see second link)

The person is oviously looking to discount the scientific proof of the evolutionary process by using pseudo-scientific theories. I guess they must have some kind of agenda. However, they have not done their homework, as their application of these other theories is not acceptable.

Answer 8

The whole premise of the person's rebuttal
is asinine.

A real scientist would balk at this.

The sun is about 4.5 billion years old and

there is no empirical evidence to suggest that 40 million years ago the Sun was any larger than it is now.

Answer 9

Depends on whether you wish to believe the fossil record and that dinosaurs ever existed. According to reliable dating methods, dinosaurs (plus lots of other creatures) existed on Earth more than 200 milion years ago. They certainly don't seem to have been affected by the "touching sun" or very fast rotation. For more fun facts, see:

http://www.cbv.ns.ca/marigold/history/dinosaurs/dinosaurs.html

Answer 10

No, just more "faith-based" anti-science nonsense. There's an extensive list of such silliness and the facts behind it at http://www.talkorigins.org/indexcc/list.html .