US UFO Sightings Map

[Irvrobinson]

Well, I've been called a denier and told my comments are nonsensical.

I can see engaging with this "we know everything and if you disagree you're stupid" crowd was a mistake. I should hope that some day I'm half as smart as some here.

I'm out.

But, Jake, you are an evolution denier, and that comment about life forming on a molten rock was nonsensical.

I have found people like science a lot when it results in antibiotics and iPhones, but when it challenges faith-based beliefs, not so much.

 

[Hobbit]

I have found people like science a lot when it results in antibiotics and iPhones, but when it challenges faith-based beliefs, not so much.

Amen!

 

[Hobbit]

Well... see... "evolution denier" isn't an uncommon thing. There are millions of people the world over that believe the same as I do, and they would say "YOU" are wrong, so it's a never ending debate. I could just as easily turn around and call you a "creation denier," or "transplanting denier," but that really gets us nowhere to start calling names.

To say I believe that life was brought here is a guess, yes, but an educated guess, because no one, of any persuasion, scientific or otherwise, can definitively say where life came from or how it began, but, they do know that life as we know it, did NOT just magically start from nothing here on earth, which began as a molten blob of rock floating through space. Nothing could live here. It had to get here somehow... some theories an asteroid.

FWIW, the Pope has stated that the theories of evolution and the big bang are not inconsistent with creationism and biblical teachings. “The evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of Creation, because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.”

and he goes on:

“When we read in Genesis the account of Creation, we risk imagining that God was a magician, with such a magic wand as to be able to do everything, However, it was not like that. He created beings and left them to develop according to the internal laws that He gave each one, so that they would develop, and reach their fullness.”

The creation of the universe, Francis said, was not a singular event, but rather “went forward for centuries and centuries, millennia and millennia until it became what we know today.”

 

[3db]

All right, people, there were no aliens. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

One of my favorite movies.

 

[herbu]

I have found people like science a lot when it results in antibiotics and iPhones, but when it challenges faith-based beliefs, not so much.

That dichotomy has become the philosophy de rigueur in the US. We shouldn't judge any of the sweetheart groups of the left based on the actions of a few... but we should judge gun owners or any conservative group based on the actions of a few.

 

[rnatalli]

As far as travel goes, there isn't even any practical theory about how one can sustain near-light speeds, let alone exceed them. It is really looking like the speed of light is a genuine limit of the universe, and if so, we will very likely never meet any extraterrestrial life.

So far it appears that light speed is a true limit, however, the mathematics show there are ways to bend the rules. In fact, Dr. Sonny White who works for Eagleworks which is a small division of NASA has been experimenting the possibility of bending space-time. In this scenario, the ship itself doesn't actually move in the traditional sense hence observing the lightspeed limitation, but expands and contracts space around the ship to move it along at FTL speeds. The math supports up to about 10 times the speed of light if I remember correctly. Very complicated, but cool stuff. All that said, this still isn't the case for aliens visiting us even if it is possible and other intelligent life has figured it out.

Then we have quantum entanglement which allows us to entangle two atoms and they will switch states simultaneously regardless of the distance between them which begs the question as to how are they communicating over vast distances instantaneously. Would make great communication devices as instantaneous communication with deep space probes or ships would have advantages, but what if more can be sent via the same mechanism? As Einstein said, spooky stuff.

When it comes to the whole who created the creator or what existed before the big bang, I've always had trouble, but then you read something like this where we have come up with a clock that will tell time even after the universe is destroyed. Huh?

http://www.livescience.com/23419-eternal-clock-space-time-crystal.html

We will find out the answer regarding the big bang soon enough assuming the collider at CERN is successful. If it turns out the big bang didn't happen, we have a lot of reworking to do, but that's how science works.

 

[Irvrobinson]

So far it appears that light speed is a true limit, however, the mathematics show there are ways to bend the rules. In fact, Dr. Sonny White who works for Eagleworks which is a small division of NASA has been experimenting the possibility of bending space-time. In this scenario, the ship itself doesn't actually move in the traditional sense hence observing the lightspeed limitation, but expands and contracts space around the ship to move it along at FTL speeds. The math supports up to about 10 times the speed of light if I remember correctly. Very complicated, but cool stuff. All that said, this still isn't the case for aliens visiting us even if it is possible and other intelligent life has figured it out.

Then we have quantum entanglement which allows us to entangle two atoms and they will switch states simultaneously regardless of the distance between them which begs the question as to how are they communicating over vast distances instantaneously. Would make great communication devices as instantaneous communication with deep space probes or ships would have advantages, but what if more can be sent via the same mechanism? As Einstein said, spooky stuff.

When it comes to the whole who created the creator or what existed before the big bang, I've always had trouble, but then you read something like this where we have come up with a clock that will tell time even after the universe is destroyed. Huh?

http://www.livescience.com/23419-eternal-clock-space-time-crystal.html

We will find out the answer regarding the big bang soon enough assuming the collider at CERN is successful. If it turns out the big bang didn't happen, we have a lot of reworking to do, but that's how science works.

