Religion, easy as pie

Could you please state your source @socrat44

1 - The critical density for the Universe is approximately 10^-26 kg/m^3
This critical mass density is currently equal to 6^-27 kg/m^3
WMAP determined that the universe is flat, from which it follows that
the mean energy density in the universe is equal to the critical density
(within a 0.5% margin of error). This is equivalent to a mass density
of 9.9 x 10^-30 g/cm^3
A Universe (as a whole) with such critical density is said to be flat.

2 – All different masses of the Universe are in the Cosmic Vacuum

3 - The Cosmic Vacuum is homogeneous, isotropic, flat, smooth and
very cold and after one Cosmic horizon there is another Cosmic horizon
– similar one – . . . and so, and so . . . to infinity (∞)

4 - But in some local places of the Cosmic vacuum the gravity-masses
change the flat and smooth surface of the Universe

Buy 'em books and buy 'em books and all they do is eat the covers.

:neutral_face: . . . . . :sleeping:

I thought we’d be further along on this idea by now. Being born in 1960 was the cosmic joke of my life. I saw people questioning authority, walking away from church, and ending wars and I thought the arc of history was going to continue in that direction.

Now, my friends who eat organic food and hate corporations sound like the ladies on Monty Python (the ones played by men), idly complaining about something but it’s never clear exactly what it is and rarely doing anything.

1 Like

I’m not sure if Daniel Dennett ever followed up on his book, “Breaking the Spell”. He asks the question, if we know our gods are illusions, manifestations of our minds, then will all the utility of that illusion vanish? Personally, I’ve experimented with this and found it does not, but it takes a little work. Maybe it takes some cognitive dissonance that I’m not aware of, but, I don’t think it’s that much more complicated than going into a movie theatre, accepting the reality of that story for 2 hours, then letting it find it’s way into the recesses of my brain, until it’s hard to find where the story ends and “I” begin.
When I say “utility”, I’m talking about the tribalism, the belief in a better future, those things that got us through the brutal transition from animal instincts to whatever it is we are now.

1 Like

My problem with religion is that man is the center of all things and all that matters - its really hard when I look at this picture . I don’t know how you could look at this real image and say there is no life out there. You can’t even count the galaxies. It also represents a very tiny portion of the sky at night like looking at the night sky with a straw.

I agree. Modern Man may be a rare phenomenon but life itself must be abundant in the universe, and according to Robert Hazen who knows about these things, the earth is an ordinary planet with ordinary resources and if life can exist in abundance on earth, there is no reason to believe that the earth is the only planet with life.

It is one of the flaws of modern man, he holds himself as being created in the image of a God. The hubris of that notion is truly scary. It gives permission to humans to act like gods and not have to pay the price for unnatural practices.

And here we are , in the middle of the man caused 6th extinction event, asking ourselves: “what happened?”.

Man is what happened, and this version may well have been a mistake of nature.

Its actually a close up of another Hubble image that shows an enormous amount of galaxies.

bigbill112h
My problem with religion is that man is the center of all things and all that matters

Well, I believe in humility and I believe keeping perspective - still at the end of the day, we are the center of our universe. Heck I can trace my heritage back to the Big Bang, so in a curious way each of has a direct relationship with the center of the universe. That’s poetic and physical.

Of course, but there are also bunch of reasons to suppose that human scale complexity of body and brain and mind, is exceedingly rare, if not singular.

For more on that google: “Humans might be rare in the universe - Google Search

I should not of made a comment on religion it wasn’t relevant to my post even if life is rare do the math its estimated that there are 2.2 trillion galaxies 1 star out of all those stars in all those galaxies only has life - impossible. Even if its rare there would be millions of worlds. If it was only one star that had life for every estimated galaxy that would be 2.2 trillion worlds. That would be considered rare.

It’s okay Bill, comment, agree, disagree, debate, share your perspective, it’s all good. Just be civil and intelligent.

I used to be totally convinced of that simple premise - but as I’ve learned more about the incredible events in Earth’s history that turned out just so, … without whom our complexity would have been impossible, I become less and less sure.

Also, I’m not suggesting it’s impossible, just that we might do good to look at it from the other direction.

Though, without studying Earth’s incredible Evolutionary history we’ll never gather the pieces of evidence that support our planet’s exceptionalism.

Check out some of the articles under that link I shared, way smarter minds than mine have been working on outlining the reasons why our Earth, and we, may perhaps be an exceptional one off. Hard to believe though it may seem.

We do know that we haven’t caught a whiff of it and our observations keep taking in more of the night sky.

The “Fermi’s Paradox” riddle is an interesting one, we had a thread on that once. Bigbill seems to think he knows the numbers, but nobody really does. My favorite explanation for why we haven’t contacted intelligent life, is that intelligent life hides itself, cloaking it’s electronic signals behind a filter. I think once we get past being smart and also being dangerous, to just being smart, we will also want to hide from the other smart/dangerous worlds. Maybe there is a private network of the smart ones that we will then be invited to join.

I didn’t come up with the numbers its accepted by Astro physicist that there are an estimated 2.2 trillion galaxies how the heck could I come up with that number do you think I pulled out of thin air.Please don’t speak for me like I came up with the numbers… I’m simply going on what science knows or suspects today if thats too hard for you to deal with then so be it.

Share a recent article you found convincing. Though, focusing on the stars, isn’t going to help anyone understand the unbelievable series of events that made complex life, and then humans possible on this planet. Not to mention the short window of opportunity. Earth’s has been around for four and a half billion years. Human’s have been but the most recent blink of an eye, during a short period of optimal climate conditions, after a long long period of developing.
Come back in a hundred years and the odds are better than not, that there won’t be any of us around anymore.

Besides, whether life exists in other galaxies, seems rather irrelevant to our situation here on Earth. It’s like looking for god, makes for a fun head game, but in the end is beside the point.

Well some of us want to know so its not irrelevant its just irreverent to some maybe you don’t care but I would like to know. I’m not the only one its not irreverent to me. To criticize because others want to look further is not for you to do. I always wanted to be a Astro Physicist so it within my interest obviously yours are else where it doesn’t make it wrong. Why do you need to criticize the interests of others?We sure are spending a lot of money on finding terrestrial planets heck were sending the James Web for that exact reason so no its not irreverent its the great unanswered question of man.

Only been here two days and I have run into a group who want to control the narrative I think I will pass.

You have been here only two days and you feel qualified to pass judgement on the posters here? Should we hang on your every word of wisdom? Perhaps you want to control the narrative, but we are withholding judgement on you!

Why don’t you read a few pages on subjects that interest you in order to get a “feel” for the quality of posts. As an aspiring astronomer you show remarkably little patience.

Are yo u prepared to sit for days and weeks waiting for the cosmos to reveal something that interests you? Sounds to me you are more suited to product testing. Immediate results indicating utility. Instant gratification. That is the attitude you have just displayed here.

Have you familiarized yourself with CFI’s Mission statement? Are you prepared to accept these premises? If not, are you willing to discuss or debate the merits?

1 Like

What do you think of Anil Seth’s hypothesis of “controlled hallucinations”, where the mind creates an expectation based on incoming data, and confirms or rejects it when the expectation is projected on the external patterns?

As he posits: " We create our reality as much from the inside out as from the outside in"