Every once in a while evolutionists distill their thoughts into pithy statements that profoundly summarize what it’s all about for them. Carl Sagan’s 1980 Cosmos video is chocked full of such statements, but non better than his classic opening line: “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.” [Please click to see] Obviously that is a truth claim, but it does not come from science. Truth claims that do not come from science are nothing new. What is new, however, is the presentation of such truth asscience. And so while there is nothing wrong with evolutionists proclaiming what they believe. There is everything wrong with their insistence that it is what everyone else must believe as well. That their personal religious beliefs, not open to scientific scrutiny, are scientific facts. Evolutionists may be correct about origins, but they are not scientific. Read more
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Somewhat along this line Dr. Hunter, I noted yesterday that a strong argument for ascertaining whether humans have any true meaning and purpose in the universe can now be made from modern science. The basic, primary, contention from atheists through the years has been the Copernican principle, (mediocrity principle), which perhaps reached its zenith in Carl Sagan’s ‘Pale Blue Dot’, in which it is held the earth, and by default humans, have no special significance in the universe whatsoever. Sagan sums up the sentiment here:
And indeed when one looks out onto the vastness of space, without that sure knowledge of the presence of God abiding with them, one can be overcome with a feeling of insignificance and even despair. But that was yesterday, today advances in science have overcome this belief that we have no privileged place in the universe.
Besides this ‘privileged planet’ evidence, in what I consider an absolutely fascinating discovery, Einstein’s General Relativity has shown that 4-dimensional (4D) space-time, along with all energy and matter, was created in the ‘Big Bang’ and continues to ‘expand equally in all places’ (expanding equally in all places to a precision of 1 in 1^120):
I find the best way to get this “centrality of the Earth in the universe” point across is to visualize it first hand. Thus I reference the first few minutes of this following video to clearly get this ‘centrality’ point across:
Moreover, this ‘circle’ of the CMBR that is found by modern science to encompass the Earth, from the remnant of the creation event that brought the entire universe instantaneously into being, was actually predicted in the Bible centuries earlier:
But as compelling as it is to use the privileged planet principle, in conjunction with the centrality observerd for the Earth in the 4-Dimensional (4D) space-time of General Relativity, to overturn the Copernican ‘mediocrity’ principle of the Earth in the universe, this method, while of establishing centrality for the earth, while certainly very powerful in its own right as to overturning the mediocrity principle, falls short of explaining what I term ‘true centrality’ in the universe and still does not fully explain to us exactly why the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (CMBR) forms an ‘almost’ perfect sphere around the Earth. The primary reason for why the higher dimensional 4D space-time, governing the expansion of this 3-Dimensional universe, is insufficient to maintain 3D symmetry for every point of observation in the universe, all by itself, becomes clear if one tries to imagine radically different points of observation in the universe. Since the universe is shown to have only (approximately) 10^80 sub-atomic particles to work with, once a person tries to imagine keeping perfect 3D symmetry, from radically different points of observation within the CMBR sphere, then a person quickly finds that it is geometrically impossible to maintain such 3D symmetry of centrality within the CMBR sphere with finite 3D material particles to work with. As well, fairly exhaustive examination of the General Relativity equations themselves, at least from as far as I can follow the math, mathematically prove the insufficiency of General Relativity to account for the ‘completeness’ of 4D space-time within the sphere of the CMBR from differing points of observation in the universe[13 – The Cauchy Problem of General Relativity – Igor Rodnianski]. But if the 4D space-time of General Relativity is insufficient to explain ‘true 3D centrality’ of the Earth and every point of observation in the universe, what else can explain it since we certainly observe centrality for ourselves within the 4-D sphere of the CMBR? Quantum Mechanics gives us the reason why. ‘True centrality’ in the universe is achieved by ‘universal quantum wave collapse of photons’, to each point of ‘conscious observation’ in the universe, and is the only answer that has adequate sufficiency to explain ‘true 3D centrality’ that we witness for ourselves within the CMBR of the universe. Moreover because of advances in Quantum Mechanics, the argument for God from consciousness can now be framed like this:
I find it extremely interesting, and strange, that quantum mechanics tells us that instantaneous quantum wave collapse to its ‘uncertain’ 3D state is centered on each individual conscious observer in the universe, whereas, 4D space-time cosmology (General Relativity) tells us each 3D point in the universe is central to the expansion of the universe. These findings of modern science are pretty much exactly what we would expect to see if this universe were indeed created, and sustained, from a higher dimension by a omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, eternal Being who knows everything that is happening everywhere in the universe at the same time. These findings certainly seem to go to the very heart of the age old question asked of many parents by their children, “How can God hear everybody’s prayers at the same time?”,,, i.e. Why should the expansion of the universe, or the quantum wave collapse of the entire universe, even care that you or I, or anyone else, should exist? Only Theism, Christian Theism in particular, offers a rational explanation as to why you or I, or anyone else, should have such undeserved significance in such a vast universe. [15]
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1BHAcvrc913SgnPcDohwkPnN4kMJ9EDX-JJSkjc4AXmA/edit
Footnote:
It is also interesting to note that ‘higher dimensional’ mathematics had to be developed before Einstein could elucidate General Relativity, or even before Quantum Mechanics could be elucidated;
Also of note:
Of interest to this undermining of General Relativity as the complete description of reality, Einstein was asked (by a philosopher):
Einstein’s answer was categorical, he said:
The preceding statement was an interesting statement for Einstein to make since ‘the now of the mind’ has, from many recent experiments in quantum mechanics, undermined Einstein’s General Relativity as to being the absolute frame of reference for reality. i.e. ‘the now of the mind’, contrary to what Einstein thought possible for experimental physics, according to advances in quantum mechanics, takes precedence over past events in time. Moreover, due to advances in quantum mechanics, it would now be much more appropriate to phrase Einstein’s answer to the philosopher in this way:
The following site is also very interesting as to this line of thought;
The preceding interactive graph points out that the smallest scale visible to the human eye (as well as a human egg) is at 10^-4 meters, which ‘just so happens’ to be directly in the exponential center of all possible sizes of our physical reality (not just ‘nearly’ in the exponential center!). i.e. 10^-4 is, exponentially, right in the middle of 10^-35 meters, which is the smallest possible unit of length, which is Planck length, and 10^27 meters, which is the largest possible unit of ‘observable’ length since space-time was created in the Big Bang, which is the diameter of the universe. This is very interesting for, as far as I can tell, the limits to human vision (as well as the size of the human egg) could have, theoretically, been at very different positions than directly in the exponential middle;
Related notes:
Verse, quote, and music:
The part “the cosmos is all that is” is understandable at least. But the part “the cosmos is all that ever will be” is not. Could Sagan see into the future? How did he know for sure that the cosmos is all that ever will be?
