Friday, January 13, 2012

Breaking News: Big Bang A Mystery

So I am hippity hopping and bippity bopping through Cosmos. Remarkable book. The man jumps from ancient philosophers and civilizations to the human brain and whales and the human body and ecology and TV and politics and much, much more, and somehow connects it all to the study of the cosmos.
I have to admit I just plowed through two heavy chapters. Chapters where I allowed my eyes to read the words and my brain to receive them, but most of it could not have been more confusing had it been written in Mandarin. But I am committed and I am nearing the end - I shall carry on.
When he references religious beliefs on the creation of the universe, he does it with reverence but also with a wink and a nod. The chapter I just finished discusses The Big Bang. Sagan explains in great detail how it happened, while also admitting why the Big Bang happened is one of life's great mysteries.
WHAT? That sounds like a religious comment to me. Blew my mind. There are a hell of a lot of assumptions built into the theory of The Big Bang - not facts - assumptions. Kind of like assuming that God always was and always will be.
Scientists will torture you with details about stuff like that, make it sound like there are no other options and that what they are proposing is incontrovertibly true. Religious zealots and republican presidential candidates do the same thing.
More proof of just how lost the human race is. When it comes to the really big stuff, our origin and our inevitable death, we are woefully ignorant. These are the things we really need to know, the things we have a right to know. The knowing would completely define who we are and where we are going. And we will never know until dirt hits the lid of the coffin. Imagine if there is no afterlife, no ethereal consciousness; then we are faced with an infinity of not knowing. I hate that idea.
No matter which side you choose, there is a large amount of faith involved in the believing. Scientists might dispute that, arguing that their assumptions are extremely well educated guesses, but the truth is ultimately they don't have the answers any more than a religious scholar does.
A lot of energy and arguing and discussion is devoted to the topic of our creation because we hunger to know. Millions goosestep mindlessly into churches praying for an answer; millions goosestep into labs mindlessly trying to work out solutions.
Makes me think of the Christmas music I listened to 24/7 for a few weeks at The Booze Emporium. So many words about peace on earth and goodwill to man. A baby being born who is going to save mankind and blanket the earth with love.
We humans are desperate to know, desperate for peace both of mind and of body, desperate for an end to war, desperate to find the meaning of life. We have created all these Christmas songs that reflect a hunger for a better world.
We pray passionately and clutch the bible to our chests in hope.
We conduct experiments endlessly and record data as "proof".
The Christmas song thing might have seemed like a stretch to you, but it all connects in my mind so you are going to have to live with it.
On a lighter note. Sagan talks about the possibility of intelligent life on other planets and in other galaxies evaluating us on the stuff we are beaming out into space. Noting that every television show ever broadcast is bouncing around the cosmos.
Can you imagine the impression that would make on an intelligent civilization?
Now I understand The Big Bang. It will be the earth exploding as aliens blast us out of existence after watching one episode of the Jerry Springer show.

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