r/Paleontology 21d ago

I didn’t realize this many people still believed the Earth is only a few thousand years old. These were the top comments in a TikTok video of a guy finding fish fossils. Discussion

https://i.redd.it/9idecbaeitj71.jpg
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u/SosoMS 21d ago

Literally half the comments too. I really hope the next generations breaks out of this nonsense.

Credit: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMRrMLarn/

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u/MexicanResistance 21d ago

Unfortunately I doubt it, this generation had as much technology and access to information as possible, and while I’d say a good deal more people from this generation or educated on general topics, a lot of them still are influenced by their parents/who they grow up with and adopt these beliefs

12

u/_Abiogenesis 21d ago

This genuinely gives me anxiety.
I would have loved in the age of information for everyone to be more educated. Unfortunately, reality has shown us that access to information itself is irrelevant in light of a shiny comforting confirmation biases. This is exactly why we need to trust specialist consensus more than charismatic underdogs who are cherry picking minority reports.
"Do your research" has become the rallying cry of those who do not understand confirmation bias. Sadly sometimes more harm is also done by fringe scientists advocating a controversy.
Humanity still has a long way to go.