Two In-Depth Reports on Interesting Topics
1. If this whole "zomg banks bailout blah blah panic wow" thing is interesting to you, I humbly recommend the recent BBC World Service report on same. It’s detailed, gives the opinions of several learned and experienced people from different backgrounds, and gives about six hundred million times more real information than I’ve found in a week of trolling American news.
(The most interesting part? Where they discuss, in some depth, whether the whole "collapse! we must do something now!" schtick is completely manufactured by the people who want the bailout. Wouldn’t that be something!)
(Plus bonus little reports on "lactation support" for new mothers at work, and Google Chrome. Gods, the BBC rulez. ;)
[EDIT: Make that three, because you don't want to miss the hilarious and insightful metaphorage that is "The Tinker Bell Treasurer"...I laughed, I cried, I blew my nose on a twenty-dollar bill.]
2. Interested in the science v. religion and creationism-in-schools debates? This article is actually almost too detailed for my stunted brain, but math issues aside, I really enjoyed it. (Note: A few re-reads and some minor Googling later, the math is clear. If I can get it, anybody can!)
The argument part of the article’s thesis is pretty simple, and I think, basically correct. Here it is in a nutshell:
"Science, after all, is supposed to be searching for absolute truths verifiable (in principle) by anybody who cares to. It is supposed to uncover Nature using mathematical or logical tools, of course to formulate theories and hypotheses but to treat these with deep skepticism. Faith is anathema to science. Please understand me. Faith, a moral compass, spiritual values, all have a vitial role to play even in the life of a scientist. When you are stuck on a problem you have to put forth a hypothesis. You have to have some faith in it to take it seriously enough to explore. You may even have a ‘vision’ which is a kind of faith that guides your life’s work. But that’s all about the human process of research. The actual science is supposed to be based on fact and logic independently of how you got there, to the maximum extent possible. So faith is also the bit you are spending your life trying to squeeze out of the end product. It’s a complex dynamic which obviously can’t be grasped by pupils who have not yet understood what science itself is. They have to first learn what science is pure and simple and this is what confusing the issue so early on would deny them. This, in my opinion, is why many scientists are so angry about the no doubt well-meaning but highly dangerous position of the professor and other science educators with similar views."
Now they ought to teach that in schools, darnit!
…But what makes this piece especially interesting is the hard part — how the author (one Shahn Majid) demonstrates his point about science by showing us a hole at the edges of fundamental physics, a hole caused by a much lesser-known assumption that scientists, even, are still tempted to "take on faith". It’s a cool look at how non-obvious the subtleties of the "scientific method" really are (at least on the fringes), and it gives you a little sympathy (only a little, in my case) for the people who just can’t seem to get that ID theory just isn’t science, and never will be. Makes you want to pat their heads and demur, "poor thing, don’t worry, a good chunk of this business won’t turn out to be good science either!
2 comments
Physics & Religion.
‘ The idea that the universe can be viewed as the compound
of two basic orders, the implicate and the explicate, can be
found in many other traditions.
The Tibetan Buddhists call these two aspects the void and
nonvoid. The nonvoid is the reality of visible objects. The
void, like the implicate order, is the birthplace of all things
in the universe, . . .
. . . only the void is real and all forms in the objective world
are illusory, . . . .
The Hindus call the implicate level of reality Brahman.
Brahman is formless but is the birthplace of all forms in
visible reality, which appear out of it and then enfold back
into it in endless flux.
. . . consciousness is not only a subtler form of matter,
but it is more fundamental than matter, and in the Hindu
cosmology it is matter that has emerged from consciousness,
and not the other way around. Or as the Vedas put it, the
physical world is brought into being through both the
‘ veiling’ and ‘ projecting’ powers of consciousness.
. . . the material universe is only a second- generation
reality, a creation of veiled consciousness, the Hindus
say that it is transitory and unreal, or ‘ maya’.
. . .
This same concept can be found in Judaic thought.
. . . . in shamanistic thinking . . . . . .
. . . . . .
Like Bohm, who says that consciousness always has its
source in the implicate, the aborigines believe that the
true source of the mind is in the transcendent reality of
the dreamtime. Normal people do not realize this and
believe that their consciousness is in their bodies.
. . . . .
The Dogan people of the Sudan also believe that the
physical world is the product of a deeper and more
fundamental level of reality . . . . . .’
=== .
Book / The Holographic Universe.
Part 3 / 9. Pages 287 – 289.
By Michael Talbot. /
==================== . . .
My questions after reading this book.
Is it possible that Physics confirmed and proved the
Religion philosophy of life ?
How is it possible to understand the Religion philosophy
of life from modern Physics view?
#
My opinion.
Fact.
The detected material mass of the matter in the
Universe is so small (the average density of all
substance in the Universe is approximately
p=10^-30 g/sm^3) that it cannot ‘close’ the
Universe into sphere and therefore our Universe
as whole is ‘open’, Endless Void / Nothingness /
Vacuum : T=0K.
Quantum Physics says the Vacuum is the birthplace
of all ‘ virtual’ particles . Nobody knows what there are,
but ‘the virtual particles’ change the Vacuum in a
local places and create Nonvoid / Material / Gravity
World with stars, planets and all another objects and
subjects in the Universe.
=== .
Without Eternal/ Infinite Void / Vacuum physics makes no sense.
But as Paul Dirac said:
” The problem of the exact description of vacuum,
in my opinion, is the basic problem now before physics.
Really, if you can’t correctly describe the vacuum,
how it is possible to expect a correct description
of something more complex ? ”
==========.
Best wishes.
Israel Sadovnik. / Socratus.
Physics & Religion.
If I were God I would give chance to Human
to understand who I am by analyzing the physical
formulas, equations and laws
Because I need them to create Everything
So, logically, catching the thread of the physics Human
can understand Me and My Work
In my opinion
Religion studied the world inside and
Physics studied the world outside
The Physics explains Logically what Nature and Religion are
Religion gives the Practical path to reach the Ultimate Nature of Reality