I went to public school growing up.  They told me that I evolved from a monkey.  Then they told me to stop acting like an animal.

 

How do you see whether there's a belly button on a skeleton, again?  Yuck.

Lying to children as a school authority figure really doesn't make sense.  They're eventually going to figure out you lied to them, in order to make them believe in Christ... and then what are they left with?  "Oh, the people who convinced me Christ was real lied to me... so I should just believe them about Christ only then."  Yeah, that'd be dumb.  So you're getting some sort of temporary belief at the expense of shaking their faith significantly in the future, and lying.  There's a reason you're not supposed to lie about things.  Upsetting.

 

That's a very eloquent way of putting things in perspective. For us explorers, these are exciting times we live in. Revolutionary discoveries in astronomy, quantum mechanics, physics and space exploration in the past 20 years or so have been amazing, and I am proud to be alive in a time when so many monumental milestones are being achieved. I hope I live to see the day when we colonize Mars or explore the depths of Europa or the surface of Titan...and perhaps achieve superior drive technology that, if nothing else, allows us to travel to any point in the solar system in a reasonable amount of time.

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Jy, I agree wholeheartedly. The skeleton thing killed me too, though I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt and assumed they found the the bodies mummified. Still, I doubted such an amazing discovery could be made that would seal the deal for creation and yet I've never heard about it in the news or anywhere outside of this classroom. And the really infuriating part is, this wasn't just this school, this was in the actual textbook, so it undoubtedly has been distributed to many private schools across America. 

Trying to pull the wool over someones eyes is never a smart thing to do unless you're absolutely sure that you can control the information a person has access to. I know they don't teach creation science in public schools, but I seem to remember the texts clearly stated, when we reached the chapter on evolution, that it was the theory of evolution. So young people should understand that and, if their parents go to church, should have access to a different view there and make their own informed decision.

That being said, that particular school was just a tiny thing when I went. 22 years later, and the place looks amazing, so it must be doing well. 

 

 

 

Oh, I found the episode I was looking for.

 

its 42 minutes long, the pat I was talking about occurs at around 3:18. 

 

Also you may find this episode very interesting.

 

<- broken down into 5 parts, may have to hunt them down if you're interested. 

I would be very interested but I still can't watch youtube videos.

The problem with organized religion is that, throughout history, people have seen the power of God in people's lives and have tried to usurp that power and make it theirs to control.  Thus, the crusades.  Thus, the inquisition.  Years ago, Christian Spain kicked the Muslims out of Europe, but kept their policy of forced conversion.  When that happened, people who were not believers were introduced into the church.  The church became a powerful political entity in the State, and eventually had Europe-wide power.  This was a good thing, until non-believers seeking power sought it through the church.  Their non-belief in God allowed them to lie, cheat, and charm their way into power and once one gets in, they open the floodgates.  Soon, you were able to PAY for forgiveness of sins.  With MONEY.  Because the people in charge weren't interested in your spiritual well-being any longer, just your money and their power.

There are still church leaders out there today who are the same way.  There are also those who are actually interested in your spiritual well-being.

The point is, the brainwashing of children doesn't surprise me, but I am still ashamed that they call themselves by the same moniker as I.

I am assuming you are at work, so whenever you get home take a look at them, or just watch for it on the Science channel. They show reruns leading up to the newest episode on Wednesday nights and you might occasionally catch a marathon on Saturday or Sunday. Also check out How The Universe Works episode named 'Extreme Stars', just to learn how stars work, Mike Rowe is an amazing commentator and they should have kept him for season 2. 

 

Or try watching it on this link. http://science.discovery.com/videos/through-the-wormhole-creator/

I'll try that link when I get home.

My web filter blocks YouTube at home as well.   I wasn't exaggerating about ALL computers I have regular access to...

I would open up my web filter at homeand make an exception, that's just a tad extreme to me. 

No, no it isn't. 

You don't think its extreme to deny yourself access to such a powerful information tool such as youtube? You know you can block videos based on their content, right?

Next you'll be telling me what a great source Wikipedia is.

I didn't say anything about the information, just that it's an incredible wealth of information, you as a person can pick and chose what you want to watch. There's all kinds of stuff on creation science, and videos of alleged proof that God exists as well as videos that show proof that he doesn't and then there's tons of goofy stuff, beautiful stuff, meaningless stuff, and profound stuff. It's endless. The point is, you seem to be blocking access to it for no other reason than you might be exposed to some bad language or inappropriate material or even false information. Or perhaps more disturbing, but the thought has crossed my mind that you don't want to be exposed to something that might change your point of view. 

 

By the way, Wikipedia is written by anyone, so the information should be taken with a grain of salt, but the nice thing is the entire worldwide community has the opportunity to provide sources for that information, as well as refute the information and flag it for review. It can be updated and changed and graded on accuracy. For quick fact finding, it can be sufficient especially when cross-checked with sources. 

