Doesn't it take faith to believe all continents originated as a single landmass?
2007-05-31 07:19:22 · 19 answers · asked by Eleventy 6 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Love the question. I'm going to remember that next time someone says it takes faith to believe in Darwinian Evolution.
2007-05-31 07:25:12 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
No, it's not a religion because it is based in scientific observation. Every year the evidence grows stronger, because the few centimeters of movement can be observed with sensitive instruments.
Also, there are masses of rock which line up between South America and Africa for one example, and then there's paleomagnetism, which shows that the continents have been aligned differently in relation to the poles over time.
There is lot's of other data to back it up. Take an intro to Geology course if you haven't already!
Now, try "proving" any religion with similar data. That's the difference!
2007-05-31 14:37:05 · answer #2 · answered by Sam84 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Only if observation is primarily faith-based.
Observation can be, and has been, used to find the lines delineating plate boundaries.
Monitoring instruments and methods (laser dish movements, satellites, seismometers... the list is long), have been used to determine how the plates are attempting to move in relation to one another, and at what speeds.
If you take those movements and reverse them, you can project back in time to different periods. At some point, it was determined, by such a method, that all of the continents were together, and they will probably (eventually) come back together again.
2007-05-31 14:30:36 · answer #3 · answered by jtrusnik 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
From the point of view of your question, any statement or theory which is not absolutely proven constitutes a religion since it requires its proponents' "faith" in it as a "belief". The situation progressing from your definition will increase the number of religions hundreds- and thousands-fold, not to mention inciting the proportional multiplication of religious conflicts in our already overburdened world! By the way, there is some visible evidence that Africa and South America might once have fit together judging from their somewhat matching coastlines.
2007-05-31 16:27:46 · answer #4 · answered by Lynci 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Some may take it on faith but the original idea of plate tectonics relied on observation and reason.
2007-05-31 14:26:00 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
um, no.
faith is believing in something with little or no evidence.
Their is plenty of evidence for the former existence of Pangaea modern and plate tectonics.
wow I thought this was a real question. After what I saw yesterday with someone saying that we dont know the speed of light. I was not sure.
2007-05-31 14:24:50 · answer #6 · answered by Gamla Joe 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Well it is a valid theory with evidence to back it up. How else do you explain the movements of the earth's lithosphere? It also explains why we have plate boundaries and earthquakes. What specifically do you find hard to believe?
2007-05-31 14:24:39 · answer #7 · answered by Graciela, RIRS 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, it doesn't take faith, it takes looking at a globe and seeing that the pieces look like they're part of a puzzle. And did you know that Pangaea is alluded to in scripture? (Not by name, of course; but it references all land being together in one mass at one time.)
2007-05-31 14:27:08 · answer #8 · answered by hoff_mom 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No! All it takes is the study of geology. Unless of course you're one of those people who believe that the earth is only a few thousand years old and that Adam & Eve were real people and not just a metaphor.
2007-05-31 14:23:22 · answer #9 · answered by LeapingLizard 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
No. It is a provable fact.
I suspect it may have begun to split into continents when Peleg was born, (in the Bible) because it was when the land was divided. That's what his name meant.
2007-05-31 14:23:43 · answer #10 · answered by Jed 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