Entanglement is one of greatest mysteries of all, because I've never heard even a guess about how it works. Dark matter and dark energy are also brain teasers, but their existence is theoretical. Entangled particles are created and observed every day in labs, and of course they are the basis for quantum computing. (The Economist just ran a very poorly written and researched article on quantum computing. They should stick to economics.) Entanglement is real.

How is CERN going to prove the big bang happened? The Large Hadron Collider studies particle behavior that might have occurred an instant after the big bang, but to my knowledge (maybe incorrect) CERN can't tell us anything about whether the big bang happened or not.

 

[rnatalli]

How is CERN going to prove the big bang happened? The Large Hadron Collider studies particle behavior that might have occurred an instant after the big bang, but to my knowledge (maybe incorrect) CERN can't tell us anything about whether the big bang happened or not.

Here's an article that talks about it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/large-hadron-collider/11489442/Big-Bang-theory-could-be-debunked-by-Large-Hadron-Collider.html

 

[Irvrobinson]

Here's an article that talks about it:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/large-hadron-collider/11489442/Big-Bang-theory-could-be-debunked-by-Large-Hadron-Collider.html

I've read about rainbow gravity before, but I did not realize that implies an infinitely aged universe, and I'm not sure I understand how they reach that conclusion. Following a few other links, I couldn't find an explanation for how the background radiation discovered by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson came about, but whatever. Fred Hoyle must be turning over in his grave, because he was one of the proposers of the so-called Steady State theory, which was a competing theory to the Big Bang, and predicted that the universe had an infinite age.

It might also interest you to know, Big Jake, that physicist Fred Hoyle was one of the most famous evolution deniers of all time, being a British Royal Society astronomer and all. He actually wrote a book about it, The Intelligent Universe. I have a very rare copy of it. Hoyle caused a huge stir by comparing evolution to a tornado blowing through a junk yard full of airplane parts, and a complete 747 resulting from the aftermath. He even formulated an intricate theory of a far-future super-intelligence that created a supporting history for itself by performing quantum-level micro-intervention in the past, hence solving the "Where did God come from?" problem. Hoyle just put God in the future, and gave him the power to influence the past. Hoyle may have been wrong about evolution, but at least he was damned creative.

 

[shadyJ]

So far it appears that light speed is a true limit, however, the mathematics show there are ways to bend the rules. In fact, Dr. Sonny White who works for Eagleworks which is a small division of NASA has been experimenting the possibility of bending space-time. In this scenario, the ship itself doesn't actually move in the traditional sense hence observing the lightspeed limitation, but expands and contracts space around the ship to move it along at FTL speeds. The math supports up to about 10 times the speed of light if I remember correctly. Very complicated, but cool stuff. All that said, this still isn't the case for aliens visiting us even if it is possible and other intelligent life has figured it out.

Then we have quantum entanglement which allows us to entangle two atoms and they will switch states simultaneously regardless of the distance between them which begs the question as to how are they communicating over vast distances instantaneously. Would make great communication devices as instantaneous communication with deep space probes or ships would have advantages, but what if more can be sent via the same mechanism? As Einstein said, spooky stuff.

When it comes to the whole who created the creator or what existed before the big bang, I've always had trouble, but then you read something like this where we have come up with a clock that will tell time even after the universe is destroyed. Huh?

http://www.livescience.com/23419-eternal-clock-space-time-crystal.html

We will find out the answer regarding the big bang soon enough assuming the collider at CERN is successful. If it turns out the big bang didn't happen, we have a lot of reworking to do, but that's how science works.

With respect to the Eagleworks project, their theory for FTL travel relies on an undiscovered and totally hypothetical type of matter which isn't predicted to exist. There are lots of crazy things you can do with hypothetical matter. From what I have read they still don't have any real idea how to exceed the speed of light.

Regarding quantum entanglement, supposedly it doesn't violate the spirit of relativity in that you can't transmit information faster than light, so you can not send messages back in time. This is because it can not be determined what changes the particle state on the receiving end.

It looks to me like the universe has a sense of logic which prohibits paradoxes. I don't think FTL travel will ever happen, and because of this I don't think we will ever make contact with any extra-terrestrial life or leave our solar system or in any meaningful way.

 

[Irvrobinson]

With respect to the Eagleworks project, their theory for FTL travel relies on an undiscovered and totally hypothetical type of matter which isn't predicted to exist. There are lots of crazy things you can do with hypothetical matter.

Maybe they got the idea from a Star Trek movie. Didn't that silly Project Genesis notion rely on "proto-matter"?

 

[rnatalli]

With respect to the Eagleworks project, their theory for FTL travel relies on an undiscovered and totally hypothetical type of matter which isn't predicted to exist. There are lots of crazy things you can do with hypothetical matter.

This is true, but doesn't inhibit the experiment from going forwarding. At a minimum, they may find evidence for this hypothetical matter or may show it doesn't exist at all which is still useful information.