There is no reason not to know something today … you would be amazed at all I can access just with my iPhone (YT included). The only reason for not getting anything off the net today is because someone doesn’t want to for whatever silly reasons. I am afraid quantum mechanics is above my knowledge grade being completely satisfied with just regular old physics. I am not interested in any absolute knowledge or some other such nonsense because I do not believe such things can be known under any pretext. We are limited by our technology and not privy to the extremely small or the extremely large (yet) … but we keep getting better. The problem is in our mathematics and our inability to conceptually/rationally deal with ‘infinity’, one of those absolutes mentioned above. So the laws of physics brake down inside a black hole not a problem as long as we stay clear of them … we will figure it out just because they exist and therefore will eventually be analyzed when our technology is adequate for the job. QM seems like ‘psychology for science’ to me and that bothers me some because we have always been incapable of doing anything instantaneously … particularly with measurements. I want to hear the walk-around for this one hahaha. One doesn’t have to go into the theory of relativity to be confounded by infinity; I can seemingly prove that one is equal to two … but I have to camouflage the use of an ‘infinity’ in the process. We were playing with this back in HS algebra sometime in the late sixties. So the mindboggling concept ... is anything but new.

Michio Kaku said to a mathmetician, infinity is simply a number without limit. To a physicist, its a monstrosity. Gravity becomes infinite, density becomes infinite, time stops. 

I've had fun watching many noted physicists on tv wrestle with the problem and one of the more interesting theories I've seen thrown around is the possibility on the other side of the singularity point in a black hole is another universes big bang, and its possible our entire universe is inside the gravity well of another universe's black hole. Kinda neat to try to think about, especially thinking about how there would be no space and time before the big bang....perhaps a massive conversion of infinitely dense matter to energy....truly mind bending to try to think about.

 

Quantum Mechanics is really what has sparked my renewed interest in the Sciences. Ever since the double slit experiment, I have been perplexed and intrigued by all the wierdness that exists at the subatomic level. Makes me wish I would get u pthe nerve to go back t oschool and study it and get into either that field or astronomy or physics in general. 

 

 EDIT: I kinda just pondered what if the big bang wasn't at just one point, but multiple points much like the countless black holes we have in our universe, are feeding into a single universe on the other side and the same is happening in reverse here?

I am an avid fan of Sci-Fi and of science, but whenever I speculate what ifs, well I try to keep the two separated is all. Black holes are beautiful in all respects but bad on contact I’m sure. Throw all the paradoxical terminology away for a minute and I can chat about them. We know they are not indestructible but seems only another bigger and ‘badder’ singularity can manage it or so we think. They themselves follow the physics of the universe not being radio controlled so they in all their majesty have their limitations too. But black holes are inconsequential on a universal scale from an earthbound human perspective anyway. But curiosity always gets the better of us so we are just going to have to figure it all out, eventually. We can speculate that there must be an upper limit to the size and location of these monsters or else 13.7 billion years is as meaningless to them as it is to us mortals. We are ill equipped to deal rationally with much of the universe and we are completely lost with the scale, scope and grandeur of it all. VY Canis Majoris is a BILLION times as large as our star which is a MILLION times as large as the earth … we cannot rationally comprehend this other than saying that if the two stars were switched, VY Canis Majoris would physically occupy the space of our entire solar system including old forgotten Pluto. Whatever else we cannot really see in the universe yet will eventually make for a good Star Trek episode, with just the facts. We have a lot to learn for sure. Wouldn't that be a cruel fate for humanity ... to have our complete universe swallowed by a singularity just to produce another universe from scratch ... like some universal evolution or something?

Star Size   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zYlWTrp6JE

I tend to think of them both at the same time, imagination usually comes before the theories, mathematical proofs and discoveries. I'm just mindful of what is a theory, and what is law and those other theories that are widely accepted and have been proven mathematically in almost every situation.

The thought has crossed my mind, assuming the expansion of the universe slows down at some point to allow a reversal. Otherwise, it doesn't seem there are black holes big enough to affect the entire universe. Part of the problem we have now is that the black holes at the center of every galaxy don't appear to be massive enough by our calculations to contain its outermost stars. Assuming that is true, it shouldn't be possible for the entire universe to get sucked down the gravitational well of a single hyper-massive black hole at the current scale of the universe.

My personal hypothesis / musing stems from the unknowns of dark matter and dark energy. Knowing how many black holes (hundreds of billions of supermassive black holes at the center of every galaxy), and wondering what they do with all the mass in our universe that disappears down its gravitational well, the assumption is they would continue acquiring mass to the breaking point of physics, so what happens then? Maybe it all goes into a new universe, and our universe is fed through many holes in that universe or perhaps a different one, though our infrared telescopes would surely pick up billions of heat sources if that were the case. 

There is also some physical evidence that needs to be scrutinized a little more. When a black hole consumes too fast, it spits pure energy back out into the cosmos at its poles, which means light actually can escape its velocity, furthermore it suggests that black holes may have a limiting factor, its very possible they can't grow bigger than the supermassive ones at the center of galaxies, whenever they acquire new mass, the black hole simply belches out energy, converting the excess mass in the process. Nature may very well have a safety system built in that prevents physics from breaking down inside the black hole.

There is also another theory I liked that depends on the big crunch theory, but by using quantum mechanics, the nature of the magnetic force will prevent the universe from ever reaching a singularity point and at a certain point the repulsion will create a new bang, and perhaps this has gone on over many cycles, retracting and expanding, recreating the universe again and again.

The universe's unimaginable scale truly fascinates me, these two links were posted on I FN love science on Facebook, they do a good job of demonstrating the immense scale of the universe from the tiniest particles to the estimated size of the universe.

 

http://scaleofuniverse.com/

 

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120312.html