Definitions
edit- carbon atoms, water molecules - Somewhat larger than hydrogen atoms, these are the smallest objects that can be seen with an electron microscope.[1]
- hydrogen atoms - They can't be seen.
- Electrons - These are 1/10,000 the size of hydrogen atoms. Same size as protons. They can't been seen either. When children are taught simple physics, they are told that these "rotate" around the nucleus of an atom in shells. This seems to work for chemistry, if not for physics.
- Higgs boson - These can't been seen. Their size is apparently less important than their lifetime which is ten trillion times shorter than a nanosecond. Hardly makes it worthwhile to fill out a birth certificate. This is what the guys at CERN were supposed to have been looking for when they weren't bombarding flights of nearby geese with protons.[2]
- Protons - made of quarks and constitute atomic nucleii. Their radius is 0.84087 femtometers. A femtometer is a billionth of a billionth of a meter. These can't be seen.
- quark - The smallest is 1/10 millionth the size of a proton. There are six types (3 "pairs') of quarks, four of which (2 "pairs") are unstable. The other two are the components of atomic nucleii. Quarks are composed of (balls of?) string. Scientists are not real sure about the lengths of these or smaller particles.
- Neutrino - These are 1/100 the size of the smallest quark. This is the second smallest particle. It can't been seen either.[3][4] There are three kinds of these in the standard model.
- String - These are 1/100 billionth the size of neutrinos. The smallest stuff "known" (dreamt up?) by man. You know how some people keep string? Well, you could roll up a length of this from here to the sun and lose it in your sock drawer. Not that you can do that. Not that the Supreme Court has found something in the Constitution that protects this kind of string. Physicists just claim it's too small, and you can't even tie it together. Can't be seen.
- Physicists are talking about smashing string to find out what it is made of. For this they would need a much larger collider.
- ("Big fleas have little fleas,
Upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas,
and so, ad infinitum.") - Based on a poem by Jonathan Swift
- ("Big fleas have little fleas,
Table
edit| Context | What non-believers believe |
What believers believe |
|---|---|---|
| Belief | Paradox of nihilism (Can't really believe in nothing) |
Belief (without proof) "..we walk by faith, not by sight."2 Corinthians 5:7 |
| Do not believe there is a "God out there", but firmly believes, on the basis of even less evidence, that there are aliens somewhere "out there." -Carl Sagan and others. But after nearly 14 billion years, they have never called, never written. See Fermi paradox[6] | Rare Earth hypothesis. Tends to agree with Scripture "Everybody nowadays believes in scores of assumptions for which there is good evidence, but no perfect visual proof. And does not science demonstrate that visual proof is the weakest proof? It is being constantly revealed, as mankind studies the material world, that outward appearances are not inward reality at all. To illustrate: The steel girder is a mass of electrons whirling around each other at incredible speed. These tiny bodies are governed by precise laws, and these laws hold true throughout the material world. Science tells us so. We have no reason to doubt it. When, however, the perfectly logical assumption is suggested that underneath the material world and life as we see it, there is an All Powerful, Guiding, Creative Intelligence, right there our perverse streak comes to the surface and we laboriously set out to convince ourselves it isn't so." - Bill Wilson |
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| Disbelief changes seasonally: 1st & 2nd centuries=Gnosticism, 3rd & 4th centuries=Docetism, 5th century(on)=Albigensian, 8th century=Iconoclasm, 13th century=Catharism, 18th century=Deism, 19th-20th century=materialist, 21st century= Individualism Hedonism Minimalism (what's the least we can do?) |
Stayed the same for 2,000 years Individualism leads to greed, selfishness, and exploitation. And no, these are not just reserved for "capitalists." They are just better at it than the rest of us! Hedonism leads to laziness, lust, and gluttony.[7] |
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| Place in the universe | I am a biological machine, arbitrarily programmed by heredity and environment. An physical analysis of my brain would show that there is no "driver. I have no free will.[8] My body is composed of 65% water,[9] plus some sodium, potassium, calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, chloride, sulfur, and small amounts of trace elements.[10] If bought "unassembled," I would not cost much! |
God has given stewardship of the earth, and Free Will, to humans |
| Free will | I have no free will | See above "To be clear, no single study would disprove all forms of free will." - from same article. As a practical matter, society would be nearly impossible if a Sense of agency is removed from enough people. |
| How we got here | Branes, Quantum foam, 6-dimension strings have always existed. At least two branes collided (or froze or coalesced) nearly 14 billion years ago[11] creating the Big Bang and this (11-dimension, 10 of space and 1 of time) heterogeneous universe. Of which we can sense 4-dimensions (3 of space, one of time). The Big Bang produced both ordinary matter and antimatter particles, 99% of which annihilated each other, leaving a small surplus of ordinary matter. This resultant universe produced earth and single-celled organisms. It is the "nature" of inert material to form itself into life, given enough time. After a cold snap, earth produced Multicellular organisms. For once, the scientists are not saying, "this would have happened given enough time." Cooperation between cells seems peculiar, and unique, even to scientists. So far. Later, earth produced Humans, who invented God. It is the "nature" of life to produce intelligence, given enough time.
