NP : Where did it all begin?

[thetank]

I believe that the supposed Christian closed mindedness is largely a modern day myth. Historians tell us that the Church was at the forefront of intellectual and scientific discovery for centuries, but it is popular to forget this and create a science vs religion stand off that we can all get our heads round nicely.

The church can not be reasonably considered as one singular entity (or science and scientists for that matter) and saying that one says this or one says that is not too accurate. People on the fringes of any group are prone to making bizarre claims.

[wader leg]

The church can not be reasonably considered as one singular entity (or science and scientists for that matter) and saying that one says this or one says that is not too accurate.

"The view that the sun stands motionless at the center of the universe is foolish, philosophically false, utterly heretical, because contrary to Holy Scripture. The view that the earth is not the center of the universe and even has a daily rotation is philosophically false, and at least an erroneous belief."

-- Holy Office, Roman Catholic Church, ridiculing the scientific analysis that the Earth orbited the Sun in edict of March 5, 1616

Seemed pretty accurate when denouncing Galileo

"The Church" in this case was the Roman Catholic Church but it's beliefs were accepted by other denomitations of Christianity at the time

[nirvana]

I don't know where it all began or where it's all going.

I do think that an absolutist belief in Darwinian evolution theories takes a leap of faith just as signficant as belief in God.

I believe things evolve, fish may become faster fish, monkeys may become more erudite monkeys, man becomes a more efficient killing machine. But it's a bitova a leap o' faith to think a fish would become a giraffe if there were a great big wet world that dried out for a zillion billion years and became a dry world with tall trees.

If the only trees were redwoods then a billion years on I guess the giraffe would grow wings or summat, - gimme a break.

If only Sofa King were here to draw a flying giraffafishotit

[AndrewT]

They cannot prove a big bang. They can guess and get equations to satisfy their enquiries, but this is not proof. Scientist are continually getting things wrong.

Early science - the world is flat. The atom is the smallest particle. Radioactive toothpaste is good for you.

I agree with Kinboshi that you can believe in all 3 in essence. The great architect of the universe created the big bang, which is the universe as we know it, then he created man (and poker), and since then we have been fine tuned into what we are today. So there you go Paul - Its sorted. Thats were and how it began, up yours Hawking......

I think scientists will never be able to fully understand; never mind explain all the intriquices of life. The quarks, atoms, particles & DNA will never be understood.

As for where god came from; well this is the unseen force which binds everything together and is just there. Plain and simply it is just there.

'The Big Bang can't be proved, so I don't believe it.'

'God did it.'

*shakes head and mutters*

[AndrewT]

Is -273 the coldest temp possible....

Well, 0 K is the coldest possible temperature - as it's absolute zero, where all motion stops, and an absence of any motion is an absence of temperature.

It's -273.something in celsius, can't remember what exactly.

I have actually been within ten feet of (what was at the time) the coldest place in the universe - a smallish room in the Physics Dept at Lancaster University.

'This is the coldest place in the universe' said the professor. Seeing as I'd just walked in from outside, with the January wind whipping in from the Irish Sea, I didn't doubt him.

[KingPoker]

It is also a myth that people thought the world was flat. Even the chinese way back when knew that the world was round or spherical. Even people in europe believed it to be at least pear shaped and very soon after accepted it to be spherical in nature.
God maybe out there, it is not up to me to prove or disprove that but one thing i am sure of (call it my belief if you will), he didnt create the universe or us!

[fearisthekey]

I don't know where it all began or where it's all going.

I do think that an absolutist belief in Darwinian evolution theories takes a leap of faith just as signficant as belief in God.

I believe things evolve, fish may become faster fish, monkeys may become more erudite monkeys, man becomes a more efficient killing machine. But it's a bitova a leap o' faith to think a fish would become a giraffe if there were a great big wet world that dried out for a zillion billion years and became a dry world with tall trees.

If the only trees were redwoods then a billion years on I guess the giraffe would grow wings or summat, - gimme a break.

If only Sofa King were here to draw a flying giraffafishotit

Good post.
But the evidence for trans-species evolution is overwhelming. 'Missing links' have been found. When the DNA, fossil, and ecological data from, for example, chimps and humans are cross-referenced, any suggestion that they did not evolve from a common anscestor is just absurd. 'Theory' like 'the theory of evolution' is often assumed to mean 'some kind of guess scientists make in the absence of evidence', but in science in fact it means the opposite, ie the best conclusion that can be reached given the evidence available. Cf 'Theory of Gravity, the Big Bang, Evolution'.
Scientists collectively, in my opinion, are not trying to see what science says about the world, they are trying to say what can be said about the world, full stop (just like religions do), it's just that they've accepted that the only decent conclusions worth accepting are those based on falsifiable theories developed through a systematic and repeatable observation of reality.
Forgive me if this sounds rude, but I really mean it when I say it: religion is science for the lazy. If someone really looks at what science has established over the last 300 years, basic myths such as Creationism, and in my opinion, Christianity, are just total nonsense. I wish someone had pointed that out more clearly to me when I was a Christian, and had been less worried about 'hurting my feelings'.

[kinboshi]

Is -273 the coldest temp possible....

Well, 0 K is the coldest possible temperature - as it's absolute zero, where all motion stops, and an absence of any motion is an absence of temperature.

It's -273.something in celsius, can't remember what exactly.

I have actually been within ten feet of (what was at the time) the coldest place in the universe - a smallish room in the Physics Dept at Lancaster University.

'This is the coldest place in the universe' said the professor. Seeing as I'd just walked in from outside, with the January wind whipping in from the Irish Sea, I didn't doubt him.

That's actually the second coldest.  The coldest place ever recorded was in my house when I told the wife I was playing poker on our anniversary...