The Universe

[December]

To clarify: personal beliefs about God (or the non-existence of God) obviously make a big difference to the way each of us thinks about the universe. HOWEVER, religion is a very fraught subject, and as a matter of Lex policy people are asked to steer clear of religious discussion on the boards. The posters who suggested that this conversation stick to the scientific side of this question weren't being bossy, they were just reminding everyone about these guidelines. PLEASE LET'S KEEP THIS CONVERSATION FROM SLIPPING INTO A DEBATE ABOUT RELIGIOUS BELIEFS. The thread will be locked if it goes seriously off the rails. There's still plenty of fascinating things to talk about from a strictly secular perspective. So keep it light -- and have fun!

[aimee_xbella]

Eh, let's not push religion, I think it's a personal choice/opinion. But I don't think we should discuss God or religion because that'll just sidetrack and create chaos.

I concur. Squabbling over religion could possibly get the thread deleted. No one wants that, right?

Let's keep the discussion on topic. It's a SCIENTIFIC discussion on the Universe. Carry on...

The topic of discussion is The Universe. I assume that means EVERYTHING contained in the universe. Does the title say SCIENCE ONLY NOT PERSONAL BELIEF? NO. It says The Universe. How is it right for one to decide that a part of the universe should not be mentioned here because they don't want it here, when others think it belongs here and want it here? Which way is the right way to go?

I don't think anyone is trying to exclude god from this conversation. We don't want it is wise to not drag religion into this topic. Religion & politics are very controversial topics and I don't think we want to start a riot on here. And plus, I think religion is a personal choice, and that we don't need to push it on a topic about the universe. If you want to talk about religion, I suggest you talk about it somewhere else or start your own topic, even though I don't even know if it is allowed on Lexicon.

[CéliAmbre]

Right. I think we all agree that any view of God is important for someone's views of the Universe, and that God is important for some people, and less for others. We don't need to stay 100% scientific with only formulae and so on, but I don't think we should get much into God. And by the way, religion doesn't only deal with God, does it? It has been an important part of people's lifes for a very long time, and it has also mixed with science, philosophy and other things in the past, and in the present. And some religions don't have a God-they try to explain the wonders of this Universe in different ways, with rebirth and so on. So really, religion is such a widely spread topic it might be impossible to completely avoid it, but keeping focus on God is no good idea.
Humans are not yet capable of explainaing very much of the questions we have about the Universe, and if some people are satisfied with explanaitions like God, fine. But as we can all see in the history of sciences, our knowledge is improving everyday. We know now more than ever before, and I think we should continue going that way, even if some things are only hypotheses.
For example: does everyone see the same things? I mean, we all call red red, but maybe every person sees something different. Is that possible? Why or why not? Would that mean everyone could also see shapes differently, feel textures in a different way, hear sounds differently? We don't know, but if we would switch bodies, would that mean that we would be completely confused at first, because everything we see etc. is differently than we saw it in our original body?
Just a theory. Not mine, though (Unfortunetely)

[ChristinasHeadache]

First, let me clarify something. I wasn't the person who wanted God in the conversation. I don't even know that God exists. I have no faith, no religion. I was merely trying to stick up for someone elses point of view. Obviously debussy feels it should be included. I understand some people get pushy, and demanding about their personal feelings or beliefs, I am not one of those people. At least what I should say is when it comes to religion or God I do not push my beliefs onto others because I have no beliefs. I listen with an open mind when others talk to me about it. It's like soaking up water into a sponge for me. Politics however, I do get very heated about so I try hard to steer clear of political areas. I can be very well .... versed when I am passionate about something.

As for the universe, I love looking at the stars, I love seeing pictures of Andromeda, and other places. It is fascinating. Beautiful. I wonder if I am allowed to link to some of the pictures I have in my computer of space?

[Goodnight Elizabeth]

Chris, I'm like you. I have no religion, or rather I'm anti-organized religion.

I grew up Baptist, but learned as a young adult it wasn't for me. However, I'm not the type of person to push my beliefs onto someone else. If someone worships God, that's fine. If someone else worships more than one God, that's fine. If one does not believe in any one specific god, or that his or her god isn't the biblical God, that is also fine. I agree that religion is a personal choice. Ok. We've said what we had to say about our religious point-of-views, and have gone against Mod wishes, so before we get the thread locked - how about we all discuss the Universe???

Chris, I would love to see the pictures you have. Make sure you either post the link or the hidden link. Posting pictures is frowned upon by the Admins and Mods.

