This is big : the pope accepts big bang

Axe_meister

http://lm.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/pope-francis-declares-evolution-and-big-bang-theory-are-right-and-god-isnt-a-magician-with-a-magic-wand-9822514.html&h=nAQGMY0uf&s=1

Bogwhoppit

The current pope seems to have adopted mid 18th century Enlightenment ideals - better late than never. Next, he will be applying Baconian rationalism (eggs, not included) to the occurrence of multiple Gods.

thermionic

Halfway there, Frank, halfway!

Hootsmon

Pffffft everybuddy know it was Gandalf wot made the Earth

randomhandclaps

hootsmon said:

Pffffft everybuddy know it was Gandalf wot made the Earth

He only did the middle bit, silly.

Bogwhoppit

hootsmon said:

Pffffft everybuddy know it was Gandalf wot made the Earth

That's a token argument...

Hootsmon

Bogwhoppit said:

hootsmon said:

Pffffft everybuddy know it was Gandalf wot made the Earth

That's a Tolkien argument...

sorted

ICBM

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

Hootsmon

ICBM said:

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

omnipotent eh?

did they not have Viagra in them days then?

Bellycaster

ICBM said:

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

I always thought it was "Let There Be Rock"

digitalscream

ICBM said:

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

Exactly; to me, that's the true scientific position rather than absolute atheism. 

I'm perfectly willing to believe that a deity of some sort kicked off the Big Bang, as long as somebody can prove to me that said deity was or was not killed in the process. It was, after all, a really big bang.

PolarityMan

Dude if you're able to create all of existence I'm pretty sure you know to light the blue touch paper at arms length and then return to behind the yellow rope.

digitalscream

PolarityMan said:

Dude if you're able to create all of existence I'm pretty sure you know to light the blue touch paper at arms length and then return to behind the yellow rope.

I was thinking more along the lines of an accidental discharge from an LHC-style experiment

PolarityMan

digitalscream said:

PolarityMan said:

Dude if you're able to create all of existence I'm pretty sure you know to light the blue touch paper at arms length and then return to behind the yellow rope.

I was thinking more along the lines of an accidental discharge from an LHC-style experiment

Um whatever floats your boat I guess....that's kinda "specialist" though isn't it?

maltingsaudio

imalone

PolarityMan said:

Dude if you're able to create all of existence I'm pretty sure you know to light the blue touch paper at arms length and then return to behind the yellow rope.

Embarrassing if you've forgotten to create the yellow rope.

digitalscream said:

ICBM said:

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

Exactly; to me, that's the true scientific position rather than absolute atheism. 

I'm perfectly willing to believe that a deity of some sort kicked off the Big Bang, as long as somebody can prove to me that said deity was or was not killed in the process. It was, after all, a really big bang.

Technically the true scientific position is to come up with a testable hypothesis and test it. This is what things like M-branes are for, unfortunately were still working out what to test.

Anyway, totally misread the subject...

digitalscream

imalone said:

Technically the true scientific position is to come up with a testable hypothesis and test it. This is what things like M-branes are for, unfortunately were still working out what to test.

Anyway, totally misread the subject...

I meant more in the sense of "not discounting a possibility until you can prove otherwise within a reasonable margin of error".

DiscoStu

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00965/money-graphics-2006_965498a.jpg

ThePrettyDamned

ICBM;395344" said:

I've always thought that if you do believe in an omnipotent creator God, that making the world in seven days by hand is not a very elegant way of going about it.

Creating all of space, time, matter, energy and the laws of nature which will allow it to run without further interference in a single instant is true omnipotence.

In the beginning, 13.8 billion years ago, God said let there be light, and there was light. The rest is all just physics.

Since not even the best cosmologists have any idea what actually caused the Big Bang, it's probably not that unreasonable a hypothesis...

I spent a great deal of time researching this at uni.

There were some really interesting ideas, a book worth reading is the first 3 minutes. It's insane. Doesn't hypothesise about the big bang itself much, but talks about the various states of the universe in the first few minutes of existence.

There was an interesting idea I came across - the idea that the universe is not infinite but has elastic qualities.

It will expand until it can expand no more, then "snap back", compressing our universe into an infinitely small state, which then rebounds as another big bang occurs.

It doesn't explain the origin of existence though.

One last thought: you wouldn't expect to be able to teach a dog quantum mechanics. Humans will have an intellectual limit - is it not feasible that we simply cannot understand, but some future race does have the further capacity to do so? Therefore, at some point, future intellectual endeavour will cease to be worthwhile and we'll be little more than worker drones.

Oh god I've gone crosseyed. I told you I loved looking this stuff up

randomhandclaps

This will come as a relief to our priest knowing it will probably stop me calling him out in front of the congregation on how fucked up the world is and maybe things world have been a bit better had God allocated himself more than 6 days to build the whole damn lot.  Whatever way you look at it it is corner cutting, which for me is the first sign of shoddy workmanship.

Phil_aka_Pip

hootsmon said:

Pffffft everybuddy know it was Gandalf wot made the Earth

It was Slartibartfast, at the behest of The Mice