INDEX

1_PREAMBLE
2_LIGHTNING
3_WHAT THE?
4_MYTHS
5_PHYSICS
6_FLAT EARTH
7_EARTH CENTERED
8_PERFECT EARTH

1_PREAMBLE

Did you ever have one of those, ‘sure would like to know’ philosophical life questions, lingering in your mind? Sometimes annoyingly so, and you wondered what the answers were, or even if there is an answer?

Oh my goodness.

Of course you have. I have a lot. There is so much to make sense of. If you are like me in any way, your questions may have started you on an occasional, or a fervent search for answers. Or the questions may just surface once in a while, or you may have found the answers that work best for you, and can quench your thirst for further answers. Or you just don’t want to know. Nonetheless, the questions continue.

You may have sought answers through associations, groups, mentors, or other enlightening processes. You find some answers appear suspect, some amiable, others obvious and some outright absurd. Maybe you have searched and still cannot resolve your lingering questions with clear and satisfactory answers.

Like all life conclusions there are differing opinions, ‘A point of view’, if you will.

A point of view is a touchy issue. None, I mean none, of us seem to think exactly alike, on all issues. In fact the closest twins with almost exactly identical DNA, have their own individual unique points of view. There are at least 7 Billion human points of view active today. Something deemed sacred by one, may be deemed an outrage to someone else. Each point of view may be agreeable to some and reviled by others. You can follow Worldometer, where it shows a running graphic by the second, of how world populations change and why. It shows 166,590 births when I typed this and 78,000 deaths from all sources. Huge, and in just over half a day.

2_LIGHTNING

Have you ever had an epiphany? That is why I am writing to you. I’ve had a decades long, epiphany. The apple slowly fell on my head, (Newton) so to speak. Eureka.

It seems that, when you ask a question, the mind is eager to please. It’s like, without an answer the mind is unfulfilled and needs to fill the void. Your question acts like a vacuum that will suck up potential answers. I am on a search for answers and I want to share my search with you. Okay. Simple answers seem to work best. Can I demonstrate?

let us just suppose that you and I existed a long, long time ago, and we had no knowledge of anything learned, other than that passed on to us by our immediate family contacts, whose knowledge was passed on to them by their predecessors. These are our teachers and our mentors with extremely close DNA. This might be tough to imagine. I mean a long, long, long time ago. Try it. Humour me for a little while. Put yourself in this position. Imagine that once upon a time we are surviving as a family group. We are surviving through, and with, the knowledge imparted by our ancestors though oral tradition and actions. We are most likely cave dwellers or hut builders. (Get the picture?) Your name is Oog or Ooga, depending on your gender. You also have a little ooglet. You decide Clad only in your primitive animal and bark clothing and armed only with your personal experiences, you are wandering through your world searching for food, when rain appears and in less than an instant powerful bolts of lightning suddenly and violently strike nearby and rock the ground you stand on.

 

Trees split, fires rage, animals flee. It is terrifying. The roar of thunder overpowers your thoughts as it deafeningly crackles through the forest. Your nerves are rattled, your knees are weak. You shake your spear at the sky. You sense impending death! You just want to get away with your life. You manage to escape only to wonder, who or what caused that frightening experience?

3_WHAT THE?

So, you wonder what you may have done wrong to be tormented with life and death so dramatically. What would your explanation be, if you had no concept of the lightning and only the stories of your elders to explain it? What would those stories be? (Remember, we are pretending that you don’t know what you know today). Like duh.

I can remember nearly jumping out of my seat, when my son Eric and I were driving through an Alberta lightning storm. Close-up bolts of lightning hit the rise of a field to our left. The thunder instantly felt like a wave of pressure around us. I had heard some time back, that you should not get out of your vehicle in such a thunder storm. Your vehicle’s rubber tires, apparently, keep the lightning from grounding out through you, even in the rain? Do not check it out. I kept driving. It took a while to relax, but I wonder what I would have thought in that situation, and with no car, as Oog?

Can you throw a bolt of lightning? I didn’t think so. Can we therefore assume that it had to be something more powerful than you or I that caused that lightning to happen? You and I cannot be there to witness that because we are here. But, are there any records of any other human likes, hurling a bolt of electricity through the skies?

