53 million year old spider VHR-CT images
 

Nothing about gas saving, just thought it was neat:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1029083230.htm

I think the spider is neat but I get a little tired of evolutionary theory being brandished so often by the media.

Damn that science.

The article never mentions evolution, just hi res pictures of a really really old spider. I wonder how they figure it was male? There must be some extra pixels on one of the slides ;)

i didnt see the article mention evolution, but what do you have against the truth?

I think it was because of this...
Anything involving creation in the strict sense has nearly everything on the planet at a few thousand years old at most...

yah, I know. I wonder if there are implications as to oil as a fossil fuel (or even its status as non-renewable)?

People believe in science just as they believe in religion. Belief is the road to error. The one good thing about science is that it is much quicker to acknowledge and fix its mistakes. It still is a belief-based practice though.

It is possible that this 53 million year old is actually 10 million years old, or 100 million years old, or a complete farse. You put belief into the scientists who use formulas to present what they claim to be fact. Things are not so easy.

All I am saying is that you shouldn't be too quick to believe things. Always keep a nice reserve of skepticism.

Regardless of the above banter, it was an interesting post.

Which, for some reason, (probably in response to skewbe's post) reminds me of the day and age when mummies were used as train fuel.

I think science is a belief based to those who don't want to do anything except believe it. I dunno of any scientists who just believe in their work.

Except for the fact that the age of the spider can be determined by carbon dating the amber it was trapped in.

I liked Erdricks description, It was very diplomatic :)

Agreed. And point taken: the issue of belief in science isn't necessarily that the scientists "just believe" in their work, its that the public doesn't generally have the time/ability/desire to verify what the scientist says. So at the level of the layperson, it becomes a matter of trust/faith.

While science is somewhat belief based (and the public "faith" in science is even more so), the very nature of the scientific method limits science only to beliefs that can be tested.

Matters of faith, by their very nature, cannot be tested. Does God exist? Science cannot say one way or another since no one has devised a way to test the theory. Did a spider exist 50 million years ago? Likely yes (with a certain degree of certainty which a scientist would have indicated but which was probably left out of the article).

It is understandable that folks brought up to believe without question would have a hard time with a belief system that is all about questioning our beliefs. I'm content to think that is a 53 million year old spider and content to be proven wrong about it later.

I should add that it may help that I dont see my eternal salvation as being dependent on being right about this point.