To: jacknhoo
They need to answer these three questions:
1. Where did the matter that makes up the Universe come from and when did it first exist?
2. If the Universe is infinite, describe "infinity" in scientific detail. If the Universe is not infinite, what lies beyond it's borders?
3. If the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that complex systems eventually become simpler systems, how did life (an inarguably more complex and fragile system than non-life) begin, overcome entropy and flourish?
Inquiring minds want to know.
55 posted on
10/03/2007 11:02:09 AM PDT by
Dr. Thorne
(Compromise on your vote and you get a compromised government.)
To: Dr. Thorne
They need to answer these three questions:
I'm not one of "them" and I don't think anybody needs to answer you (and I really, really doubt you'll listen with an open mind), but I'm a scientist and I'll take a crack at it.
1. Where did the matter that makes up the Universe come from and when did it first exist?
We observe that the universe is expanding and we can extrapolate this back to a time of high density and temperature. (We are uncertain about many details of this, but we're still working on it.) There appears to have been an event about 15 billion years ago we call the Big Bang, and it's convenient to use this as a milestone and talk about how long after this various things happened. From roughly one to five minutes, particles were freezing into nuclei-- nothing you would recognize as matter existed before then, and at such high temperatures matter can be created and destroyed. At about 10^-6 seconds it was hot enough to melt a proton. I presume you asked about matter because matter is familiar and appears to be conserved-- "where did the energy come from is a tougher question. I don't know the answer to that one but we have a few theories and we're working on it. "It fell off the back of a truck" isn't a very good answer, and neither is "somebody made it".
(As an aside, why is that people always ask where things came from and not where they're going? Why are there so many stories of mighty beings making the sun and moon and so few about mighty being tearing it all down at the end?)
2. If the Universe is infinite, describe "infinity" in scientific detail. If the Universe is not infinite, what lies beyond it's borders?
For part a), read Cantor. For part b), a finite region need not have borders.
3. If the Second Law of Thermodynamics states that complex systems eventually become simpler systems,
It doesn't. And you're not including the sun in your calculations.
Inquiring minds want to know.
And the other kind keep asking the same questions and ignoring the answers.
To: Dr. Thorne
The universe is not infinite as verified by recent observation - IT HAD A BEGINNING and is expanding from that begining.
It had a beginning (and will have an end),
and therefore, Something Else that IS infinite had to “start” it.
194 posted on
10/04/2007 7:09:27 AM PDT by
MrB
(You can't reason people out of a position that they didn't use reason to get into in the first place)
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