My daughter wants to know....

[The Grand Nudger]

Well, I've got a couple to spare if you're ever in the market...as a bonus, they haven't been ruined by cretins and their god bullshit just yet.  A clean slate.  To be honest, they're starting to appear as if they're completely immune.

[Joods]

One question:

What's their retirement plan look like?

[Aristocatt]

I haven't read the entire thread. Just wanted to say, I think it's awesome your daughter is asking these questions at her age. When I think about why I became an atheist, it was because I was curious, and wanted to try to understand how the world operated. Her reasoning may be a bit off, and some of the answers to these questions require more than just a casual understanding of the science behind it, but that curiosity and drive not to accept received wisdom out of hand, I think is an amazing asset.

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-28...fall-2013/

I believe the first lecture or two in that course explains some of the stuff she is wondering.
I am fairly certain it explains why the big bang was poorly named a bang. And it briefly goes over what the big bang is, and why we believe it to be true.
The rest of it would be pretty too math heavy for most college grads, let alone a 14 year old. Iirc, the first lecture or two is just an introduction almost completely devoid of math. I think it would be reasonable for a 14 year old to watch it and understand it...but if you were interested, maybe you could watch it and then decide for yourself!

[Jehanne]

I haven't read the entire thread.  Just wanted to say, I think it's awesome your daughter is asking these questions at her age.  When I think about why I became an atheist, it was because I was curious, and wanted to try to understand how the world operated.  Her reasoning may be a bit off, and some of the answers to these questions require more than just a casual understanding of the science behind it, but that curiosity and drive not to accept received wisdom out of hand, I think is an amazing asset.

https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/physics/8-28...fall-2013/

I believe the first lecture or two in that course explains some of the stuff she is wondering.
I am fairly certain it explains why the big bang was poorly named a bang.  And it briefly goes over what the big bang is, and why we believe it to be true.
The rest of it would be pretty too math heavy for most college grads, let alone a 14 year old.  Iirc, the first lecture or two is just an introduction almost completely devoid of math.  I think it would be reasonable for a 14 year old to watch it and understand it...but if you were interested, maybe you could watch it and then decide for yourself!

She can also read this:

http://www.academia.edu/9399067/Halliday...th_edition

It's the first 3-semester calculus-based physics textbook, an earlier edition that I used long, long ago.  Big Bang cosmology is pretty well established, and as with the rotation of the Earth, something that is not doubted at all.

[pocaracas]

Have I ever shown you this?

http://joshworth.com/dev/pixelspace/pixe...ystem.html


Just a friendly reminder of how much space is out there in space.
Take some 10~20 minutes to scroll all the way and read everything!

[dyresand]

So the kiddo has a question and has been quite argumentative with me about it. Actually, she has several questions.

1. If god doesn't exist, where did life come from? Her answer is evolution isn't the answer because we had to come from somewhere.

She says logic and reason doesn't make sense. The big bang doesn't make sense and can't explain it because an explosion can't create things when explosions destroy things. That can't explain why there's life.


Her words. Have at it because I tried to tell her that you don't just throw in the excuse that "god did it", when there's no definitive answer to these things.

Here http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Bill+nye+the+science+guy+episodes