Post by Yona Maro on Sept 4, 2005 2:50:24 GMT -5
In the Beginning was the Void...of matter and infinite space. What happened before the supposed big bang in the history of time! Imagine the expanse of universes as a grandiose heartbeat...pulsating inwardly and exhaling or expanding outwardly...repetitive and eternal. At what point in time did plant and animal life evolve on this planet and on other planets far out in deep space among the billions or perhaps trillions of endless galaxies. Are we to imagine and assume that present knowledge and technological advancement on planet earth within the past 100 years represents the sum total of all technology in existence. On the other hand, maybe we as a species were genetically reprogrammed for intelligence! Perhaps advancement of the species throughout archaeological history resulted from civilizations being visited by extraterrestrials who attempted to enlighten and inform us with the "knowledge of good and evil"or are we to suppose that the human species on this particular planet became intelligent all of a sudden...in a matter of , relatively speaking...a few moments in the chronology of endless time and space.
The universe is an enormous hierarchy, ranging from vast clusters of galaxies to minute fragments of interplanetary debris. What is more, everything in it obeys the same laws. Even at the farthest distances that can be observed, there is the same kind of material, behaving just as it does in the nearer reaches of space. The universe starts with clusters of galaxies, and even clusters of clusters, and then moves on to the galaxies themselves, then the stars and clouds of gas and dust of which the galaxies are composed, and so on to the planets and their moons. Galaxies were once known as island universes because they are conglomerations of stars and gas, and sometimes much dust as well, separated by great distances. They can be observed because they emit light and other radiation, which travels over vast distances of space before it reaches Earth. This radiation takes time to travel. Even though it covers almost 186,000 miles each second, it takes billions of years to reach Earth from the most distant galaxies. So here astronomical distances on the largest scale are being considered. The next class of objects in the hierarchy of the universe comprises the gas clouds, or nebulae, within the galaxies. These are the birthplaces of the stars, which form the main visible content of galaxies. Billions of stars go to make up even the smallest galaxies. They shine by their own light, which is generated within them by nuclear fusion. Our Sun is just such a body, its central regions resembling a vast collection of exploding nuclear bombs. The Sun's family comprises nine major planets and scores of moons, as well as thousands of fragments known variously as minor planets, planetoids or, more usually, asteroids -- the 'little stars'. Other material has condensed into small pieces of matter, the comets and meteors. The sun's planetary system and interplanetary debris are all cold and are visible only because they reflect the Sun's light. There is good reason to believe that this system is not unique in our galaxy.
The Extraterrestrial Connection
The idea that earth is being visited or has been visited by intelligent beings from outer space is regarded with skepticism by the scientific community. Such visitations are highly improbable, according to some astronomers, although they also say it is likely that advanced civilizations exist among the billions of galaxies in the universe.
In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there are perhaps 200 billion stars, a small fraction of which must have planets on which life is happening. On some of these it is not unlikely that intelligent beings have evolved and developed civilizations with technologies far superior to ours. In his book The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, astronomer Carl Sagan makes an "optimistic estimate" that within the Milky Way there might be a million such instances. Why, then , apart from the lack of concrete evidence, do scientists find it hard to believe that interstellar spaceships have visited earth? For one thing, we have only just announced our existence - by radio, in the last 40 or so years - to the rest of the universe. We live on the edge of our galaxy, and our closest neighbors may be hundreds or thousands of light -years away. It is going to be some time before the good news reaches them. Probably they would respond by radio, but they may have the technology for travel close to the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) and decide to drop by for a look at us. Even so it would take another several hundred or thousand years in planetary time for their spaceships to reach us and return home.
Furthermore, the notion that intelligent beings from outer space are making daily, or even yearly, rounds to see us is presumptuous to say the least. Given a million possible destinations with advanced civilizations, our planet with its comparatively primitive beings could hardly be of more than anthropological interest. Still, we might merit an occasional field trip. If so, on that basis outer space must be heavily trafficked with UFO's dispatched hither and yon.
