January 15, 2008
Filed Under Life |
I don’t trust Physicists
John and I frequently argue about our understanding of the universe. My stance is that our tiny little human brains can’t possibly comprehend the vast wonders and scary things of the universe. His stance is that we need to keep researching and observing, and that there is no upper bound for our potential to understand.
Well, to defend my stance, I present to you a few things that just don’t make any sense at all and probably cause scientists to wake up at night, screaming in terror:
- The origins of the universe. Religious people say God, scientists say the big bang. Scientists also like to laugh at religious people and say “Well where did God come from?” I counter with this: “Where did the tiny little dot of energy come from?” According to scientists, the universe as we know it used to be a tiny little dot of matter and energy, which exploded into the universe. Where did it come from? Why did it explode? I believe this question has been answered before, something along the lines of “The universe is cyclical. It explodes, collapses into a dot, and then explodes again.” That doesn’t really answer my question: Where did the whole mess come from to begin with?
- Time. Apparently it doesn’t exist at the atomic level.
- The universe’s clock. Apparently, the universe has a refresh rate. If you’re unfamiliar with what a refresh rate is, think of your computer monitor. It probably has a refresh rate in the neighborhood of 70 hertz, which means it completely redraws itself 70 times per second. The universe apparently winks out of existence and then comes back a few billion times per second. Weird.
- The whole matter/energy dualism. Apparently the building blocks of matter are energy. Along those same lines, light doesn’t make any sense either. Is it a particle? A wave? Both? I’m confused.
- Trans-light speeds. Scientists have apparently accelerated electrons to the point that they arrive slightly before they leave.
So there are a few things that won’t ever be understood in my lifetime. That doesn’t bother me in the slightest.
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