Many of us here are fans of Sabine Hossenfelder, author of Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, as she applies the broomstick to the loopy de loop element in theoretical physics.
Now a friend writes to say that she has made it to Slashdot, which is apparently a cachet:
What we have here in the foundation of physics is a plain failure of the scientific method. All these wrong predictions should have taught physicists that just because they can write down equations for something does not mean this math is a scientifically promising hypothesis. String theory, supersymmetry, multiverses. There’s math for it, alright. Pretty math, even. But that doesn’t mean this math describes reality. Physicists need new methods. Better methods. Methods that are appropriate to the present century.
Sabine Hossenfelder, “Why the Foundations of Physics Have Not Progressed For 40 Years” at Slashdot
She favors resolving inconsistencies over developing new theories.
A recent swish of the broom: Sabine Hossenfelder: Physicists’ Theories Of How The Universe Began “Aren’t Any Better Than Traditional Tales Of Creation” The combox is hilarious; don’t miss it. Hossenfelder is not backing down (so far).
Anything wrong with doing both?
Wow. So much for ‘science’ having ‘all answers’.
We are just semi-evolved primates whose purpose is to leave offspring and die. Why should we expect to understand how the Universe began? Will that increase our ‘fitness’? Is the Universe our echological niche?
“She favors resolving inconsistencies over developing new theories.”
Anything wrong with doing both?
Read her book Sev, she answers your question. And she has repeated it elsewhere.
Actually, her title says it all.
As to:
There are no inconsistencies in the theories, (Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity, and General Relativity), that they are trying to unify into a single overarching ‘theory of everything’. That is to say, in so far as measurement accuracy will allow, there is no disagreement between what the mathematics of these theories predict and what the empirical evidence itself reveals, The only inconsistency that there is for these theories is within the minds of theoretical physicists themselves who a-priori believe that there should be just one mathematical ‘theory of everything’.
And herein is the problem, many, if not most, of theoretical physicists are atheistic or agnostic in their beliefs towards God. Yet, given atheism, they simply have no philosophical warrant for their a-priori belief that there should be just one mathematical ‘theory of everything’. As Professor of philosophy Steve Fuller notes,
And as Einstein himself noted, (given atheism), “a priori, one should expect a chaotic world, which cannot be grasped by the mind in any way,,,”
Thus atheists simply have no a-priori philosophical warrant for their belief that there should be just one mathematical theory of everything.
Nor is there any mathematical warrant for their belief that there should be just one mathematical theory of everything. As Stephen Hawking himself noted,
In fact, according to work done by Gregory Chaitin, “an infinite number of true mathematical theorems exist that cannot be proved from any finite system of axioms.”
Thus, the a-priori belief that there should be a unification between General Relativity, Special Relativity and Quantum Mechanics into a single mathematical ‘Theory of Everything” simply does not follow from the math, nor from the atheistic philosophy, but is a belief that is born solely out of Theistic presuppositions.
As to this comment from Sabine Hossenfelder,
Whereas atheists, (as is shown in the following video), have no empirical evidence for all the various extra dimensions, parallel universe and/or multiverse scenarios that they have postulated,,,
,,, Christians, on the other hand, (as is shown in the following video), ,,,
,,, Christians, on the other hand, can appeal directly to the higher dimensional mathematics behind Quantum Mechanics, Special Relativity and General Relativity to support their belief that God upholds this universe in its continual existence, as well as to support their belief in a heavenly dimension and in a hellish dimension.
My favorite proof for a Theistic universe is the proof for heaven that comes from Einstein’s special theory of relativity.
First, in regards to ‘eternity’. Einstein’s breakthrough insight into special relativity was a ‘thought experiment’ where he imagined the he was moving away from the face of a clock at the speed of light.
Einstein realized that when he traveled at the speed of light that the hands of the clock would be frozen and that the passage of time would slow down as one approached the speed of light and then come to a complete stop at the speed of light. This effect of time slowing down and coming to a complete stop is called time dilation.
The only way it is possible for time not to pass for light, and yet for light to move from point A to point B in our universe, is if light is of a higher dimensional value of time than the temporal time we are currently living in. Otherwise light would simply be ‘frozen within time’ to our temporal frame of reference.
And this higher dimensional framework for light plays out. In fact, Einstein’s math professor worked out the higher dimensional nature of special relativity prior to Einstein working out the higher dimensional nature of General Relativity:
Moreover, due to computer simulations, we can now visualize what will happen if a ‘hypothetical’ observer accelerates towards the speed of light.
In the first part of the following video clip, which was made by two Australian University Physics Professors, we find that the 3-Dimensional world ‘folds and collapses’ into a tunnel shape as a ‘hypothetical’ observer approaches the ‘higher dimension’ of the speed of light.
OK now that we have outlined the basics of what we know to be true from special relativity, It is very interesting to note that many of the characteristics found in Near Death Experience testimonies are exactly what we would expect to see from what we now know to be true about Special Relativity.
For instance, many times people who have had a Near Death Experience mention that their perception of time was radically altered. In the following video clip, Mickey Robinson gives his Near Death testimony of what it felt like for him to experience a ‘timeless eternity’.
And here are a few more quotes from people who have experienced Near Death, that speak of how their perception of time was radically altered as they were outside of their material body during their NDEs.
And in regards to special relativity revealing a ‘tunnel’ to a higher dimension, we find that Near Death Experience testimonies also often mention going through a tunnel to a higher heavenly dimension,
In the following video, Barbara Springer gives her testimony as to what it felt like for her to go through the tunnel:
And in the following audio clip, Vicki Noratuk, who has been blind from birth, besides being able to see for the first time during in her life during her Near Death Experience, Vicki also gives testimony of going through a tunnel:
And in the following quotes, the experiencers both testify that they firmly believed that they were in a higher dimension that is above this three-dimensional world, and that the reason that they have a very difficult time explaining what their Near Death Experiences actually felt like is because we simply don’t currently have the words to properly describe that higher dimension:
Thus in conclusion, special relativity, besides being confirmed by empirical observations in science, (without any discrepancy between prediction and obsevation in so far as measurement accuracy allows), the testimonies of Near Death Experiences also themselves match exactly what we would expect to be true beforehand from one of our most accurately verified theories in science, i.e. special relativity.
To me that correspondence between special relativity and Near Death Experience testimonies is simply astonishing. What in blue blazes, in terms of empirical evidence, do atheists have to possibly counter such ‘scientific’ and testimonial evidence for heaven?
@4 Bornagain77: ‘And herein is the problem, many, if not most, of theoretical physicists are atheistic or agnostic in their beliefs towards God’.
The problem is that they believe they are God.
Physicists: “Reality must be mathematically parsimonious.”
God: “Meh.”