Cosmology, the Lab, the Church, the State

Last year (2014) the headlines in every hodunk town paper and website blared headlines about scientists finding "the most definitive proof ever" that their Big Bang theories are on the right track. Turns out the "evidence" was nothing but mis-readings from interstellar dust.

Funny that there aren't any headlines with a retraction of last year's B.S.

One little article has snuck out there because someone leaked the news that scientists wanted to keep secret. 

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn26883-leak-suggests-big-bang-find-was-a-dusty-mistake.html#.VMzXJt3AOiF

States keep taking our dollars and pumping billions into useless research to support the "Standard Model" of the very large and the very small. They spend our money propping up "The Big Bang" with mathematical models but zero good evidence. They also blow billions on the "Standard Model" of the extremely small. Particle Colliders are searching for the "Higgs Boson", a.k.a., "God Particle" which again is supported by imaginative mathematics, but no good evidence. In fact, the evidence (and common sense, ... and logic) flies in the face of everything modern mythologists have to say about the extremes of small and large in this universe.

All of this confused thinking by very intelligent minds is caused by the belief in a finite universe. In other words, a universe that has a beginning and an ending, in both time and space. Because humans are justifiably uncomfortable not seeing the end of something, academic "leaders" claim to find the edge of the universe or the smallest particle. But every time we build a better telescope or electron microscope, we find that the universe extends beyond the claimed limits found by our old technology. 

That's gone on for so long that now they need a newer fuzzier idea to claim that the universe dances to the latest human ideas; They say that the Big Bang "created" not just matter, but time and space, and there was no time or space before the Big Bang. The universe is expanding not so much like an explosion, but like a balloon. And our 3D universe is comparable to the 2D universe of the balloon's surface as it expands. In the small realm, they now have Quantum Physics that also goes beyond matter, with "random field fluctuations" said to "create" particles as they pop in and out of existence. All of this violates the first law of Physics; Matter and Energy can neither be created nor destroyed. So then they say, "in our very large and very small observations, the laws of physics break down". WTF? Well then don't pretend to be following any f-ing rules. When you find a paradox, it's nature's way of telling you to go back and check your premises.

It's an idea worthy of the strangest religious fantasy. Just as in the religious churches, anyone standing outside of the church of science is told that they can't understand the complex and "beautiful mathematics" that prove all of these ideas. "It's a beautiful mystery." Just believe us and send money. 

Just like the state does not follow it's own rules, the Constitution, and the church has to constantly reinterpret it's own rulebook, the Bible, scientists who hypothesize about the very nature of the universe have to keep rewriting their rule book. A sane person quits the game when the rules are constantly changed by those who want our money.

Something smells fishy, and it needs to be ridiculed with humor more than argument.

▶ George Carlin on God and Politics - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSS5oTM_YGQ

As an old saying goes, "the wounded deer jumps highest". 

Likewise in the plant world; the sickly or damaged plant goes to seed earlier than the healthy plants.

Sometimes when something is dying it has a burst of energy as a last-ditch attempt at life.

I say that what we are seeing in the burst of activity of states, churches, and cosmology is actually their death throes.

Our great-great-grandchildren are gonna see a fantastic New Enlightenment of peace, creativity, sanity, technology, natural health and prosperity,

... as long as these myths don't take the human race with them as they flail about dying.

Organized Religions and "Literal" Bible Translations

Even though I am a-religious as much as I am a-political, that doesn't mean I am not well-read on the subject. I sometimes have to explain things about the religion I was taught for my first twenty years on the planet. Non-Catholics think that their doctrines and practices are better aligned with the "literal" bible. Although I don't go shooting my mouth off unless provoked, I have plenty to say to my good protestant friends.

Catholics have plenty of well-thought-out and long-debated biblical as well as traditional reasons for everything that they do, think, and believe. That said, I made the hard moral choice of deserting the Catholic church around the age of 22. I didn't do that because I thought I had all the answers; I just knew that organized religion's answers were wrong. Wrong in the sense that the Bible was written in a mystical and allegorical form, and all modern churches (unlike the original varied Christian groups) interpret the Bible like a bunch of lawyers. That's not what I call "Love". And if God is Love, then there's something extremely wrong with making legalistic claims concerning what is "biblical" or "non-biblical". 

Love is flexible, humble, tolerant, energetic, patient, creative, and kind. When apologists claim that "yes, God has perfect love, but he also has perfect justice", ... that's just an excuse for their own malice, intolerance, and laziness. When perfect justice is tempered with perfect love, you get perfect mercy. That's perfectly obvious to anyone humble enough to stop acting like a lawyer and politician. Politics is lazy and uncreative. Love is always active and on-the-ball.

The big "evil" that Protestants condemn and hate Catholics for is the Catholic acceptance of tradition as a guide to interpreting their practices and beliefs. Non Catholics also follow their own traditions in bible interpretations and practices, but they claim that they are not guided at all by tradition. Catholics are just more honest, that's all. Martin Luther dumped a few of the Roman traditions and started down a different path, but a path filled with "tradition" nonetheless. Let's call it what it is.

Protestants claim a "literal" interpretation of the Bible. That is shown to be a lie when even "experts" within the same denomination (including within the Catholic church) disagree strongly on what the "literal" words say and mean, and what the doctrine and practices ought to be. That's why Christian churches keep splitting off even to this very day. We have a church in Allegan that branched off from the CCC church about fifteen years ago. 

Our neighbor city of Holland has a rich history of splits. I read somewhere that after Van Raalte established the Reformed Church of Holland, people kept splitting away and moving inland. That's why the little inland towns of Zeeland, Drenthe, Vriesland, Hamilton, Byron Center, Borculo, Blendon, Jamestown, etc., all have off-shoots of the original Holland church. They didn't change the original Holland denomination name to "First Reformed" until all these other 2nd, 3rd, and 4th church groups split off over arguments about what the "literal" Bible meant. Maybe it means different things to different people. Duh? And maybe that's okay.

If you ever studied a language, you know that there is no such thing as "literal", especially in ancient languages. If God wanted to make his message clear with a miracle to keep the Bible pure over years of copying and translating, why couldn't God simply send his message by a single e-mail or letter to each human being on the planet? It's not any more far-fetched than the immense miracle it would take to keep the Bible books "true" and "literal". And that obviously hasn't worked well, given the historical and ongoing splits within Christianity.

Everyone else's belief is labelled "heresy". Every single thing that Protestants and Catholics believe now was once a heresy; the Redemption, Communion, Jesus as the Son of God, Jesus as the Messiah, Jesus as a physical being, the Trinity with the idea that the Father, Son and Holy Ghost are the same "substance", Hell as a place for more than just the fallen angels, ... and on and on. Hundreds of details of Bible translation have been the subject of constant hatred and killing over the years. And it continues today.