Barb as to
Carl Sagan’s view of, “The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.”, is, as I’m sure you are well aware, false. Besides the universe now known to be brought into being instantaneously at the Big Bang, there is also very good reason to believe that the universe will expire in the future in a ‘heat death’:
A ‘flat universe’, which is actually another very surprising finely-tuned ‘coincidence’ of the universe, means this universe, left to its own present course of accelerating expansion due to Dark Energy, will continue to expand forever, thus fulfilling the thermodynamic equilibrium of the second law to its fullest extent (entropic ‘Heat Death’ of the universe).
Thus, for the materialist, there is no future ‘all that will ever be’. Yet unbeknownst to most materialists, the ‘cosmos’ is far more grand and glorious (and even far more frightening) in its mysteries than Carl Sagan envisioned. For we now have, as I’m sure you have seen before, fairly good evidence for a everlasting heavenly dimension above this temporal realm, (and we even now have fairly good evidence for a everlasting hellish dimension below this temporal realm)
Time, as we understand it temporally, would come to a complete stop at the speed of light. To grasp the whole ‘time coming to a complete stop at the speed of light’ concept a little more easily, imagine moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light. Would not the hands on the clock stay stationary as you moved away from the face of the clock at the speed of light? Moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light happens to be the same ‘thought experiment’ that gave Einstein his breakthrough insight into e=mc2.
It is also very interesting to point out that the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’, reported in many Near Death Experiences(NDEs), is also corroborated by Special Relativity when considering the optical effects for traveling at the speed of light. Please compare the similarity of the optical effect, noted at the 3:22 minute mark of the following video, when the 3-Dimensional world ‘folds and collapses’ into a tunnel shape around the direction of travel as a ‘hypothetical’ observer moves towards the ‘higher dimension’ of the speed of light, with the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ reported in very many Near Death Experiences: (Of note: This following video was made by two Australian University Physics Professors with a supercomputer.)
As well, as with the scientifically verified tunnel for special relativity, we also have scientific confirmation of extreme ‘tunnel curvature’, within space-time, to a eternal ‘event horizon’ at black holes;
And Blackholes are found to be extremely ‘chaotic’,
As well, as with the tunnel being present in heavenly NDE’s, we also have mention of tunnels in hellish NDE testimonies;
A man, near the beginning of this video, gives testimony of falling down a ‘tunnel’ in the transition stage from this world to hell:
The man, in this following video, also speaks of ‘tumbling down’ a tunnel in his transition stage to hell:
It is also interesting to note, from a scientific and theological perspective, that special relativity is found to ‘merge’ with quantum mechanics whereas general relativity is notorious for its inability to ‘merge’ with quantum mechanics:
Myself, seeing that Near Death testimonies have far more credible evidence going for them than Darwinism does,,,
, and seeing, as we have now reviewed, that there are two very different eternities accessible from this temporal dimension that very well may be entered into by our souls upon death, I take the warnings about hell very seriously:
Verse and Music:
One of the COOLEST Performances of How Great Thou Art using DRUMS! – Inspirational Videos
http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=00BMMJNU
Atheists cry foul when a believer injects faith in science, but when someone like Sagan interjects this absolutely rediculous and unscientific saying we don’t even hear a peep from the national Academy of Sciences .
These folks live in their own little bubble and believe that they are Gods.
What a rude awakening when they find themselves standing before the allmighty.
Correct Bornagain, the Nde’s your talking about are called veridical Nde’s precisely because they could be verified by witnesses outside of the nde experiencer. It is veridical Nde’s that truly expose atheism as an emotional worldview, but for the life of me I could never understand why someone would want to defend a worldview with no uptime meaning, truth or purpose.
Atheism is like a brain on LSD .
WS43: “Atheism is like a brain on LSD”
And the result is going to be a ‘bad trip’ the likes of which the most horrendous nightmare can not even begin to touch. The unimaginable consequences and inconceivable rewards, for either rejecting or accepting God, balanced against each other, even made legendary mathematician John von Neuman consider Pascal’s wager on his death bed and convert from his agnosticism:
bornagain77 @9
This thought hit me today about Pascal’s wager. I agree with his point but think it only applies to a tolerant society where there is no physical cost to following Christ. I think Pascal’s wager falls flat in many countries where Christianity is a crime. You stand to lose much more than naught (life, home, family, job) by choosing to follow Christ if it proves there is no God.
John 15
Jesus didn’t say “…count the cost…” because there is none. I am a Christian but am hesitant to argue Pascal’s Wager for that reason. The west is changing fast and there will one day be a great cost for one who claims to follow Christ.