Daylight Atheism » Physics

The Language of God: In the Beginning...

Ebonmuse — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 10:48:06 +0000

The Language of God, Chapter 3

By B.J. Marshall

After his prelude, Collins begins at the beginning: The Big Bang. He talks about what it is, asks what came before it, and argues that it cries out for a divine explanation. The Big Bang doesn't just cry out for an explanation - no, no, no - it cries out for a divine explanation. Nothing like checking your biases at the door when doing that science thing, right?

We saw previously that he knows what a theory ... [visit site to read more]

Cathedrals

Ebonmuse — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:36:57 +0000

You may have heard that, after an exasperating series of setbacks and delays, the massive particle accelerator called the Large Hadron Collider is finally up and running. Even in preliminary tests, it's set records for the most powerful particle collisions ever recorded in a lab - and when it's reactivated later this year, it's expected to set new ones.

Recently, I was struck by visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: Strange New Worlds

Ebonmuse — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 17:38:36 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 6

The cosmological fine-tuning argument is one of the more interesting claims in the intelligent-design movement's toolkit. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's the best argument they have. I'll let Robin Collins make the point as strongly as he can:

"Over the past thirty years or so, scientists have discovered that just about everything about the basic structure of the universe is balanced on a razor's edge for life to exist. The ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: In the Beginning

Ebonmuse — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 10:58:45 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 5

The second premise of the kalam cosmological argument is that the universe began to exist. In discussing this premise, William Lane Craig asks the question of whether the universe necessarily had a beginning or whether it could have existed for an infinite amount of time before now. He argues that the former is the only option:

"...if the past were really infinite, then that would mean we have managed to traverse an infinite past to ... [visit site to read more]

The Case for a Creator: It's All Because of Quantum

Ebonmuse — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 10:50:33 +0000

The Case for a Creator, Chapter 5

In discussing the kalam argument, William Lane Craig makes some points that touch on modern research in cosmology and physics, so I'll address those. He begins with the premise that "whatever begins to exist has a cause":

"It seems metaphysically necessary that anything which begins to exist has to have a cause that brings it into being. Things don't just pop into existence, uncaused, out of nothing." ... [visit site to read more]

Epicurus' World

Ebonmuse — Fri, 29 May 2009 10:50:51 +0000

The story goes that the renowned physicist Richard Feynman was once asked to summarize the most important finding of modern science in a single sentence. Feynman replied, "The universe is made of atoms."

Although there are many other scientific discoveries that are arguably of equal importance, Feynman's choice makes a lot of sense. The discovery of atoms is so familiar to us that it's easy to overlook its breathtaking significance. We know, at the smallest scale where it still makes sense ... [visit site to read more]

On Analogies, and the Uses Thereof

Ebonmuse — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 13:33:25 +0000

In essays such as "Three In One", I've scorned the Christian doctrine of the Trinity:

If a claim is labeled beyond our ability to understand, then how are we supposed to tell if it is true? What assurance do theists have that the Trinity is a true fact about the world that is genuinely beyond our ability to comprehend, as opposed to a false claim invented by people whose illogical nature is protected from scrutiny ... [visit site to read more]

Run Your Car on Water! (No, Not Really)

Ebonmuse — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 16:37:27 +0000

The other day, I came across a pseudoscience site so laughably ridiculous I just had to share it:

http://www.runyourcaronwater.com/

(Warning: Page has sound.)

As the URL indicates, the unknown people behind this site are selling a kit which they claim will enable you to turn your car into a "water-burning hybrid" that can use ordinary tap water as a fuel source. I'll go over the mechanics of why this is impossible in a minute, but first, ... [visit site to read more]

The Contributions of Freethinkers: Albert Einstein

Ebonmuse — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 22:56:58 +0000

In 1999, Time magazine named Albert Einstein its "Person of the Century". The choice was understandable: In a global society increasingly underpinned by science and technology, perhaps no one person has had a greater individual impact on humanity's understanding of the cosmos. Among his many scientific contributions, he discovered the special and general theories of relativity, proved light's quantized nature by means of the photoelectric effect, and offered important support to atomic ... [visit site to read more]

Calling the Earth to Witness

Ebonmuse — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 11:59:51 +0000

According to Buddhist tradition, the final stage of Prince Siddhartha Gautama's becoming the Buddha came after he had rejected the extremes of both luxury and asceticism in his quest for enlightenment. Sitting beneath a Bodhi tree in meditation, he vowed not to stir from that spot until he had found the answer to the problem of suffering.

While he sat there, he had an encounter with the demon lord Mara, who sought to keep him from enlightenment by breaking his concentration. Mara first ... [visit site to read more]

The Moving Light of Time

Ebonmuse — Tue, 04 Sep 2007 12:37:06 +0000

"In a word, the Future is, of all things, the thing least like eternity. It is the most completely temporal part of time — for the Past is frozen and no longer flows, and the Present is all lit up with eternal rays."

—C.S. Lewis, The Screwtape Letters

In the above excerpt, C.S. Lewis expresses a very common view of time: that it "flows" from future to present to past like a filmstrip passing through a movie projector, with each frame of the ... [visit site to read more]