This was getting too long for the page about Tina and me. - Robin
Here is a bit of cosmology - concerning the metaphysical
questions of the origin of the Universe, irrespective of whether what
we observe in astronomy began 13.7 billion years ago, or very much
longer
ago. To me, "Universe" means everything which exists, including
all gods, spirits, etc. So I think it is meaningless to say "God
created
the Universe".
- The Universe is an extraordinary thing, and I feel very
lucky to be a part of it.
- I have no idea how the Universe came into being -
and I don't think anyone else does either. The real question is
"Why is there anything at
all?". Why is there
such a thing as time, the three dimensions, gravity, electromagnetism
and
(according to current theories of particle physicists) the strong and
weak nuclear forces? Then there are the questions
about
matter, energy and how they are are distributed. I don't believe the
"Big
Bang" any more than a religious explanation - and I am adamant that
scientists
are writers are mistaken when
they write
things
like "Our knowledge of physics is good enough now for us to calculate
the
conditions prevailing back to an incredible 10-45
(0.000000000000000000000000000000000000000000001)
seconds after it all started. (Golub and Passachoff in The Nearest
Star,
2001)
etc. Science cannot know such
things.
Science develops theories which are testable - and by experimenting and
thinking,
theories should be developed which explain reality in increasingly
accurate and elegant ways. This
is
much better than faith and religion - but there are limits to what can
be
known or tested. Furthermore, theories must be tested against
observations,
not refuted or ignored because they do not fit in with currently
accepted
theories. I think two current paradigms are mistaken: the Photon
Paradigm of quantized electromagnetic radiation and the Big Bang
Paradigm. ("Photon Paradigm" is a very rare term, according to
Google in late 2007. The most prevalent - and perhaps most
misleading - paradigms are generally not recognised as such by those in
their grip!)
- We can have no real knowledge of the origin of the
Universe. The best we have is feelings, and for me, gratitude and
happiness
that there is something after all, and that it is on such a
vast scale,
with such scope, delicacy and depth. Nor can we know the true
extent of
the Universe, since we fully connect with some aspects of it and only
partially
connect with others. So how could we know about aspects we don't
connect
with, or how many "aspects" there are? We don't know what we
don't
know. (I am with Donald Rumsfeld and The Pentagon on this: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_unknown.)
- I think this life is the one that matters.
On about 20 November 2001, I read or heard the phrase "The spirit lives
best in the flesh" - but I can't remember where. (Google www.google.com/advanced_search
- finds no such phrase.) I totally support this- The spirit lives
best in the flesh! Fritz
the Cat would have dug this phrase too. I think there is a
life
after this one - but as far as I am know, the next life is probably a
trip
to the recycling depot. How we get recycled - individually
cleaned
and refilled or collectively crushed, melted together and remoulded
into
something
different - I don't know. But there is evidence that in some
cases
at least spirits are reborn not long after the end of the previous life
-
at least according to the work of Dr
Ian Stevenson . Maybe, in the next phase of life beyond this
stint on Earth, it
will be our turn to be someone's "guardian angel".
- I can't take any religion's claims seriously. (Tina and I
are very wary of "New Age" stuff as well - and of any assumption that
Eastern philosophies tend to be better than those from the West.)
The major religions are all
very recent in the time-scale of humanity. None of them, to my
knowledge, have proper respect for
the vastness of the Universe or its real richness on a physical
level. Worse still, many religions talk down this life and claim
the next is, or can be, vastly better - because their business is
selling tickets to the
next! That is why the name of our planet is often spelt
"earth". I advocate for the proper capitalisation of "Earth".
- Here's another disproof of the validity of some prominent
religions which attest that firstly
God (or multiple gods) exists and that secondly this God (or gods)
expects
humans to have a thorough and detailed knowledge of this God or
gods. Some religions insist
individuals will be condemned to Hell unless they get this right.
Since it is evident that humans, with their best efforts and complete
sincerity, when trying to understand creation arrive at a vast and
perplexing array of incompatible conclusions, I argue that if there is
such a God or gods, with such expectations, then he, she, they or it
have made a real mess of humanity and/or their attempts to reveal the
truth. Since these
religions generally insist that God is all-powerful, all-loving and
that the whole Universe was created for us humans, I argue that such
religions are clearly wrong in one or more of these beliefs!
- Regarding intelligent design, why does the mammalian retina have the nerve connections on the light-side of the sensory cells? (www.trueorigin.org/retina.asp)
Why is our only proper source of Vitamin D the same
short-wavelength UV-B light which also gives us sunburn and skin
cancer? Why are humans designed so the mother who contracts a
viral disease early in pregnancy is likely to have a child who later
develops the devastating condition schizophrenia? (www.schizophrenia.com/hypo.php#prenatal)
- Metaphysics is interesting, but I wouldn't pursue
it so much as to distract from the rest of life. There are more
than
enough reasons to live and to develop my own morality and approach to
life without fussing too much with theories about the next life, worlds
beyond, religions or gods.
- People who take an active pleasure and interest in other
people and other living things have many more sources of pleasure,
motivation and satisfaction than those who think only or mainly of
themselves. Life is not a zero-sum-game.
See my site astroneu.com
for some astronomical cosmology - and Hubble Space Telescope
images of over 1000 galaxies a long
way away.
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