Monday, February 22, 2010

We are in the universe and the universe is in us


I often receive emails from individuals in the throes of existential despair or who have chosen religious faith as their preferred alternative to a life without ultimate meaning. My response is usually something along the lines of: I don't profess to know what is ultimately right but that doesn't stop me from criticizing what is wrong. In other words, you don't need to arrive at an understanding of pre-singularity physics to scoff at the idea that fairies live in my backyard. I rank the tenets of Judeo-Christianity in the same set as fairies in my garden.

In any event, my "spiritual" quote of the day is brought to you by American astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: "

"Recognize that the very molecules that make up your body, the atoms that construct the molecules, are traceable to the crucibles that were once the centers of high mass stars that exploded their chemically rich guts into the galaxy, enriching pristine gas clouds with the chemistry of life. So that we are all connected to each other biologically, to the earth chemically and to the rest of the universe atomically. That’s kinda cool! That makes me smile and I actually feel quite large at the end of that. It’s not that we are better than the universe, we are part of the universe. We are in the universe and the universe is in us."

I also like this line by deGrasse Tyson: "The more I learn about the universe, the less convinced I am that there's any sort of benevolent force that has anything to do with it, at all."
Posted by The Atheist Missionary at 8:44 AM
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7 comments:

  2. TO TAM- if you know anything about big bang cosmosology you will know that all that scientists say that was created in the immediate aftermath of the big bang was hydrogen and small amounts of helium , if you dont believe just look it up. So it seems it was mostly hydrogen gas so we can draw some conclusions about this miracle gas , hydrogen a colourless, and odourless gas that given enough time will become humans.Talk about fairytales.please dont direct me to another author tell me yourself what possible undirected mechanism could make this happen.
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  3. TAM: now you are starting to give us some material from much more mainstream scientists. You may not be aware that Tyson has appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and a host of other talk shows.

    Tyson's "The Pluto Files" is somewhat of a bible for the X generation.
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  4. Martin-

    I could show the math if you'd like. It wouldn't help you any.

    Citing other professional physicists is how you establish what the currently accepted models are.

    As of now, physicists only have evidence backed theories to make predictions about the initial big bang sequence. There are new tests being done right now to detect the Higgs boson and gravitational waves, so it would be premature just to give you an *incomplete answer.

    We have a good idea, and we can make an educated guess, assuredly everything points to a completely natural process, so to posit a supernatural cause is simply to go beyond what the evidence allows for!

    We know the big bang occurred. There is enough evidence to establish that fact. We don't have enough yet to lend us any insights into what occurred before. But as I said, it's being researched, tested, and looked at as we speak!

    It's much harder to write a mathematical proof for God. Just saying. But if you want to learn about real physics... reading physics books and books by physicists is the only way you will learn it.

    Reading the Bible won't get you there. So if you're interested in physics, like I am, you can check out this link with cool reference materials, I also included a lecture by Lawrence Krauss:

    http://advocatusatheist.blogspot.com/2009/11/universe-from-nothing.html
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  5. To Tristan- current accepted model does not mean anything, science does not run on consensus
    in the 1970s the current accepted model was that we were about to face a new ice age now thw current accepted model is global warming,although the latest reports say the global temprature has not risen in 10 years,
    the big bang theory has lots of problems just
    google them if you are interested.
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  6. Yes Tristan, don't you understand? Because there are "problems" with Big Bang cosmology, there are fairies living in my garden.
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  7. Martin-

    I'm well aware of the problems with the big bang theory. I don't need to Google them, I keep up on my physics, by reading the real papers, articles, and reports of the professors and cosmologists.

    Currently I support the Cyclic model, but this may change is new evidence comes in. It's being tested as we speak. We're all anxious to see who is right, because Stephen Hawking placed a huge bet on who the winnder would be in this debate.

    But like I said, the key difference always to keep in mind is that if you're going to prove anything then it comes down to meeting the prerequisites of testability, falsifiability, and real evidence. If you don't got that... then you've pretty much got nothing.
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