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A few questions
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You ought to see what I'll be worshipping you with.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
 (October 19, 2014 at 6:00 pm)Beccs Wrote:(October 19, 2014 at 5:58 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Facts about reality are a matter of opinion now? I'm good with that, Your Exalted Highness. 
Skepticism is not a position; it is an approach to claims.
Science is not a subject, but a method.  (October 19, 2014 at 6:05 pm)Stimbo Wrote: You ought to see what I'll be worshipping you with. An idle idol?
Dying to live, living to die.
Or a bone idol.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
Hope you know how to use it . . .
I swear, there will be religionists reading this and being disgusted by the antics of atheists. And for every one of the above, there will be two getting off on it . . .
Dying to live, living to die.
 RE: A few questions
October 19, 2014 at 6:19 pm
(This post was last modified: October 19, 2014 at 6:55 pm by Alex K.)
(October 19, 2014 at 2:16 pm)Vivalarevolution Wrote: Why can't it be chaotic? Why can't the speed of light change? Why is gravity between two bodies proportional to product of the masses? Why not anything else? (Note inversely proportional equation doesn't count). The problem with why questions is that they do not obviously have an ultimate answer at all, and it is not even clear what the question means. What is the type of answer you are looking for? What would be the properties of an answer that would satisfy you? Quote: Why can't the laws of thermodynamics be changed? Why are laws the way they are?Well that is not so obvious. There is this deep result by the mathematician Emmy Noether that Symmetries in Physics correspond to conservation laws. Time translation Symmetry (i.e. that the laws of physics do not depend on the point in time) leads to Energy conservation. However, in General Relativity, it is difficult to find a good notion of Energy conservation. Photons in an expanding universe for example are redshifted, thus losing Energy. One can try to attach an Energy density to the curvature of spacetime such that the whole is conserved again, but this has some pitfalls, such as coordinate dependence. Quote: why is heat transfer done from warm regions to cold regions and not the other way aroundIn the statistical description of thermodynamics, one sees that the overall properties of the macroscopic state such as temperature are governed by the statistics of the microscopic state, i.e. the movements of atoms. One always goes from a less likely configuration to a more likely one, commonly referred as increase of entropy, which macroscopically corresponds to a more equal distribution of heat, just like it is more probable for the individual air molecules to be spread around the room rather than being all in one corner of it. It is vastly less likely for heat energy to gather in one place rather than spread, by simple counting of the number of possible microscopic states corresponding to either macroscopic situation. This makes spreading of energy i.e. heat more likely than going against the temperature differential. Quote:In short, why does the universe need to conform to the laws?Oh well the answer to that is probably not in physics, but anthropic. In a lawless chaotic universe, the necessary structures to form a mind cannot arise. Therefore we do not observe such a universe around us.
The fool hath said in his heart, There is a God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.
Psalm 14, KJV revised edition
 (October 19, 2014 at 3:13 pm)genkaus Wrote:(October 19, 2014 at 2:16 pm)Vivalarevolution Wrote: Why can't the speed of light change? This has always intrigued me... If most matter is essentially empty space, why does light move slower? (October 19, 2014 at 3:44 pm)Vivalarevolution Wrote: I was asking that since there is so much order in the universe, couldn't it also be a POSSIBILITY that a higher power made sure the big bang happened in such a way that the universe would work as we know it does now? PFFFFF, sure... It's a possibility that Harry Potter is real... maybe that's not his real name, you know?... JK Rowling had to tweak a few details of the story to keep the real players in anonymity. It's a possibility that the Force binds all living beings in the whole Universe and only a few are in tune to take advantage of the Force. It's a possibility that Krypton blew up and the son of El managed to find his way to this planet and is on his way to becoming a super-protector of the innocent... Or a tyrant. The possibilities are limitless. Much like human imagination is limitless. Until we have some actual evidence of the fact, all possibilities are on the same level: unaccredited, unverified, unacceptable. Why is it that the grand majority of humanity fails to understand this simple fact?
'This has always intrigued me... If most matter is essentially empty space, why does light move slower?"
Damned red lights . . .
Dying to live, living to die.
(October 19, 2014 at 3:44 pm)Vivalarevolution Wrote: I was asking that since there is so much order in the universe, couldn't it also be a POSSIBILITY that a higher power made sure the big bang happened in such a way that the universe would work as we know it does now? It might be a possibility. Is it a probability? Or a plausibility?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
 (October 19, 2014 at 6:00 pm)Beccs Wrote:(October 19, 2014 at 5:58 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Facts about reality are a matter of opinion now? Deal.  Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
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