Well, By Golly there may be. The Internet says:

In Norse mythology, Thor is the god of thunder and the sound of thunder comes from the chariot he rides across the sky. The lightning comes from his hammer Mjölnir.

One of the most classic portrayals of this is of the Greek god Zeus. An ancient story is when Zeus was at war against Kronus and the Titans, he released his brothers, Hades and Poseidon, along with the Cyclopes. In turn, the Cyclopes gave Zeus the thunderbolt as a weapon. The thunderbolt became a popular symbol of Zeus and continues to be today.

In Islam, the Quran states: “He it is, ‘who showeth’ you the lightning, a fear and a hope, and raiseth the heavy clouds. The thunder hymneth His praise and the angels for awe of Him. He launcheth the thunder-bolts and smiteth with them whom He will.”

Each of these examples, and hundreds more about how to explain lightning, were used to allay human fears of the unknown, and bring unity to the survival bond of like peoples.

And on it goes. Human individuals and cultures have always addressed the lightning question with the only knowledge available to them. If all you learned from birth was a scenario like you were in above when the lightning struck, and these myths were the answers taught to you from birth with the positive confirmation of those closest to you, what would you believe? I suspect you would believe the stories passed down to you. It would only be logical. After all, what other answer could there be? Could you even wonder if there was another possible answer? How could you not believe the stories, and pass them on? Dag nab it!

That was then. Today many questions, like the answers, need some re-tinkering to reflect the spectacular new realities of today, and unknown future realities to come.

4_MYTHS

Lightning myths, and other myths like this, were created through the fear of the unknown and perpetuated by tradition. The myths were handed down orally, from hunter to sheep herder, to story teller, to written author, to movie producer, about the unknown.

Have you ever played that game where you secretly write a sentence down and hide it? You then whisper it into someone’s ear so no one else can hear, and they whisper it once to pass it on the same way through several people. Then you compare the final person’s response to the one that you wrote down. This is known as ‘cumulative error’. Try it.

Well, over time, new evidence was gradually introduced to the lightning question, in an understandable and verifiable way? This evidence clarified lightning’s reality compared to timelessly aged myths about the lightning. The evidence clearly explains how lightning is electrical and that the entire process happens under nature’s terms. The new evidence created a new reality? I had to look it up.

Here is a partial overview of what research says.

There are three primary types of lightning; from a cloud to itself (intra-cloud or IC); from one cloud to another cloud (CC) and between a cloud and the ground (CG). Although lightning is always accompanied by the sound of thunder, distant lightning may be seen but be too far away for the thunder to be heard.

A typical cloud to ground lightning flash culminates in the formation of an electrically conducting plasma channel through the air in excess of 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) tall, from within the cloud to the ground’s surface. The actual discharge is the final stage of a very complex process. At its peak, a typical thunderstorm produces three or more strikes to the Earth per minute.

Lightning primarily occurs when warm air is mixed with colder air masses, resulting in atmospheric disturbances necessary for polarizing the atmosphere.

Lightning is a science unto itself and can be readily learned by anyone who chooses to. It involves the force of Electromagnetism.

5_PHYSICS

I may not understand the physics involved in electricity, or the lightning or even how it becomes energy for our use, but I do know that when I turn the light switch on, lo and behold light appears. I am not even a budding scientist, but I instinctively know that if the science is wrong in any way, the light bulb would not light up my room, my toaster would not pop up, nor would any of the millions of scientific discoveries work.

As I said, I am not a scientist, just a sitting, thinker, but my research has exposed amazing discrepancies between what is perceived as true. I’m not totally sure what would happen if I put my finger into a functioning toaster, but I strongly believe it would not be nice. (Do not try it).

Nature is awesome. Physics are awesome. Humans developed the ability to decipher Nature through Physics. Nature shows us how it behaves and even warns us how it will behave in the future through the physics it uses. Physics is a way, to calculate how everything behaves within the known forces and laws of nature. Physics does not care what humans want the Universe to do. Rather, Physics shows us how the Universe will respond to us. Physics shows that there are no favourite ways and no second places in the answers revealed. Only the actual answers can produce the actual results.

