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August 26th, 2015

A resurrection while I’m away.

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Discussion (26)¬

  1. bookworm says:
    August 26, 2015 at 11:13 am

    Soon the gap will be about Planck size. Hope god(s) almighty will feel comfortable.

  2. European says:
    August 26, 2015 at 12:10 pm

    Maybe He can have one of the infinite number of parallel universes?

  3. European says:
    August 26, 2015 at 12:11 pm

    To each God his/her/its own parallel universe, avoids conflict

  4. Fred Flintstone says:
    August 26, 2015 at 12:55 pm

    Like the Templeton reference – missed it first reading 😉

  5. joe3eagles says:
    August 26, 2015 at 2:07 pm

    Must be traumatic to have to move out of a palatial mansion into a studio apartment. Poor sod.

  6. jb says:
    August 26, 2015 at 2:45 pm

    Speaking of parallel universes, Max Tegmark has made the very interesting suggestion that our Universe (our Multiverse in fact) is just a mathematical structure; that all mathematical structures (including trivially simple ones, like permutation groups) have equal “physical reality” in their own right; and that we ourselves are simply mathematical substructures which happen to be sufficiently complicated to have self-awareness. I’m impressed by Tegmark’s idea because it is the very first I have ever run across that offers even the remotest hope of answering the question “Why is there something rather than nothing.”

    Anyway, ever since I read Tegmark’s book I’ve wondered whether there could be a mathematical structure (not necessarily ours, but who knows?), that included a being who was a “God” — i.e., fully aware of, and having some sort of control over, the entire structure. Way, way, way over my head of course, but I can’t see any way to rule it out. (And maybe there is even a mathematical universe with a being who, in addition to being a god, also happens to have the mentality of an Iron Age barbarian king?)

  7. Darwin Harmless says:
    August 26, 2015 at 3:41 pm

    I’ve been reading Lawrence M. Krauss’s “A Universe From Nothing, Why is there something rather than nothing” only to discover once again that I do not have the brain for cosmology. I can follow every step until I get to one of those “This means that…” statements and they simply do not compute. I’m now resigned to this fact, and willing to accept that the great controversies of my age – whether the universe is open or closed, what is the nature of dark matter and dark energy – will have to be solved without my participation.
    Gaps are another thing entirely. They double every time a new fossil is fitted into the record. Suddenly there are two gaps, though both are smaller than the gap that was just filled. The Templeton Foundation has no problem finding gaps. Their problem is in finding credible scientists who will defend the absurdity that is creationism. I’m sure money helps in this search.

  8. DocAtheist says:
    August 26, 2015 at 5:07 pm

    Oh, @author, that’s … that’s… There just aren’t words of praise strong enough to fill in the, er, gap! You amaze me! Kudos!

  9. Macha says:
    August 26, 2015 at 8:36 pm

    @bookworm

    Plank size.

    That’s brilliant. There ain’t no more places to squeeze!

  10. Macha says:
    August 26, 2015 at 8:38 pm

    Sorry, Planck.

    Sheesh

  11. charlie says:
    August 26, 2015 at 9:37 pm

    Author,
    Absolutely brilliant. BRAVO!!
    In my opinion, this has to be among your very best ever. Thank you for every one of your excellent posts.

  12. jb says:
    August 27, 2015 at 1:05 am

    Krauss got a lot of flack for his book, and I think it was justified. It may be true that that the rules of Quantum Mechanics allow for the creation of “a universe from nothing,” but you still have to explain where those rules came from, and what it is that they apply to.

    Tegmark’s big idea is that rules are all there is. That there is nothing for those rules to apply to, but that instead the rules themselves — all possible (coherent) sets of rules — are reality, and there is nothing else. He even holds out the possibility that there could be statistical tests that might provide evidence for or against his hypothesis! At this point of course he is up to his ears in speculation, and he had kind of lost me, but still….

  13. Shaughn says:
    August 27, 2015 at 7:42 am

    Plenty empty heads out there for god to fill, I think.

  14. Jerry+www says:
    August 27, 2015 at 2:34 pm

    Never before has the meaning of the phrase “Mind The Gap” been so clear.

  15. oldebabe says:
    August 27, 2015 at 5:29 pm

    Suggestions, possibilities, ideas, thoughts, opinion, rules, etc. etc. etc. and then find those gaps, people! Aren’t these the methods used to confuse?

    Good grief: now what – quantum physics!

  16. white+squirrel says:
    August 27, 2015 at 5:53 pm

    ‘A god of the gaps’
    That would be a god of the absence of existence.

  17. Steven says:
    August 27, 2015 at 6:08 pm

    To think that religion stands or falls by its ability to explain natural phenomena is just moronic.

  18. mat'iibn says:
    August 27, 2015 at 6:23 pm

    Here are a couple of reading suggestions on the topic of why there is something…

    The Void, Frank Close
    Why Does the World Exist; An Existential Detective Story, Jim Holt

  19. Nassar+Ben+Houdja says:
    August 28, 2015 at 5:37 am

    How nice that people place a reliance
    On simple things like alleged science
    The more science uncovers
    The more it discovers
    The universe is in some sort of compliance.

  20. white+squirrel says:
    August 28, 2015 at 8:05 am

    Any size of gap considered

    It would depend on which is larger
    the amount of scientific knowledge we have or the amount of scientific knowledge we dont have.
    this we will never be able to say with certainty.
    therefore ‘god’ will always have a dark corner to hide away from humanity.

    is it possible that ‘god’ is afraid of humans enough to want to hide from them despite ‘god’ being ‘all powerful’?

  21. Micky says:
    August 28, 2015 at 10:06 am

    Some folk will believe any old bullshit regardless of evidence Some are too lazy or stupid to question their “faith”. Others conflate their religion with their cultural identity, and many are just too scared to challenge their parents, community, isis, etc.

  22. JohnM says:
    August 28, 2015 at 10:45 pm

    Wow, Nasser. Not half bad. Finally a true limerick, if you slur one or two syllables.

    Macha. Could it have been one of the proverbial “two short planks”?

  23. GAP says:
    August 29, 2015 at 4:35 am

    Does this mean people seeking the bounty from this foundation are going
    to be staking out my P.O. Box waiting for me to come get my mail…

    …or do they just want to take over retail space previously used by the
    retailer who is using my initials? ^_-

  24. Holms says:
    September 1, 2015 at 9:53 am

    To each God his/her/its own parallel universe, avoids conflict

    The DnD way! (lots of conflict with each other though)

  25. hotrats says:
    September 1, 2015 at 8:58 pm

    Congratulations Nassar! Almost there!

  26. Me Here says:
    November 19, 2015 at 4:58 pm

    Yeahh…..last time god did that, we got jesus….god’s a randy bastage when he gets in the mood…

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