So they say. And all isn’t well:
Organized by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, six Decadal Surveys have set the course of U.S. astronomy since they began in the 1960s. The results of the seventh, dubbed Astro2020, will soon be announced after two years of exhaustive deliberations led by a 20-member steering committee. And just like its predecessors, Astro2020 will reveal where major new investments and discoveries are most likely to be made—and where neglect, disinterest or even fear may block progress for generations to come…
For now, the U.S. remains at the forefront of off-world observing, but of the four “Great Observatories” NASA launched between 1990 and 2003, only Hubble and the Chandra X-ray Observatory are still operational, and both are nearing their end, with no replacement on the horizon. “Hubble is probably not going to last another decade, and maybe we’ll get five more years out of Chandra. But then that’s it—they’re gone,” says Jason Tumlinson, an astronomer heading the community missions office at the Space Telescope Science Institute. “We’ll probably have a long gap with no real optical, ultraviolet or x-ray capability in space. And now is the time to decide how and when we might get it back.”
Lee Billings, “This Report Could Make or Break the Next 30 Years of U.S. Astronomy” at Scientific American
If activists can just ramp up the war on math and the war on science, maybe it won’t matter. Isn’t astronomy just imperialism anyway? Interfering with traditional beliefs about the stars…
Why bother? Astronomy has no purpose. It doesn’t solve real problems. It’s just a hobby, which is often done better by unpaid amateurs than by the trillion-dollar NASA.
Polistra states, “Astronomy has no purpose.,,,,”
Some people may beg to differ with your personal opinion Polistra.
For instance, and in regards to serving a purpose, advances in astronomy have led to the profound discovery, (and/or the profound empirical confirmation), that the earth in general, and humanity in particular, have a purpose for their existence. Which is a discovery that is in direct opposition to Copernican Principle and/or the Principle of Mediocrity which, for a few centuries now, has held that the earth in general, and humanity in particular, have no special purpose and/or significance to their existence.
Now Polistra you may still object that knowing for a scientific fact that the earth, and our lives, have purpose and significance is trivial compared to the ‘larger purpose’ of feeding, clothing, and housing, people. And that the money spent on astronomy would have been better spent on feeding, clothing, and housing, people.
Yet in response I would argue that the nihilistic despair that results from falsely believing that our lives have no purpose or significance is on par, if not worse, than the despair of not having enough food, clothing, or housing.
As Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist and Auschwitz survivor, observed, “”Life is never made unbearable by circumstances, but only by lack of meaning and purpose.”
Although Atheists like to pretend that they can invent their own imaginary meanings and purposes for their own lives, (minus any belief in God and an afterlife),,,,
,,,, Although Atheists like to pretend that they can invent their own imaginary meanings and purposes for their own lives, (minus any belief in God and an afterlife), this act of self-delusion on the part of atheists, of making up illusory meaning and purposes for their lives, (in order to try to escape the nihilistic despair that is inherent in their worldview), is, apparently, of extremely limited benefit.
For instance, and to back up Viktor Frankl’s claim, Professor Andrew Sims, former President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, states, “The advantageous effect of religious belief and spirituality on mental and physical health is one of the best-kept secrets in psychiatry and medicine generally.”,,, “In the majority of studies, religious involvement is correlated with well-being, happiness and life satisfaction; hope and optimism; purpose and meaning in life;,,”
In fact, in the following study it was found that, “those middle-aged adults who go to church, synagogues, mosques or other houses of worship reduce their mortality risk by 55%.”
On top of that, it is also found that learning and reading about the afterlife and/or about Near Death Experiences is ‘generally quite successful not only in reducing suicidal thoughts but also in preventing the deed altogether.,,,’
Thus, it is readily apparent that the Atheist’s attempt to create illusory meaning and purposes for his life, minus belief in God and an afterlife, falls short in a rather dramatic fashion on both the mental and physical level.
Thus Polistra, in conclusion, I would argue that advances in astronomy that have overturned the Copernican Principle and/or the Principle of mediocrity, far from serving no purpose as you have claimed, do in fact serve a very important purpose in ‘scientifically’ establishing the fact that our lives do indeed have purpose and significance.
As the evidence that I have laid out from psychiatry makes clear, knowing that our lives actually do have significance and purpose IS NOT a minor thing for a person to know as far as that person’s mental health is concerned! And is just as important, if not more important, for a person to know than whatever trying physical circumstances a person may find himself to be in.
You mean another Big Bang?
Bornagain77/2
No, they haven’t. This is called grasping at straws.
That’s right.
I see no special meaning or purpose but neither have I fallen into nihilistic despair
I disagree. There are cases of people who find the circumstances of their lives unbearable – such as those suffering from painful and untreatable illnesses – and there are those like myself who don’t find a lack of meaning or purpose makes life unbearable.
How is any purpose we define for ourselves any more imaginary than that of your God? How do you know your God didn’t come up with it on the spur of the moment just to help while away eternity?
You notice Sims says religious or spiritual belief in general has beneficial effects. It’s not just from Christianity, so you can’t appeal to this article to support your Christian beliefs. I’m sure if I joined the Jedi Knights and we met each Thursday to meditate on The Force, we would find similar benefits.
I’m sure it’s very comforting to believe in an afterlife but that, of itself, does not mean it actually exists.
I’m sure it can be very beneficial to a person’s mental health but that doesn’t make it true, just that it acts as “the opium of the people”.
Well Seversky seeing that it is you, a Darwinist who ignores any and all scientific evidence that contradicts your atheistic belief system, I’m really not surprised that you would, once again, deny all the scientific evidence I presented that overturns the Copernican principle.
But that is the funny thing about scientific evidence, it is what it is and could care less if you personally refuse to accept what it says or not.
Shoot Seversky, besides ignoring scientific evidence that overturns the Copernican Principle, in your post you didn’t even try to hide your unreasonable and irrational hostility towards Christianity in particular when you gave the other Theistic belief systems a pass and ignored the fact that it is your very own atheistic belief system itself that substantially increases mortality. Needless to say, that is NOT a minor point for you, an atheist, to overlook in your obsessive, even compulsive, bias to attack Christianity in particular.
So, even though you tried to contradict my post at 2 with you post at 4, thanks anyway Seversky for clearly demonstrating, for all to see, just how unreasonably, dogmatically, and irrationally biased Darwinian atheists can be in their beliefs.
Folks, Astronomy [and by extension Astrophysics] is in effect the oldest of the physical sciences, now in effect part of broader Physics. This is the discipline that launched the Scientific Revolution. Calculus, gateway to modern Math, was in key part invented to solve its problems. Newton’s laws came up in that context. This field provides actual observations on our cosmos, which is a large scale natural experiment. Applications to navigation are patent, though perhaps slightly old fashioned now; however if we continue to do stupid things with geostrategy such as we are doing, stellar navigation is what we will have to rely on. Beyond, solar system colonisation and if we can get breakthroughs, interstellar travel and settlement, are the future if we manage to survive this century reasonably intact. Let us learn the lesson of Cheng Ho* and let us not stupidly lock down exploration because it does not fit our agendas and biases. KF
* Include, pondering the perversity of a power culture that castrates captives.