But one of the main reasons why science is so skeptical about extraterrestrial visitations is that, in Sagan's words, the accounts of spaceships and their occupants are "stodgy in their unimaginativeness." Our reports of close encounters ascribe to these visitors our own technology, whereas, Sagan points out, theirs would be "so far beyond our present capabilities as to be indistinguishable from magic."
Space and Time.....The meaning of Relativity
By the beginning of the 20th century it had become evident that mass, distance, energy and the passage of time itself should vary according to the motion of the observer.
When Einstein first examined these ideas, he considered only observers moving relative to each other at unchanging velocities - at constant speeds in straight lines. This first version of his theory, called the special theory of relativity, was put forward in 1905. It was founded on the postulate that the laws of physics must be identical for every observer moving in this way - that is, for every frame of reference or viewpoint from which the measurements of physics are made. No frame of reference could be picked out as being at absolute rest.
The consequences that Einstein was able to deduce from the principles of relative motion and the constancy of the speed of light were astounding. First of all, he showed that the length of a body was relative to the frame of reference in which it was measured. If the body were moving at high speed in relation to the observer, it would appear to contract in the direction of its motion, while remaining unaffected in other directions.
The mass of a body also proved to be relative to the frame of reference adopted. (Mass is the "quantity of matter" in a body: the greater its mass, the greater its resistance to changes in its motion.) As a body moves faster, its mass increases relative to an observer at rest. As it approaches the speed of light, more and more energy is needed to give it an extra unit of speed, with the result that no material body can ever reach the speed of light.
Even more astonishing was the discovery that time also is relative. On an object that is moving fast relative to the observer it seems to pass more slowly. So there is no universal standard of time. Our time literally does not pass at the same rate as that of another observer in a different frame of reference. There is no absolute simultaneity in the universe.
By 1915 Einstein had made another enormous advance: he had achieved his general theory of relativity, which was able to deal with changing velocities - that is, with frames of reference in accelerated motion. And because gravity makes bodies accelerate, this new theory became a theory of gravity as well.
The new theory showed that the motions of bodies have to be considered as motions through space-time: a four-dimensional amalgam of the three dimensions of space and the single dimension of time, all intimately connected. From the mathematics of the theory came the result that space-time is distorted - curved -around any mass, a distortion that compels other bodies to follow curved paths in response. Gravitational force is replaced by curvature of space-time.
Einstein followed a clue offered by what had seemed to be an isolated fact in Newton's theory of gravity. There are two ways of measuring mass: by its inertia - its resistance to being accelerated - and by its weight. Inertial mass is always found to be proportional to gravitational mass, and this is why heavy bodies fall at the same rate as light ones: if one body weighs twice as much as another, it will also have twice the inertia, and the one exactly compensates the other.
The theory at which Einstein arrived made it seem natural that a heavy and a light object should move together in a gravitational field; whatever the mass of a body, its movement depends only on the local curvature of space.
Einstein's most famous discovery emerged from the special theory. This was the equivalence, and interconvertibility, of mass and energy, expressed in the equation:
E = mc²
The equation was established in the popular mind, firmly linked with Einstein, by the advent of nuclear bombs and the development of atomic energy. It remains a cornerstone of physics and cosmology today.
Bible Reality
Let us make reference to the book that many people call "The Holy Bible".
In the first place the word 'holy' is derived from the Greek - 'holos' - which means 'whole' or 'entire'. The word 'bible' is derived from the Greek word 'biblio' - meaning 'book'. For example the word holocaust means 'whole or entire burning;' with the Greek word 'kaustos' which means burnt. Other associated words from the original Greek are 'angel' from 'angelos' which means 'messenger' or 'foot soldier'; Ethiopia - which is the country mentioned in Genesis, Chapter 1 - is derived from 'ethios' meaning 'burnt' and 'ops' meaning faces. Presently the country 'Ethiopia' in the original versions of the bible -- including the King James Version and the Douay - Challoner-Rheims, Catholic version - has been changed to the word 'Cush' - in the New American Standard and Heritage Bibles. The term 'Holy Communion' means' whole body or congregation as one in 'union'. The metaphor, i.e, the sacrament of the Eucharist - which involves taking 'Holy Communion' in the Catholic Church is a most sacred act - called the 'Transubstantiation' - which in doctrinal translation means the actual transformation of the 'consecrated' bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus, the christ(messiah)...an act reminiscent of ancient Hellenistic and other so called 'pagan' societies. "Unless you eat my 'flesh' and drink my 'blood' you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."
