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Author: Pro-Humanist FREELOVERPro-Humanist FREELOVER
Date: May 2, 2008 16:17
- - -
Recently, I was asked if this life ends,
and there is no immortality-granting
God, what does it matter, this life,
this supposed 'final' end?
I responded at length, in two posts, as
follows (updated a bit in this latest
version):
- - -
Cosmological Calendar
Just saw an episode of the series 'The
Universe', called "Cosmic Apocalypse".
Very interesting. They used a calendar
to discuss the events that have occurred
since our particular space-time contin-
uum began its expansion. Here's where
we stand when looked at from that
perspective:
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Author: Pahu78Pahu78
Date: May 2, 2008 09:38
Expansion: Big Bang or Stretching? 5
Spiral Galaxies. If spiral galaxies formed billions of years ago, the
arms of spiral galaxies should be wrapped more tightly around their
respective galaxies than they are. Also, nearer galaxies should show
considerably more “wrap” than more distant spiral galaxies. However,
if space was stretched out recently, spiral galaxies could appear as
they do.
Heavy Elements in Stars. According to the big bang theory, there are
three generations of stars, each with increasing amounts of heavy
elements. The first generation would have contained only hydrogen and
helium. After hundreds of millions of years, second-generation stars
would begin forming with heavier elements made inside first-generation
stars that later exploded. Although some first-generation stars should
still be visible, not one has ever been found. According to the
stretching explanation, stars have always had some heavier chemical
elements. Telescopes that can see the farthest back in time see stars,
galaxies, and quasars containing these heavier chemical elements.
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Author: dennisosmdennisosm
Date: May 1, 2008 20:13
The whole question of the jump from non-life to the simplest known
bacteria has left me wondering about what would constitute life
_simpler_ than that of a bacteria, or more basically, what would the
"primordial soup" out of which bacteria or first life would have
spawned.
A bacteria has a membrane that separates itself from its environment.
It is also capable of replicating itself.
A compost pile, in contrast has no clear boundary separating its
environment, but it can grow over time. Could it be useful
conceptionally to "dumb down" the definition of life or protolife to
basically a self-perpetuating process?
Granted, _today_ a compost pile (or soil) contains all kinds of
bacteria within it, but perhaps the "primordial soup" have been
basically a bacteria-less "compost pile" that even without bacteria
grew in size and complexity over time.
Even simpler examples of self-perpetuating phenomena include fires and
storms.
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Author: Pahu78Pahu78
Date: May 1, 2008 12:52
Expansion: Big Bang or Stretching? 4
Central Stars. About forty stars are orbiting within a few dozen light-
hours of the black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Those
stars could never have evolved that close to a black hole, which has
the mass of 4,000,000 suns. The black hole’s gravity would have
prevented gas from collapsing to become a star (7). However, those
stars could have formed in a much denser environment (8), before space
was stretched out during the creation week.
7. “The black hole’s inactivity [today] suggests that the central few
light years doesn’t contain enough raw material to make stars. And the
enormous gravitational tidal forces around the black hole would seem
to prohibit stars from forming even if the material were there: it’s
hard for a cloud of gas to contract into a star under its own gravity
when something that weighs as much as four million stars is sitting
next door.” Jeff Kanipe, “A Long Time Ago, in a Galaxy Not So Far
Away,” Nature, Vol. 446, 5 April 2007, p. 601.
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Author: WendyWendy
Date: Apr 30, 2008 20:04
as predicted in the bible;" she will feast on the blood of the
saints"....
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Author: Pahu78Pahu78
Date: Apr 30, 2008 14:38
Expansion: Big Bang or Stretching? 3
The Evidence
Accelerating Expansion. The redshift of distant starlight suggests an
expansion. However, a big bang should produce only a decelerating
expansion, not the accelerating expansion observed. Stretching,
completed during the creation week, could have produced the
accelerated expansion seen by the light finally reaching Earth today
from the edge of the visible universe.
Star Formation. Astronomers recognize that the densest concentrations
of gas seen in the universe could not form stars by any known means,
including gravitational collapse, unless that gas was thousands of
times more compact than today. Apparently, stars were formed as, or
before, the heavens were stretched out.
Black Holes. A supermassive black hole is in the center of at least
every nearby galaxy. Black holes are so massive (millions of times
greater than our Sun) that nothing can escape their gravity—even...
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