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Course: World History Project - Origins to the Present > Unit 1
Lesson 2: Era 1 Overview | 1.1WATCH: Era 1 Overview
History is made up of accounts of the past. Most of these accounts deal with humans. But humans emerged in an environment—our universe, the ecosystem of our planet, and other species. This environment began to form long before humans evolved, and it continues to affect our story today. Big history is an attempt to understand this environment. Archaeology gives us a way to look at the emergence of human’s ancestors, like Ardi (Ardipithecus ramidus). This evidence helps us understand our past. A better understanding our past can help us comprehend the world today.
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- At4:17, the man says that the universe evolved from a "Big Bang" theory. Is there any evidence that contradicts this theory?(5 votes)
- While the Big Bang theory is popular, it is really contested, at probably every part of it. One of the main arguments is that things would have to have been traveling faster than the speed of light at the initial expansion of the universe. This is often is countered by the statement that as we get closer and closer to the start of the universe, we become more and more uncertain about whether many of our laws actually apply to the universe at the Big Bang. This argument is also used frequently to counter people saying that the Big Bang violated the first law of thermodynamics (it created energy). Here is a website that's compiled some evidence which could be used to argue against the Big Bang theory: https://lppfusion.com/science/cosmic-connection/plasma-cosmology/the-growing-case-against-the-big-bang/(14 votes)
- So this video is for anyone who believes in the big bang?(0 votes)
- It is for believers and for non-believers. All are welcome.(11 votes)
- Is there a transcript for this?(4 votes)
- How do we know that any of this even happened?(2 votes)
- We don't, really. When Darwin proposed the theory of evolution, there weren't many paleontologists or archaeologists around digging up fossils to support it. He thought we'd find more as time went on, and we've found some, but there are still very large gaps between each evolutionary "stage."
And, I mean, if you think about it: evolution doesn't exactly demonstrate "survival of the fittest." Let me explain: in the theory of evolution, fish evolve into reptiles. They're not really too different, just a little bit of change over millions (or billions) of years (though scientists are increasingly finding evidence against an earth that old).
But even so-- how do gills just change into lungs, when absolutely no other creature has air-breathing lungs? What would be the benefits of even having lungs, if all the fish were already happy in the ocean extracting oxygen from water? A fish with gills would be able to survive far easier than a reptile with half-gills trying to breathe both air and water. (Because the transition couldn't just have happened instantaneously, or why the need for millions of years?)
Of course, the theory of evolution is far more complicated than that. But in the end it just comes down to the fact that evolution is really only one person's (and now a large group of people's) possibly (likely, even) faulty opinion on how the world came into existence. We can have faith in different belief systems or religions, or even faith in atheism or in the Big Bang theory. However, like the lady in the video said-- scientifically, we can't ever know for certain.(5 votes)
- shouldn't the big bang be era -1 if you think about it?(0 votes)
- So what im getting from this, is we were really really lucky to have a star close to the planets?(0 votes)
- why they got to explain it where i dont understand(0 votes)
- For a more detailed explanation, you can go to this lesson in the cosmology and astronomy course: https://www.khanacademy.org/science/cosmology-and-astronomy/universe-scale-topic/big-bang-expansion-topic/v/big-bang-introduction(0 votes)
- how did the planets suddenly exist and how did the earth start to form?(0 votes)
- Gravity made atoms coalesce into planets and the earth is a planet.(0 votes)
- Why isn't the Creation event even mentioned as a possibility in this entire video?(2 votes)
- Because that is mythology, not history or science. The Big Bang and the following events including the formation of our Solar System, Earth, the origin of life, and the evolution of species, form a collection of scientific hypotheses and theories that are founded on empirical evidence and the scientific method. On the other hand, the Creation described in the Book of Genesis of the Bible isn't a scientific hypothesis, and the empirical evidence doesn't provide for evidentially supported scientific hypothesis and theories that resemble the Genesis Creation.(0 votes)
- the man was like ,,I WILL LOVE TOO'' the woman was like 'NO THE STUDENTS'(0 votes)