And Chris - my hubby is in Van Buren right now - looking for deer, but getting rained on.

[ceenindee]

This is an awesome topic! I'm not very good at math, so I could never go into astronomy, but I always love watching Nat Geo and reading stuff like What the Bleep Do We Know (it was made by some religious sect? I never knew that) when it comes to space.

Okay, here's an interesting topic to throw into this discussion: dark matter. Anyone know what it is? I heard it's the stuff that's making our universe accelerate apart faster, working against the glue of gravity. But it's impossible to detect, and no one really knows what it is, except that it MUST be there because there's no other explanation for some of the universe's goings-on. Anyone who's read The Golden Compass is probably at least familiar with the term. It freaks me out, frankly. I can't even wrap my mind around the idea of matter that's completely undetectable.

Other thoughts that keep me up at night...

What's on the other side of a black hole?
What was going on BEFORE the big bang (assuming that's what happened)? And after the universe ends (assuming it does), what's left? Blank white space, or what?
Are there parallel universes?
Are time and space just illusions (there's this quantum physics theory of entanglement, which basically says everything is touching, and other scientists have suggested that time is just another form of human perception but doesn't actually exist)?
And of course, are we the only intelligent life out there?

[aimee_xbella]

This is an awesome topic! I'm not very good at math, so I could never go into astronomy, but I always love watching Nat Geo and reading stuff like What the Bleep Do We Know (it was made by some religious sect? I never knew that) when it comes to space.

Okay, here's an interesting topic to throw into this discussion: dark matter. Anyone know what it is? I heard it's the stuff that's making our universe accelerate apart faster, working against the glue of gravity. But it's impossible to detect, and no one really knows what it is, except that it MUST be there because there's no other explanation for some of the universe's goings-on. Anyone who's read The Golden Compass is probably at least familiar with the term. It freaks me out, frankly. I can't even wrap my mind around the idea of matter that's completely undetectable.

Other thoughts that keep me up at night...

What's on the other side of a black hole?
What was going on BEFORE the big bang (assuming that's what happened)? And after the universe ends (assuming it does), what's left? Blank white space, or what?
Are there parallel universes?
Are time and space just illusions (there's this quantum physics theory of entanglement, which basically says everything is touching, and other scientists have suggested that time is just another form of human perception but doesn't actually exist)?
And of course, are we the only intelligent life out there?

Well I've heard scientists say that dark matter make up like 95% of our universe or so and we only know 5% of the universe, the thought of that always scares me, I mean just thinking about all that's out there that we don't know about! It's pretty fascinating though.

Some people think that when you go in a black hole, you come out in another part of the universe, but I don't know that it been proven. It's an interesting idea, it's just like time traveling or wormhole.

Before the big bang(assuming that's what happened), it was supposedly a "big crunch" where the universe collapses onto itself and then the big bang starts all over again; and it goes on in cycles like that for who knows how long. I don't know that if the universe will ever end, it's a pretty scary idea though, that nothing will be left, there always has to be something left, right?

I don't know a lot about parallel universes, but hey, anything is possible!

Well some people say that time is the 4th dimension, and I guess without time, nothing can progress. So I think that it does exist, but I think it exists differently to everything. Like for humans, time is seconds, minutes, hours, days and etc. To the universe, time might be millions, billions, even trillions of years. So I think it depends on relevance.

As for other intelligent life forms, I have to believe that they do exist, because if humans exist, then out of the billion, trillion other planet systems, there just has to be other living things. They might not be like us, for all we know, they could be blobs of jello-like creatures. They could be microscopic small, or bigger than earth. If you have seen Men In Black the movie, you'd know how that galaxy was in a glass case on a cat's collar! That intrigues me because maybe there are galaxies like that, and maybe we are like that. It's fascinating and scary at the same time to think about how small and insignificant humans are to this universe. And yet we think we are oh so powerful.

[LipsForeverSealed]

the moon was is so beautiful tonight, and the stars

Its freaks me out looking at them.. You feel so odd and weird questions come to you

the world is weird, The Universe is weird

[ChristinasHeadache]

Eagle Nebula 1 Eagle Nebula 2 Andromeda 1 Andromeda 2

[bite_me]

I think time could be an illusion. i think, maybe everything there is to happen is happening in one, infinite moment, and it's just that our brains have evolved to percieve things through time. So to the universe, or to God, or to something outside of that, they just see things as infinite.

I don't know whether i came up with that theory myself, or i read it somewhere or what. i cant remember where I got it.