Does the existence of the Mona Lisa point to an artist?
The more I learn from science, the more stunned I am that life and the universe was even possible. It is so breathtaking, so complex, so elegant, so artistic, from the folding of proteins and the endlessly marvelous machinery of our cells (ATP synthase and the spliceosome for starters) to the bizarrely balanced fundamental forces that keep the stars so delicately poised on the knife's edge between collapse into oblivion from their own gravity and catastrophic explosion from the massive nuclear forces raging within -- and more than just surviving to give life to planets, they are also tuned with a remarkable mathematical coincidence built into the nature of matter that allows them to be highly productive engines of creation, cranking out carbon and heavier elements that allow solar systems to abound in much more than mere hydrogen and helium. So much brilliance and beauty. Just figuring out how some of the endless inventions around us work earns scientists fame and Nobel Prizes, but woe unto those who say such marvels are anything but meaningless random coincidences.
Garfield CookDecember 30, 2020
David Reimann asks why is the universe expanding if the Steady State Theory is correct. Because it would be pulsating, expanding and contracting. The universe seems to be a pulsating one, with the overall process being adiabatic and isentropic as in all stationary state systems.
David ReimannDecember 29, 2020
From an astronomy class I took in college in 1967, another theory was presented: The Steady State Theory. In essence, this theory states the universe has always existed. From a Gospel perspective, that makes the most sense. The problem with the Big Bang Theory, is where did the huge mass of matter come from, and what happened before that? The only true logical explanation is that the universe has always existed. Why is it expanding? I don't know, but I can deal with that easier than trying to figure out where a gigantic mass of matter came from some 13 billion years ago.
Robert D StarlingDecember 29, 2020
As usual, Daniel has created an eloquent explanation of eternal truths. I'm going to print out this article and give it to a family member who is struggling with his faith.
But I wonder if some readers might confuse the Big Bang with an ex nihilo "creation"? That is, the springing into existence of something out of nothing? Just as Daniel "created" his article from existing words and quotes, the universe was "created" from pre-existing element, even if that element was in the form of spirit or energy in a "finer" state. (the following is from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article on "Matter")
Addressing the issue of creation ex nihilo, Joseph Smith asserted in one of his final sermons: "Now, the word 'create'; does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos-chaotic matter, which is element. Element had an existence from the time [God] had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning and can have no end" (HC 6:308-309).
Thus should the Big Bang be described as the Big Organization of physical "matter" out of eternal "element"?
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Jeff LindsayJanuary 2, 2021
Does the existence of the Mona Lisa point to an artist? The more I learn from science, the more stunned I am that life and the universe was even possible. It is so breathtaking, so complex, so elegant, so artistic, from the folding of proteins and the endlessly marvelous machinery of our cells (ATP synthase and the spliceosome for starters) to the bizarrely balanced fundamental forces that keep the stars so delicately poised on the knife's edge between collapse into oblivion from their own gravity and catastrophic explosion from the massive nuclear forces raging within -- and more than just surviving to give life to planets, they are also tuned with a remarkable mathematical coincidence built into the nature of matter that allows them to be highly productive engines of creation, cranking out carbon and heavier elements that allow solar systems to abound in much more than mere hydrogen and helium. So much brilliance and beauty. Just figuring out how some of the endless inventions around us work earns scientists fame and Nobel Prizes, but woe unto those who say such marvels are anything but meaningless random coincidences.
Garfield CookDecember 30, 2020
David Reimann asks why is the universe expanding if the Steady State Theory is correct. Because it would be pulsating, expanding and contracting. The universe seems to be a pulsating one, with the overall process being adiabatic and isentropic as in all stationary state systems.
David ReimannDecember 29, 2020
From an astronomy class I took in college in 1967, another theory was presented: The Steady State Theory. In essence, this theory states the universe has always existed. From a Gospel perspective, that makes the most sense. The problem with the Big Bang Theory, is where did the huge mass of matter come from, and what happened before that? The only true logical explanation is that the universe has always existed. Why is it expanding? I don't know, but I can deal with that easier than trying to figure out where a gigantic mass of matter came from some 13 billion years ago.
Robert D StarlingDecember 29, 2020
As usual, Daniel has created an eloquent explanation of eternal truths. I'm going to print out this article and give it to a family member who is struggling with his faith. But I wonder if some readers might confuse the Big Bang with an ex nihilo "creation"? That is, the springing into existence of something out of nothing? Just as Daniel "created" his article from existing words and quotes, the universe was "created" from pre-existing element, even if that element was in the form of spirit or energy in a "finer" state. (the following is from the Encyclopedia of Mormonism article on "Matter") Addressing the issue of creation ex nihilo, Joseph Smith asserted in one of his final sermons: "Now, the word 'create'; does not mean to create out of nothing; it means to organize; the same as a man would organize materials and build a ship. Hence, we infer that God had materials to organize the world out of chaos-chaotic matter, which is element. Element had an existence from the time [God] had. The pure principles of element are principles which can never be destroyed; they may be organized and reorganized, but not destroyed. They had no beginning and can have no end" (HC 6:308-309). Thus should the Big Bang be described as the Big Organization of physical "matter" out of eternal "element"?
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