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Universe
It seems like our understanding of how the universe works keeps updating & improving - thanks to physics/mathematics :)
I remember when I was really young, things were seen differently than they are now!
How does the way the universe or the world is perceived/explained these days differ from when you were young / in school?
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For me, the biggest change for my world view was when I stopped being religious. Kinda opened up a huge world of cool stuff to me. Had to rethink a ton of views and beliefs though. Overall, the universe is pretty cool.
It is very cool, no matter what the perspective!!! It's amazingly complicated; I wish I understood it more. I wish, rather, I understood math well enough to understand what it is they do to understand it.
they haha
Check out the talk called "a universe from nothing, by laurence kraus. Its on youtube. It's amazing
I will! :)
It kinda explains the math and physics in laymans terms as to how you can get something from nothing. Cool stuff :D
Oh awesome, thanks!!!
When I first started studying, a lot of what we know today was still in the theory category. Even as far back as "Nuclear Theory" before it became understood well enough to be recategorised as Nuclear Science. I see this as a continuous process - believing that the universe is infinitely complex and we will continue to incrementally develop new understandings of how it functions.
Much in the same way we look back and giggle about theories around Aether being the building block of the universe, I hope our current science is considered so primitive that we can laugh about it in a thousand years. Because that means we have continued to grow.
In an interesting contrast to the other comment here, I've become increasingly more religious as I've progressed with science. Not sure why, but seem to go hand in hand.
That's such an interesting-- and sort of destabilizing-- thought! That in a thousand years, people will be laughing at our quarks and string theory (and other things I forget).
Hey, tell me more about that (religion) if you don't mind!! I've been reading a book, God According to God, that tries to marry the complexity and wonder of science with questions of religion, and fascinates me. But I honestly don't find as many people to talk to about it :) about the concept, not necessarily the book.
The religion I follow is very much experience based, so for personal experience it has more to do with "here and now" than larger concepts. However, the challenge I like to explore in regards to Science and Theism fits in regards to the beginning and end of things.
Science is perfectly sound and functional - we more or less understand how it functions and how to extend it - but if you push far back enough in our timeline you hit an inevitable wall - what is before everything that is before now? As in, even fully accepting the big bang as the origin of the universe, what is before that? If you have a rational scientific explanation, that is good. Then, what is before that?
If you infinitely explore "what is before that", there is an open space that could be attributed to further science, to God, to some kind of cyclical time, or something of a nature we can inevitably never fully explore. We can't go back past the start of our own existence, so it will always be a case for theory or belief.
That makes sense. That sounds pretty similar to the book I'm reading, although it's a more specific religion in the book. Very cool! Thanks for expanding on it :)
Which religion is God According to God centred around?
Christianity, though in an interesting twist, it argues against the typical approach there is today. I think its most interesting point (so far) is that if there is a God, it is a God who 'wants us to shape the universe with them' and 'has let go of some control of creation' and is not all-benevolent, all-knowing, all-controlling, as a lot of sermons might suggest. It is almost like, if there is a God, then they wish to share the wonder of creation with us, rather than us being like their puppets. I mean, it's mostly philosophizing, but it is still interesting as the guy is a scientist. I forget which kind. Physics maybe?
I'm always encouraged to see people tackle both topics without having to exclude one or the other. I think it's become a bit of a fashion to assume that you have to either be Religious or Scientific, as if they are completely incompatible.
Yes, it definitely is! I like it too. It's become quite difficult to admit an interest in religion whatsoever, even a curiosity, it seems to me. People can be quite vicious over it! I don't know why. It's like, isn't an extreme either way bad?
And here is a...
Most extremities lead to some kind of stupidity in my experience. It has become a bit rocky, at least on the internet, people assume if you are Religious you're somehow mentally deficient.
It takes much more skill to be open minded to a spectrum of possibilities instead of ruling some or the other out completely for your own comfort. Particularly the ones you don't agree with.
good answer; I will use it next time! :)
P.s. I love reading about this stuff, but I kinda need it explained like I'm 5 anyway.