I love the Universe. If I wasn't already engaged, I would marry it.

[jackshoegazer]

So, first I find out that our universe is going to run out of time in about five billion years.  And then, it turns out that the very structure of our universe is being acted upon by the gravity from something outside of the universe.  But wait, there's more!  Our universe may only be one universe inside of a black hole inside another universe inside of anther black hole and so on like Russian nesting dolls.

A long, long time ago, I joked that God didn't create the Universe in seven days, He just made the Earth.  And when humans figured out how to get off of Earth, He quickly made up something.  Space.  And he made it so unbelievable huge that it would take us forever (if ever) to further explore that.  So He's got plenty of time to figure out the rest of creation.  But then we go and develop Hubble and other crazy technologies that allow us to see and measure further than God had even thought to make up.  So now, he has to make up even more shit.  And it's like God is this stoned teenager, "Like, man, what if, like, our universe, is like just one of many universes, like a multiverse, yeah, and like there's an infinite number of them so like any possibility is like a whole universe, and everything is happening for ever and ever for ever everywhere.  In a black hole.  Yeah."

What all of this tells me is that 1) I can always go into physics and just make some shit up and 2) we still have no clue as to how the universe is structured, where it came from, why it's here, where it's going, and whether it wears boxers or briefs.

What else I don't understand is how, if you're religiously inclined, you can't look at what amazing sights and insights that science has shown us, and not see your God's handiwork shining through the whole amazing conundrum.  I've just never understood the anti-scientific religious people, I guess.  When I read about astronomy and physics and evolution and quantum mechanics and look out into the night sky, I am as humbled as any pilgrim who crested a dusty hill and found himself staring into the face of God.

Comments

[rainingkisses.livejournal.com]

i don't really get anti-science religion either. i think it's a credit to any creator's handiwork to think of it all. i am by NO MEANS religious, but i get caught up imagining sometimes the awesome power of a creator who could just stir up this whole mess and set it in motion, almost idly, as though crafting some amusement.

i like the whole 'God as stoned teenager' image, but no pothead i can imagine would create some of the shit in this world. maybe it's 'God on speed.' that would explain some of the uglier bits ;)

On loving and marrying the Universe

[castleclear.livejournal.com]

I feel really quite certain, Jack, that the Universe loves you too! And since human mores and common social customs simply don't apply to anything so vast and far beyond us as The Universe, I bet the two of you could have your wedding without a hitch!

Why else do nuns wear wedding rings? Even if they were not wedded to Christ (and I think they are), this serves a social signal to boorish males that they are "off the market" with respect to earthly marriage.

Re: running out of time. Well, yes, and no, and maybe, depending upon which model/map one wishes to use to describe what we think we might know about space-time.

Oh, and LOL, I thought the Universe wore panties! But that may be only on certain days or for special occasions, when not going Skyclad.

And as a gay person, permit me to say Thank You for protesting on behalf of civil rights at the Kelly Inn in St. Paul. (I can see I'm going to have to educate myself more today to even attempt to keep up with current events in the synchronicity I experience as daily living.)

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

The fun part is that the end of time is a possibility, but it exists within the multiverse theory. So time will end, and time won't end. And then we'll have a multiverse where time both does and does not exist.

though it is not unreasonable to say that it hasn't ALREADY ceased to exist in some universes.

[lipsoflove.livejournal.com]

That is the coolest thought of the day - time being in a constant flux of non-reality and reality. Love it.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Schrödinger's clock?

two things...

[jesuslovesbono.livejournal.com]

i love that phrase!

[westerdrumlins.livejournal.com]

ha, love it :)

[lipsoflove.livejournal.com]

You know, I wish I could find it, but there is this really cool physicist who believes that the universe is actually a hologram. Apparently, there is this new photo from Hubble that shows pixelated inconsistencies out in space. He said that when you zoom into these photos, some tiny sections look pixelated, and it is not a trick or mistake of the camera.

Also, there seems to be scientists who back his evidence of the photos and the existence of these pixelated anomalies.

I think I can't find it because it was quietly published and pushed aside as something we just can't handle right now because our brains would explode. However, it does bring up the question yet again - what is outside of the universe? If it is forever expanding, what is it expanding into? Maybe we are all holograms in someone else's playground.

[tyskkvinna.livejournal.com]

This is a not entirely crazy theory.

I studied for a long time under the scientist John Dobson. He really hated the big bang theory (because of the obvious gap in it: nobody can actually explain how it started) and stuck to the idea that there was no big bang, and that there was no beginning to the universe, it always just existed.

It is equally plausible that the above happened, as it is that we are just part of a giant hologram (or as it has been called sometimes, the "brain in a jar" theory), as it is that we are the only planet in the entire universe with intelligent life.

which is to say: we have no idea :)

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

I always liked the Big Bang theory because I enjoyed the way it mirrored the Buddhist notion of consciousness as the flowering blossom of the lotus after it pierces the surface of the water. In this analogy, the manifest Universe is the lotus/consciousness and the Big Bang is that moment the plant left the water.

I suppose it's just that, as a writer, my favorite creation-of-the-universe theories are the ones with the biggest metaphoric possibilities.

neat phrase seen tonight:

[pingback-bot.livejournal.com]

User jesuslovesbono referenced to your post from neat phrase seen tonight: (http://jesuslovesbono.livejournal.com/212595.html) saying: [...] "Schrödinger's clock" ~Jack Shoegazer [...]

[enodia.livejournal.com]

Loved reading this! I also have never understood why so many feel that science and divinity should be at odds. To me there is absolutely no need for conflict there. Personally I find that the religious rather than the mystic encounter these stumbling blocks and many in the scientific and atheist communities simply don't take the mystic or non religious spiritual perspective into account.

[jackshoegazer.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately, that delves into a whole 'nother pet-peeve of mine and that's flatlanders who only believe in two modes of consciousness–sleeping & waking–and that only objective phenomena are "real." The idea that the subjective isn't real is ridiculous. Anyone who's gotten into an argument in a dream and woke up still mad at the person you argued with in the dream should be able to tell you that the brain did not differentiate those emotions or feel them any less because they weren't "real."