Physics is simple to see in its recognizable end results. We see the results all around us, in every aspect of our lives, and we can understand that these results were created through the exact calibration of Physics. Physics is simple to see as you make a phone call, send an e-mail, use GPS, jump in your car or even open your computer, but Physics is mind boggling in its formulation. Long live Physics.

The universe presents many, many questions to peoples everywhere. There will always be questions that seem unanswerable, but at one time no one knew or even wondered, what an I-pad was. In 1954 I remember wondering in awe what the cars were going to be like in 1962. As a kid, I couldn’t even imagine what a cell phone could be. The concept of talking to someone by telephone, without a wire attached to it was not reality as I knew it. In my youth Dick Tracey’s imaginary wristwatch communicator was the only unreal thought of a cell phone, and it was imaginary! Now we know.

Since Physics has explained many natural phenomenon, what about Thor and those other super dudes? We have all seen representations of Thor and other contemporaries in toys and comic books. Thor for example, was the power representing this Norse deity and had enormous powers. He was represented as having human form, and quite handsome. Great ally Not one to make angry Makes good movies too.

At one time these were great powers that you needed to pay your respect to and ask for their mercy. Back then, there were real live people who sought answers through the reality of their time, and that reality was the deity they worshiped. In this case Thor. Does anyone still worship Thor as a God? Maybe, but maybe not. If not, you are a non-believer. (the proper word for an atheist) This is a new reality.

This change in thinking (new reality) represents a ‘paradigm shift’ from when the institutionalised ignorance of science was universal, to today, where science has clearly supplanted many myths and superstitions of yore with verifiable and repeatable truths. In addition, the exponential growth of knowledge has changed and morphed many myths that at one time were considered truths worthy of respect and awe. There will always be myths. Back then It was their way to answer unanswerable questions and fill the void in our minds.

The lightning explanation with its accompanying evidence is a realistic point of view, covering centuries of scientific discoveries and their slow dissemination to those of us who are not scientists, or otherwise so educated. Our friend Jim says, just because it is true doesn’t mean you have to believe it. I guess?

6_FLAT EARTH

Well, apparently there are still people who believe ancient ideas that our Earth is flat (flat earth society) and others believe that the moon landings were faked by a gigantic Hollywood scam perpetrated on an unsuspecting public. Everyone has their own unique point of view. Evidence can never eliminate other people’s point of view, nor should it. Evidence should enhance a point of view with verifiable proofs. A point of view is a tangible thing to be molded through evidence. Evidence creates substance. It creates clarity.

But, there are still points of view that conflict with today’s new realities. I hope you agree with me that our dear mother Earth is not flat. However, at one time that was the dominant belief and that if you went too far you would fall off the edge. Terra Incognita! Here-be-dragons! My research shows:

 

Modern hypotheses supporting a flat Earth originated about 1850, when Samuel Rowbotham published a pamphlet called ‘Zetetic Astronomy, and he followed up by a book called ‘Earth not a Globe’. His view was that the earth is a flat disc centered at the North Pole and bounded along its southern edge by a wall of ice. The Sun and Moon were 4,800 kilometers away and the Cosmos 5,000 kilometers above Earth. He argued: ‘the bible, alongside our senses, supported the idea that the Earth was flat and immovable and this essential truth should not be set aside based solely on human conjecture’. Interesting human conjecture comment about human conjecture.

This was only 160 or so years ago. Since then many flat Earth proponents have argued the same principles, and continue to today.

In the past, there have been numerous well-known figures who became members and believers of the Flat Earth hypothesis, such as George Bernard Shaw. The Jewish conception of a flat Earth is found in biblical times. Egyptian and Mesopotamian peoples thought the world as a flat disc floating in the ocean. Homer of Greece, Stasinus of Cyprus, along with Norse and Germanic peoples believed in a flat Earth cosmography of the Earth, surrounded by ocean.

The ‘Chronicles of Japan’ describes the ancient Japanese belief that the world was flat, and dry land floated on water. Ancient Chinese prevailing belief was that the Earth was flat and square (hence the idiom ‘four corners of the Earth’) while the heavens were round. (Heaven takes its body from the Yang, so it is round and in motion. Earth takes its body from the Yin, so it is flat and quiescent).