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God has always existed. He created this universe and Humans. See Occam's razor These other observations may be factual but they are dissonant. We could be a "dream in the mind of God![15] While an astronomer can, with some effort, prove that our Sun is not the center of the Universe, it would take a lot of work to prove that our Milky Way galaxy was not the center of the Universe. The redshift occurs in all directions equally from us. Astronomers Just Don't Like It! |
| God unnecessary to the Big Bang (Q.E.D. He doesn't exist) - Stephen Hawking[16][17][18] Because the physicists have explained the physical universe so well, I don't have to actually do anything to believe in it. Therefore the spiritual and emotional sides of humanity are wrong and are "crutches" to be discarded | It is said of scientists (as with other fields), that they are better at asking questions than answering them. The "simple" micro-universe of 1886 with a few minor questions has given way to a rather complex micro-universe of the 2010s with many significant questions left unanswered, and more anticipated.
So while it is true that the physicists "understand" the physical universe, their relative "understanding" has undergone entropy - become worse! Their studies can be interesting. The fact that more questions arise, and are more complicated than before, should give pause. Nor are they soothing to the psyche, being in dissonance with our perception of reality. |
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| Where did I come from | My body contains about 20,000 genes which I inherited, roughly 10,000 from each parent, 5,000 from each grandparent, etc. If carried back 15 generations or 375 years, and assuming that no one married a relative (this is impossible, still, there is some point, more distant in time, where this happened), I inherited one gene (on average) from each of those ancestors. One generation back, I inherited one gene from half my ancestors; the other half were irrelevant genetically; back one more generation: one quarter from the prior generation; the other 3/4 being irrelevant. This was pointed out by Dawkins in his Ancestor's Tale. If we keep going, 99% of our ancestors were irrelevant! So if you can trace your ancestry to Richard I, Charlesmagne, Alexander the Great, Hercules, etc. it may not make any difference to your physical body. You may not have inherited as much as one drop of blood from them![19] |
God created my inmost being; He knit me together in my mother’s womb. I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Gods works are wonderful. - Psalm 139:13–16 |
| How to live life | The world revolves around me[20] | What can I do for others? "Authentic spirituality is an experience of abundance and mutual flourishing instead of a limited world of scarcity (“Their success is my loss!”). Only material gifts and ego gifts decrease in this way, whereas spiritual gifts actually increase with each use, in ourselves and in those around us. There is no loss in the world of Spirit, but all becomes an avenue to more." - Richard Rohr |
| Living well | Being successful, having nice possessions, living in the best part of town, associating with the right people He who dies with the most toys, wins.[21] |
An internal condition; complete freedom from myself; living in the now "If merely feeling good could decide, drunkenness would be the supremely valid human experience. — William James |
| My perception of myself |
Media message: I am "better than" Jeffrey Dahmer, the woman who drowned her children, Osama bin Laden, Ted Bundy, Jerry Sandusky, and Ariel Castro. Therefore, I am just wonderful (and keep tuning in folks. We'll have more footage on people who are worse than you are! :)[23] |
Your mother told you not to compare yourself with other people! Even secular sources agree with your mother.
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| Suffering | Suffering makes no sense. Part of the random, chaotic universe. Use euthanasia if it gets too bad. (Also reduces the cost of Medicare and Social Security).
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Suffering is temporal punishment for sin. God sends us no challenge that we cannot handle |
| View on Galileo | Great astronomer, persecuted by Catholic Church in 1652 over his correct theory of the solar system | Great maker of telescopes and observer. Parrots Father Copernicus (1532), and Kepler (1627). Got into trouble more for political/personal reasons than religious. He had started out as a friend of the Pope. At the time, the average person was frightened at the spectre of heliocentricism, including Protestants. They were relieved when he was punished...until they were able to accept that he was correct. Then, and only then, did it become a Catholic vs Protestant matter. |
| Discipline | Okay to have sex, "recreational" drugs, alcohol and other substances whenever I choose. There is no downside to yielding to my "normal" physical desires[24] | Chastity is a good discipline for my soul. So is abstention or moderation in the use of any substance. "..we live in a sex-obsessed society.." - Abigail Van Buren, column 5/14/13 |
| Why did God create (or allow) evil? | If he is perfect, then he can't "create" evil. Therefore, he can't exist. | This presumes he created evil. Evil is the absence of good. "..if I .. made him [man] perfect, what would life on earth be like? No sadness, so no joy. No tears, no smiles. No pain, no relief. No bondage, no freedom. No failure, no triumph. No rudeness, no courtesy. No bigotry, no tolerance. No despair, no exultation. No sin and certainly no redemption. I would simply create a paradise of featureless bliss here on earth, which would make my kingdom somewhat redundant... Man must have his choice.." - Frederick Forsyth in The Phantom of Manhattan |