Age of the Universe

Your front-page story about “two independent teams of distinguished astronomers” announcing that “the universe may be only about half as old as the oldest stars and galaxies it contains,” makes these star-searchers sound as though their elevators don’t run all the way to the top.

Try this on for size: If there ever was a time when there was absolutely nothing, there would still be absolutely nothing. Maybe these “distinguished” astronomers haven’t realized that you can’t make something out of nothing.

Hell, I found that out in the seventh grade when I turned in my Algebra I term paper.

There never was a beginning to the universe and there can be no end.

Everything that exists has always existed.

All known space and matter are without age.

If there was an end to space, what’s there? A wall? There’s no such thing as a one-sided wall, you know, so what’s on the other side of that wall? More space? If there’s no wall, what marks the end of space?

Is this universe suspended in another larger universe? Describe that condition.

Please tell these “teams of distinguished astronomers” that they better try to figure out this conundrum: If you get a doctor to your home at night, and keep him there till daylight, does it then become a day call?

RICHARD HATHCOCK

Thousand Oaks