What we see, measure, and define

[cindianna_jones]

It's not a great shot.  But lots of data is in there.

Out in the Eagle nebulae, thousands of light years away,  I watch.  I can see with my observatory what is going on out there.  Sure, the Hubble scope gives us beautiful pictures.  But what is seen in the Eagle nebula is within easy reach of many smaller observatories like mine.

Large clouds of hydrogen gas coalesce.  Lumps of matter are drawn to other lumps of matter.  It's a pattern well defined with the mathematics we have.  It's just stuff clumping.  There are regions where so much mass has been collected, that baby stars have been born.  If you collect enough mass, that happens.  It's simple physics.

Once you have a burning star, the matter surrounding the star, continues to coalesce.  Orbital mechanics usually pull most of it into a plane where it forms into planet like objects.  We see this process in all of its stages in this nebula.  We can define it.  It's just mass which has mathematical properties.  There will be hundreds of solar systems born there.  All of them will be filled with molecular chains that are used to form amino acids.  This stuff is everyewhere in the Universe.  It is a natural byproduct of stars that died long before the earth was created.

This is what we can see.  We can measure it.  We can define it.  We can build models of it.  Are we watching the hand of God?  Or are we just collecting data on natural physics? 

When we add two plus two to equal four, do we attribute the answer to God?

I'd like to know what you think.

Cindi

[Dennis]

I've always thought God is the answer to questions we don't yet have the means of answering. I was raised atheist and, although I don't have the measure of commitment to the lack of existence of a god that people who are atheist converts have, I have difficulty imagining a supreme being.

That said, I think religion is very important to many people and I would never denigrate that. In addition to being raised atheist, I was also taught to respect other people's religion and faith.

Simple physics was simply physics until Schroedinger and Heisenberg. Then uncertainty became an aspect of physics. Quantum physics adds all kinds of complexity to it and makes it clear that not all things can be explained by a mathematical system. And, Goedel showed that even the simplest mathematical system is inherently self-contradictory. So I don't think we know it all, and I don't think the explanations ever keep up with the questions. Is that God or limited human understanding? I tend to think the latter. Others think the former.

Either way, beauty is beauty. There is beauty in a picture and there is beauty in a mathematical proof, a perfectly sung note, a connection between people. I don't feel the need to explain it; I'd rather just enjoy it.

Dennis

[Buffy]

Fantastic photo Cindy....

Doesn't need any explanation, it is just something utterly amazing to be looked at in wonderment.

Becky

[tinkerbell]

The Fate of the Universe


You physicists have become annoying
You can't seem to make up your minds
Did everything come from nothing
Or was nothing all there was to find?

What was that first singularity
And what made it start to inflate?
You say a vacuum is not really empty
As long as energy potentiates?

At time zero there was zero space
But fluctuation took care of that
Now there's space of an ill-defined shape
That's full of live/dead cats.

Continuing on you tell us
That we're here cause CP ain't conserved
I never thought of myself as a leftover
This is becoming absurd.

But the universe is here now
At least part of it, I guess,
How is it you can't find the dark matter
To account for the missing mass?

And what is this dark energy
Permeating like a fog?
Einstein was shamed by his fudge factor
But you've brought it back in vogue.

The news from Canada is distressing
There are too few neutrinos from the sun
But physicists aren't constrained by facts
They'll make three neutrinos from one.

So the Standard Model is in danger
It's time for a paradigm shift,
Well paradigm shift, shmaradigm pfffft,
Will you guys please get over it.

Any idea how the story will end?
Big crunch, cold death, lost souls?
Or a slipper slide to a new universe
Through a slimy little worm hole?

Which confirms my general suspicion
That reality is just theory for this bunch
Waves are particles, particles are strings,
And the universe is the ultimate free lunch.


By Leslie C. McKinney,


tinkerbell

[Jillieann Rose]

Beautful picture Cindi.
To think that so much is happening out there is just to much for this little mind.
As far as your quest I like Tink's quote.
I easier for me to believe that we are watching God at work than all of that is happening by chance. It's all math yes and everything has order and rules. I beleive God created them. 
For me that's the answer.
Jilllieann

[cindianna_jones]

I too believe that physics and science are God's laws.  And we have been given the intelligence and abilities to discover them.  Sure we disagree and we fumble.  But the wanting to discover is ingrained into our very being.  It is given to us as a "holy" gift.

There are many things that are just theories; the speed of light, gravity, and our own self awareness among countless others.  A theory is the best explanation given the facts and measurements we have.  Without facts and measurements, a theory does not exist; it is only a postulation or a guess.

I like Dennis' perspective.  I enjoy these things that are.  I do however, querry and test.  I want to know.  I relish the pursuit of the great explanations.   I do love philosophy.

Cindi