In most instances to believe anything other than a flat Earth cosmology was considered heresy against god. Punishment could be anything from excommunication to exile to death. These were very strong arguments to not rock the boat, so to speak.

Later in 1887, Flanders argued the case of a flat Earth for three nights against two scientific gentlemen. At the end, five (reportedly illiterate) townsfolk chosen as judges voted unanimously for a flat Earth. In 1893 Lady Elizabeth Blount created a journal called ‘Earth not a globe Review’. She held that the bible was the unquestionable authority on the natural world and argued that one could not be a Christian and believe the Earth is a globe. In 1928 the Christian Catholic church preached flat Earth and warned the World Press that the missing airship ‘Italia’ had disappeared over the edge of the world. Teaching a globular Earth was banned in Zion schools. Pancake Earth?

In 1996 Albert Bartlett used arithmetic to show that sustainable growth on Earth is impossible in a spherical Earth since its resources are necessary finite. He explains that only a model of a flat Earth stretching infinitely in the two horizontal dimensions and also in the vertical downward direction would be able to accommodate the needs of a permanently growing population.

What follows is a more complicated logical proof that the Qu’ran claims that the earth is flat. It is based on logic, not quotation. Much of Surah 18 is an account of a figure most scholars identify as Alexander the Great, although the identity of the figure is not relevant to this discussion. Consider Qu’ran 18:83-86 and 18:89:90:

They will ask thee of (Alexander the Great) Say: I shall recite unto you a remembrance of him. Lo! We made him strong in the land and gave him unto everything a road. And he followed a road, till, when he reached the setting place of the sun, he found it setting in a muddy spring, and found a people thereabout. Then he followed a road, till, he reached the rising-place of the sun, he found it rising on a people for whom we had appointed no shelter there from. This implies that:

• The sun has concrete places where it sets and rises (rather than remaining suspended in space, with the earth moving around it)
• It is possible to reach the setting and rising places of the sun by travelling along a road (which could be some kind of cosmic space-road, but that seems unlikely, because..
• There are people living at the setting- and rising-places of the sun, presumably implying that they are concrete locations upon the earth
• There is mud at the setting-place of the sun, presumably implying that there is soil and water to make it, again implying that it is a concrete location upon the earth.

Which myth do you want to believe in? Take your pick. Now, try to create a cosmological system where any of the above pseudo-facts remain consistent with actual scientific evidence regarding the Sun, Planets, Stars, Earth, and all the other mass centered objects in the universe..

Why do we not believe that the Earth is flat anymore? This revelation has taken hundreds of years, to millennia, against scary religious persecution, with great thinkers producing an abundance of evidence, that our Earth is not flat.

Why would anyone believe that our Earth is flat? This is one case of where (you had to be there) applies. If you were Oog, it may have seemed undeniably flat, if you didn’t know what you know today. You would look out in the distance and you would look up at the sky and see a huge dome, from every end of the land and sea to as far as you can see.

You see a giant bright ball that brings the daylight, heats the land and nourishes life. Each night you see points of light that cover the sky from horizon to horizon, and a huge white sphere along with erratic points of light. And, all of this is eternally spinning around you. You appear to be at the center of the universe. As you look at the sky, the stars never seem to change. All but one, just go in a circle around you. All of the Stars, our Sun, the Planets, Comets, Meteors and Other activities of nature perpetually dictate your earthly environment and life itself.

These are all powerful indicators of unseen forces to be reckoned with. You might very easily believe you were at the center of everything that exists and that you were at the mercy and behest of great powers. Lack of, or access to, credible information would have reinforced these myths for centuries. Magellan circumnavigated the earth between 1519 and 1521. This raised more controversy partly because it was considered ridiculous that Antipodes (people on the other side of the earth) would be walking around upside down without falling off. Gravity ?

The paradigm of a spherical Earth was developed in Greek astronomy in the sixth century BC. Aristotle was one of the first proponents of a spherical Earth. Some peoples suspected the Earth may not be flat partly because visual evidence showed the hulls of ships disappeared into the sea before the sails did when reaching the horizon, and mountain tops disappeared last when sailing away, and earth’s shadow on the moon during an eclipse was round.