The universe is an enormous hierarchy, ranging from vast clusters of galaxies to minute fragments of interplanetary debris. What is more, everything in it obeys the same laws. Even at the farthest distances that can be observed, there is the same kind of material, behaving just as it does in the nearer reaches of space. The universe starts with clusters of galaxies, and even clusters of clusters, and then moves on to the galaxies themselves, then the stars and clouds of gas and dust of which the galaxies are composed, and so on to the planets and their moons. Galaxies were once known as island universes because they are conglomerations of stars and gas, and sometimes much dust as well, separated by great distances. They can be observed because they emit light and other radiation, which travels over vast distances of space before it reaches Earth. This radiation takes time to travel. Even though it covers almost 186,000 miles each second, it takes billions of years to reach Earth from the most distant galaxies. So here astronomical distances on the largest scale are being considered. The next class of objects in the hierarchy of the universe comprises the gas clouds, or nebulae, within the galaxies. These are the birthplaces of the stars, which form the main visible content of galaxies. Billions of stars go to make up even the smallest galaxies. They shine by their own light, which is generated within them by nuclear fusion. Our Sun is just such a body, its central regions resembling a vast collection of exploding nuclear bombs. The Sun's family comprises nine major planets and scores of moons, as well as thousands of fragments known variously as minor planets, planetoids or, more usually, asteroids -- the 'little stars'. Other material has condensed into small pieces of matter, the comets and meteors. The sun's planetary system and interplanetary debris are all cold and are visible only because they reflect the Sun's light. There is good reason to believe that this system is not unique in our galaxy.
The Extraterrestrial Connection
The idea that earth is being visited or has been visited by intelligent beings from outer space is regarded with skepticism by the scientific community. Such visitations are highly improbable, according to some astronomers, although they also say it is likely that advanced civilizations exist among the billions of galaxies in the universe.
In our own galaxy, the Milky Way, there are perhaps 200 billion stars, a small fraction of which must have planets on which life is happening. On some of these it is not unlikely that intelligent beings have evolved and developed civilizations with technologies far superior to ours. In his book The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective, astronomer Carl Sagan makes an "optimistic estimate" that within the Milky Way there might be a million such instances. Why, then , apart from the lack of concrete evidence, do scientists find it hard to believe that interstellar spaceships have visited earth? For one thing, we have only just announced our existence - by radio, in the last 40 or so years - to the rest of the universe. We live on the edge of our galaxy, and our closest neighbors may be hundreds or thousands of light -years away. It is going to be some time before the good news reaches them. Probably they would respond by radio, but they may have the technology for travel close to the speed of light (186,000 miles per second) and decide to drop by for a look at us. Even so it would take another several hundred or thousand years in planetary time for their spaceships to reach us and return home.
Furthermore, the notion that intelligent beings from outer space are making daily, or even yearly, rounds to see us is presumptuous to say the least. Given a million possible destinations with advanced civilizations, our planet with its comparatively primitive beings could hardly be of more than anthropological interest. Still, we might merit an occasional field trip. If so, on that basis outer space must be heavily trafficked with UFO's dispatched hither and yon.
But one of the main reasons why science is so skeptical about extraterrestrial visitations is that, in Sagan's words, the accounts of spaceships and their occupants are "stodgy in their unimaginativeness." Our reports of close encounters ascribe to these visitors our own technology, whereas, Sagan points out, theirs would be "so far beyond our present capabilities as to be indistinguishable from magic."
Space and Time.....The meaning of Relativity
By the beginning of the 20th century it had become evident that mass, distance, energy and the passage of time itself should vary according to the motion of the observer.