The idea of a spherical earth was mind boggling, first proposed by calculating the circumference of the Earth! In the 3rd century BCE, The Greek mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer and music theorist Eratosthenes, became the head librarian at the famous Library of Alexandria. Among other things, his curious mind wondered why the sun shines directly to the floor of a well in a city 8oo miles south of Alexandria with no shadow on the floor, only at high noon?

He repeated the observation in Alexandria and observed a shadow. The length of the shadow, and the distance between them, gave him the trigonometry to calculate the arc between the 800 miles. This arc enabled him to calculate the circumference of the Earth to within 1% of what is calculated today.

Today there is overwhelming evidence that the Earth is not flat. I firmly believe that The Earth is Not Flat! It is Roundish. (oblate  spheroidal), and can be measured around in inches. 40,075.16 kilometers average at the equator. It might have seemed impossible to counter the flat Earth belief set arguments, if it were not for science producing vast quantities of collaborating evidence that the Earth is not flat. This was a new reality.

If anyone still harbours any thought of a flat Earth, I don’t know what to say. Maybe book a ride on one of the many future spacecraft tours around the Earth. Or look up and do the ‘tall building experiment’ Or best yet, just continue reading. But with this roundish Earth we are still the center of our universe, right? Everything still revolves around us, right? Wrong.

7_EARTH CENTERED

Copernicus demonstrated many centuries ago that the Sun could be at the center of our system and that the Earth and all the planets revolved around it. Think about that. This would account for the conundrum of unexplained planetary orbits and the unexplainable eclipses. He wondered why during a total solar esclipse by the earth’s shadow on the moon was round.

Then only five centuries ago Galileo pointed his telescope at the planet Jupiter and noticed 4 smaller bodies revolving around Jupiter. This was revolutionary and directly contradicted the idea that everything revolves around Earth. Over hundreds of years since these revelations appeared, there was a growing consensus that we were not the center of our universe, not even of our own visible group of heavenly bodies. Many people didn’t like becoming so insignificant, and Galileo was punished.

This was a ‘paradigm shift’ of thought and demonstrated that myths can have evidence based explanations. Evidence based thinking may counter ingrained myths based on past realities, with logic and evidence based new realities. ‘Flat-earther’ became a derogatory term for anyone who believed in antiquated views. Our brain is hard-wired to accept many antiquated views from past realities. This may be why I have such difficulty with neo-modern technological devices. Where are my glasses? Oops, they are still on my face.

Many people questioned why the earth’s shadow on the moon during an eclipse was round. These views can be updated with new realities through the dissemination of evidence. In my case, possible organ transplants. (Just the facts maam, just the facts). Another new reality.

8_PERFECT EARTH

For example: There are those who believe that the Earth was created in a perfect form as little as 6,000 years ago, and they consider that a fact. Is it a fact? It is certainly a simple answer. But there is also a simple answer based on discoveries and scientific techniques that it is much older than that. What is the evidence? Well, let us look at the first question.

Is it easier to believe the Universe we know and all that it contains has always existed, or that it was created out of nothing, or that there could have been other processes happening here?

If it has always existed how can that be? If it was created out of nothing, how did that happen? Science and Theology both seem to surfacely  agree  that  our  (world) and all the others existing around and in our world, was spontaneously created somehow. (Science looks at the how things happen to determine the why, while theology and philosophy look to the why to determine the how) When looking at the laws of cause and effect it is hard to conceive that our Universe, if created, did not have a kick-start of some kind. This I propose as a fait accompli. A given. Until proven otherwise. What this cause and effect force is, and how it interacts with our daily lives is a source of much debate and points of view. I propose to call this A Universal Force. Other people have other names for it. More about this later.

However, Scientific evidence and Theological evidence each propose different paths for our Universe’s timeline and the journey taken from its creation by the Force, to the amazingly awesome wonders we see today.

The theological view is represented through established carved and stylized representations aided through theological interpretations. The scientific evidential view is much newer, is not as well known, or as fervently disseminated to people, but it requires some representation. Sounds fair to me, how about you?

For a substance universe to form from nothing we certainly have to start with nothing.

So how could a universe form from nothing? Lets check it out next.

Have a happy day.  and don’t forget to laugh.