When Einstein first examined these ideas, he considered only observers moving relative to each other at unchanging velocities - at constant speeds in straight lines. This first version of his theory, called the special theory of relativity, was put forward in 1905. It was founded on the postulate that the laws of physics must be identical for every observer moving in this way - that is, for every frame of reference or viewpoint from which the measurements of physics are made. No frame of reference could be picked out as being at absolute rest.
The consequences that Einstein was able to deduce from the principles of relative motion and the constancy of the speed of light were astounding. First of all, he showed that the length of a body was relative to the frame of reference in which it was measured. If the body were moving at high speed in relation to the observer, it would appear to contract in the direction of its motion, while remaining unaffected in other directions.
The mass of a body also proved to be relative to the frame of reference adopted. (Mass is the "quantity of matter" in a body: the greater its mass, the greater its resistance to changes in its motion.) As a body moves faster, its mass increases relative to an observer at rest. As it approaches the speed of light, more and more energy is needed to give it an extra unit of speed, with the result that no material body can ever reach the speed of light.
Even more astonishing was the discovery that time also is relative. On an object that is moving fast relative to the observer it seems to pass more slowly. So there is no universal standard of time. Our time literally does not pass at the same rate as that of another observer in a different frame of reference. There is no absolute simultaneity in the universe.
By 1915 Einstein had made another enormous advance: he had achieved his general theory of relativity, which was able to deal with changing velocities - that is, with frames of reference in accelerated motion. And because gravity makes bodies accelerate, this new theory became a theory of gravity as well.
The new theory showed that the motions of bodies have to be considered as motions through space-time: a four-dimensional amalgam of the three dimensions of space and the single dimension of time, all intimately connected. From the mathematics of the theory came the result that space-time is distorted - curved -around any mass, a distortion that compels other bodies to follow curved paths in response. Gravitational force is replaced by curvature of space-time.
Einstein followed a clue offered by what had seemed to be an isolated fact in Newton's theory of gravity. There are two ways of measuring mass: by its inertia - its resistance to being accelerated - and by its weight. Inertial mass is always found to be proportional to gravitational mass, and this is why heavy bodies fall at the same rate as light ones: if one body weighs twice as much as another, it will also have twice the inertia, and the one exactly compensates the other.
The theory at which Einstein arrived made it seem natural that a heavy and a light object should move together in a gravitational field; whatever the mass of a body, its movement depends only on the local curvature of space.
Einstein's most famous discovery emerged from the special theory. This was the equivalence, and interconvertibility, of mass and energy, expressed in the equation:
E = mc²
The equation was established in the popular mind, firmly linked with Einstein, by the advent of nuclear bombs and the development of atomic energy. It remains a cornerstone of physics and cosmology today.
Bible Reality
Let us make reference to the book that many people call "The Holy Bible".
In the first place the word 'holy' is derived from the Greek - 'holos' - which means 'whole' or 'entire'. The word 'bible' is derived from the Greek word 'biblio' - meaning 'book'. For example the word holocaust means 'whole or entire burning;' with the Greek word 'kaustos' which means burnt. Other associated words from the original Greek are 'angel' from 'angelos' which means 'messenger' or 'foot soldier'; Ethiopia - which is the country mentioned in Genesis, Chapter 1 - is derived from 'ethios' meaning 'burnt' and 'ops' meaning faces. Presently the country 'Ethiopia' in the original versions of the bible -- including the King James Version and the Douay - Challoner-Rheims, Catholic version - has been changed to the word 'Cush' - in the New American Standard and Heritage Bibles. The term 'Holy Communion' means' whole body or congregation as one in 'union'. The metaphor, i.e, the sacrament of the Eucharist - which involves taking 'Holy Communion' in the Catholic Church is a most sacred act - called the 'Transubstantiation' - which in doctrinal translation means the actual transformation of the 'consecrated' bread and wine into the actual body and blood of Jesus, the christ(messiah)...an act reminiscent of ancient Hellenistic and other so called 'pagan' societies. "Unless you eat my 'flesh' and drink my 'blood' you cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven."