Maybe the Universe isn't Rational After All (Short Story) - 8/2/2015 5:22:27 PM
Sorry Eva,
The story is not a story for every one. I never cared much for Star Wars or The Shack. We each have our own tastes.
Thanks for the review.
Ben Plybon
Maybe the Universe isn't Rational After All (Short Story) - 7/31/2015 1:21:53 PM
What is poignant subject matter to some, is "pointless" to others. I got lost in the translation because I was out of my league reading your well-written story. I'm sure this would ignite much interest and convo among a gathering of mathematicians and scientists. I am privy to the particle-wave debate.
Maybe the Universe isn't Rational After All (Short Story) - 7/31/2015 4:07:51 AM
At first I thought this was a repeat of your first article on the subject. But now, I realize that it is an attempt to explain further. As an engineer and not a scientist, I have difficulty with scientific theories and theoretical mathematics. That's why I didn't get very far in mathematics. Unless I could find a way to apply the mathematics, I couldn't wrap my mind around continuing further. Thankfully, some people, like you and Heisenberg can and do. Perhaps the most famous person for doing this was Einstein.
I have no problem with subatomic entities being neither waives or particles. It's their application that I'm interested in. For example, if a scientific theory is unproven, it's similar to a fantasy. If it is proven by being applied and it works, it is fact. It is fact even if the underlying theory is flawed because it is still not completely understood. The atomic bomb works. Flamethrowers work. That doesn't make them necessarily good. It just proves the theories behind them.
As for the theory of lunch every day. I cut back on mine to vegetables 30 years ago. I can see from your rotund figure that hamburgers and Coca-Cola every day for lunch is certainly not very scientific and something I wouldn't teach my son. Habits become hard to break. Sorry for being so unscientific. I'm going to assume that by using the device of lunch, you are merely being hypothetical, and you don't actually do it although there probably are many who do. An unscientific way to ruin your health.
Ron
The State of today's Christian Churches (Article) - 7/31/2015 4:34:58 AM
Another well-written and research article by one of the best writers of nonfiction I've ever read. You have tackled the difficult subject and done well by it. You contend that Christianity is essential and that is declining because of the secularization of it. That may very well be true. Here's why I think why…
I believe that most people, once they leave the protection of their parents and begin to reason develop fears, both rational and irrational, depending upon their surroundings. Their parents no longer provide protection for those fears, so they seek other protection. Regardless of its kind, Christianity is no different from Buddhism or any other, religion seems to provide the necessary protection in the form of some spiritual connection. This spiritual connection is reinforced in humans by ritual and repetition. For some reason, our brains are hardwired to become enamored with chants, gospel, and song, repeated over and over again until it occupies a large portion of our brain.
The ultimate promise is the afterlife, because even the most simpleminded person sees that death is inevitable. It may be avoided during the hormonal rush of the younger life, but as one ages, death becomes more obvious and some solution is sought. Religion comes to the rescue.
Hence, religion is addictive and ingrained in most human psyche. By definition religion is a cult. The cult of Christianity is just one of many. By their very nature, cults tend to alienate people with their strong ideology that goes against reason.
I don't fear death and don't seek an afterlife. I see the organizational church, regardless which as a parasite on human society as a whole, draining resources tying up assets that could be used for the common good. I believe the story of Jesus Christ, Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Nelson Mandela show us that nonviolence and understanding of all people and their needs is much more important than spending a good part of our lives worshiping. That's a bad word to me, worship. It is very demeaning to waste time doing it.
Ron
Einstein and Bohr were men of faith (Article) - 4/25/2015 10:30:59 AM
Dear Ron,
I'm sorry to say your review this time was unresponsive. Your remarks this time were unrelated to the content of this article. The article was simply about the meaning of faith to me and millions of others. Even atheism is a kind of faith and you have every right to be an atheist if that works for you. It wouldn't work for me. Science is a matter of faith for some, too. That was undoubtedly true for Einstein and Feynman. When I was young that was my only faith, the foundation for for my intellectual life. Now that I am older and wiser I have two faiths. They are very compatible.
Please understand, I do not write these articles trying to convert you or any one else. Most atheists I have known were very ethical in their behavior. Why not? The Bible, Jesus and Christianity you deny are not the real ones. In my opinion atheism is based on many false ideas about God and life. I always search for truth in all things. That is where we disagree.
The articles I write are educational. Atheists do not understand who Jesus was. If they did they would not be atheists. Far too many people still do not understand Christianity and many have false beliefs about science. I am making my small effort to correct some of those misunderstandings.
Thanks for your reviews.
Ben Plybon
Einstein and Bohr were men of faith (Article) - 4/24/2015 6:39:59 AM
I am an atheist. That does not mean that I'm immoral because I have faith in ethical behavior. I also have faith in science that yields positive results. I also know that science is not infallible and when proven wrong should be abandoned for better science.
I do not believe that there is an all powerful god that is shaping the universe. But I am grateful that I have a mind and others have a mind so that we can figure out the great mysteries of the universe and our place in it.
I admire your great knowledge of physics and mathematics, but I can't see why you were "shaken" by scientific theories that didn't hold up over time. That's only natural and it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is people who hold onto beliefs and have faith in absolute nonsense.
Ron
Are Ye Saved? (Article) - 4/10/2015 11:08:40 AM
You spend some time describing how people are unhappy these days. There are any number of reasons why people are unhappy. Many people create their own unhappiness and many others are unhappy because of circumstances beyond their control. Happiness and unhappiness are normal parts of human life… Always have been.
The problem with Christianity is that it has a salve for unhappiness. All one has to do is to ask for forgiveness, and suddenly, one is happy. It's miraculous how this ploy has been used forever to make miserable people believe that they are now happier in spite of conditions that may be horrendous. It's all a psychological trick that works so well it often cures people of very bad habits because they can focus on something other than their habit. But it doesn't make me believe.
I am happy and contented with the way things are in spite of misfortunes I've had in my life and don't need any saving by the higher powers than my own self-confidence and self-respect. And I certainly don't believe the lie that there's something wonderful waiting for me after I leave this, so-called, miserable life I'm leaving… The biggest scam of all time.
Ron
Big People and Small People (Article) - 3/6/2015 6:47:07 AM
I generally enjoy your articles for their scholarship. However, this one does not seem to be that way but falls back, particularly on the Christian beliefs, repeating all of the promises that are written in the Bible but have never been fulfilled.
According to you, I am a small person. Starting a long time ago, I wondered why big people always bring their religious beliefs, these higher than thou, unproven manifestations into their wars with others… Countless deaths ensue.
I am happy, content with my life. I am not rich, and I am not poor. I am not learned in religions but I have studied religions enough to know their basic tenets and why they motivate people in certain ways. The Buddhist religion seems to be the most desirable because of its willingness to leave even the smallest of creatures unharmed, while the religion of consumerism has us buying all kinds of creature killers, unknowingly poisoning ourselves in the process.
I certainly do not have my head in the clouds believing supernatural superstitions passed down from fearful myths. I do not fear death, but accepted it as normal part of any life. I am not desperately seeking to have my "soul", whatever that means, to live on beyond my current life or want to come back as some other being, reincarnated. I do not wish to become a ghost and haunt anyone.
I am here and I am happy. I'm grateful for all those wonderful people, mostly scientists, who are probing the universe and finding out wonderful things about it. I'm grateful for finding out about the small world and how we are so dependent upon our atoms and even smaller, subatomic particles that make up everything we are. I'm grateful for the spark of life and intelligence, but I don't attribute it to some mythical god or gods born out of fear of the unknown.
Ignorance breeds religious thought and religious fervor. Intelligence seeks to find out what is true and what is not. Intelligence overcomes fear and strikes down false belief.
Ron
Our Father in Heaven (Article) - 5/29/2014 11:40:51 AM
This is an interesting story that is well-intentioned, but fraught with many assumptions and beliefs that are anything but "scholarly." You suggest there is one God for Christians and Jews, and a different one for all others. Yours, of course, is the authentic one. Why? Because you say so. Or somebody told you. That is circular reasoning that fails 3rd grade logic. But the notion that God speaks to some but not to others is balderdash of the worst kind. More evil has been committed on others under this nonsensical assertion than any that I can imagine. And there is as much inspiration among nonbelievers as there is among believers. Some of the best poetry and music ever composed came from inspiration. But your biggest flaw is to begin with the assumption that the Bible is the word of God, and then set out to "prove" it is disingenuous. Deists have no personal God who speaks to them, but they are as pure of heart as any Christian or Jew, many are more so. Why not leave it at that and stop proclaiming your beliefs as superior to others?
The Myth of Atheistic Science (Article) - 3/22/2014 6:21:26 PM
Too many religionists equate a rejection of religion with atheism. That is not necessarily true. Deists reject religion but not a belief in God. Spiritism rejects religion but not a belief in God. The majority of scientists reject religion but not necessarily a God of creation. Galileo famously said "I do not feel obliged to belief that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect intended us to forgo their use."
The Myth of Atheistic Science (Article) - 3/19/2014 10:32:40 AM
Hello, Benjamin. I think you have done a good job of organizing the facts in your article. In my own book I quoted Francis Collins, author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief. He is clear that about 40% of scientists are people of faith and it does not interfere with their endeavors. I tried to offer my readers a compassionate source on the subject of evolution because I was using logic as a yardstick, and a Pew Center Religion and Public Life Project interview with Collins gave me that opportunity.
My own book, The "Multiple You" Universe: Sacred Science for the 21st Century, should be out March/April, 2014. The dominant theme is that Consciousness is the creator of everything, likely pre-imminent to the Big Bang, and that because it is everywhere (including sub-atomic matter) we, too, are cocreators, and god, indwelling.(Not big "G" God), Sacred Science then becomes an important way of looking at how everything can best be known from both its sacred and scientific component parts. Anyway,good article. Rev Cassandra Martin, independent New Thought minister and author.
The Myth of Atheistic Science (Article) - 3/19/2014 7:37:13 AM
Very well researched and written. I agree that religion and science are entirely separate entities and should not be at odds. I am saddened by the number of times that science has been held back or scientists have been treated badly by religious zealots of power. Let us hope that those times are in the past and that science can continue its quest for understanding our universe large and small. I doubt if we will ever find out everything in this ever-expanding universe of knowledge. Somehow the simplistic tenets of most religions seem rather archaic and less useful for control against the backdrop of knowledge.
Ron
The Problem of Creation (Article) - 3/8/2014 10:52:56 AM
Except for the last paragraph that moves into your personal beliefs, a very finely written treatise on science and the scientific method. I agree with you that the so-called, "Big Bang," did not occur… At least as it is currently described. I believe we are still at the primitive stage of understanding physics and the universe. Recent forays using space telescopes in both the visual and other frequencies have uncovered much that is true like many solar systems around stars and many planets in the solar systems. These same techniques are uncovering anomalies that we haven't formulated good theories for yet like dark energy and dark matter.
Whether a Creator exists or not is not of much interest to me because there is no evidence of a creator on this small and insignificant planet to worry about.
I noticed that you are using it's (pronounced it is) instead of its (possessive) in this otherwise impeccably written article.
Ron
Born to Learn (Article) - 11/5/2013 8:13:24 AM
I love how you describe how you became someone who loves learning through your family experience. We all should have such experience.
I've had a similar experience. Both of my grandmothers were schoolmarms and I had enough time with them to learn from them. Grandma Hull read every book in several libraries. My mother was salutatorian of her very small high school class. The valedictorian went on to be a captain of industry and my mother got pregnant with me at 17 and didn't continue her education. However, my twin brother and I, by the time we entered a two-week kindergarten at five years of age, could already read, knew most of the animals and many other things that our mother taught us at home.
My first memory of teachers was Mrs. Colburn (we called her Cold Burn) who decided that my grade in arithmetic would be a D. That was the only D I got in public schools, and I remember it vividly. Some English teachers stand out because they inspired me with great classics to read and practice in writing. My eighth grade algebra teacher whose name I can't remember right now spent much of class "lecturing" us on behavior rather than algebra, but I liked the book and the word problems and got my first A+ one quarter. I also loved statistics in high school with Mr.Vorba who also taught geometry and trigonometry and had a "hot" daughter who substitute teached some days in various classes. Vorba also played the stock market and gave the local clinic $250,000 when he retired from teaching.
My twin brother and I were very competitive, so we always challenged each other about subjects and were continually looking up answers in the World Book Encyclopedia that our parents gave us for both our birthday and our Christmas gift, the only one we got, in third grade. We couldn't believe that mom (I think she paid $10 a month) got such a gift that cost $120 in 1952!
My way of thinking was that I learned from every teacher, good or bad, because the good ones taught me something new and the bad ones taught me what not to do. For some reason I could never wrap my mind around calculus and was only able to do a few "applied" calculus problems in later life. Theoretical mathematics and physics tended to escape me in favor of more proven, practical applications like statistical quality control and inventory management (where I used one or two calculus solutions).
Most of my nieces and nephews went to public schools and have done well in school. I credit that to good genes and good parenting, and not necessarily the schools.
Finally–I've rambled on too long–I didn't get into lifelong learning until I studied philosophy at WVU during my doctoral studies. As a result, I continue to learn and grow, resisting all the efforts to get me "trained" like some monkey in a highly specialized field of nonsense.
Ron
That Other Universe (Article) - 10/12/2013 2:32:11 AM
Ben, I am enjoying reading your work. This article of yours was particularly interesting to me.
My short story 'Zeugma' was published in 2009, and it mentioned the second universe possibility.
Thank you for your article on 'The age of the universe' I left you a comment.
Regards -- Gerry.
The age of the earth (Article) - 10/6/2013 7:41:42 AM
An excellent article and most enjoyable read Ben. Do you agree that the universe is aprox 13.7 billion years old?
I would be interested to hear your views on how the universe came into being. I have not yet been able to obtain a reasonable scientific or religious answer to this question. Is there an answer?
When I find it, I can finish my Novel---which stands at 85 thousand words and just needs a short explanation to finish it off.
Gerry.
Remembering Martin Luther King and his times (Article) - 9/30/2013 7:02:35 AM
An excellent synopsis of the way things were. Many thoughts ran through my mind as I read this. I, too, spent my time up until graduating from high school in central Wisconsin without ever running into a black person. However, I credit my father, a truck driver, who had to spend overnights at his company's terminal in Chicago with never saying disparaging words about black people, perhaps because, as a child, he went to grade school with blacks from a small black community near Owen Wisconsin. Dad's mother was a schoolmarm and well read, so that may have contributed, too.
Upon entering college in northwestern Wisconsin, all the students boycotted a popular bar that had denied entrance to our black football players. From there I became immersed in the civil rights movement, never having anything disparaging in my mind about black people.
I was fortunate to attend the quadrennial conference of the Methodist Church in Omaha Nebraska. I recovered from near pneumonia in time to go to the New Year's eve lecture with about 5000 in attendance. I was on the balcony about 40 feet from where Dr. Martin Luther King spoke on the stage, surrounded by bodyguards. At first, his speech seemed rather dull with that resounding baritone. But, by the time he finished, I felt like going out and dying for him. Recently, Dr. Thomas F Freeman, 96, retired after 65 years of teaching philosophy and deleting some of the greatest debate teams ever, defeating the world in competitions large and small. Before he came to Houston in 1949, he taught a young man in Atlanta how to speak effectively––Martin Luther King. Freeman also taught many others like Barbara Jordan and Mickey Leland, as well is coaching Denzel Washington for the movie, The Great Debaters.
I was fortunate to teach one year 1974-75 at Marshall University and found Huntington to be a very wonderful, but quaint town to live in. The most hateful talk of black people I ever heard was in a Morgantown barbershop my first month during my doctoral studies at WVU. I never went back there. I met a brilliant young black doctoral student while there who hired me to come to Houston thirty years ago after he became vice president of Texas Southern University. The recent superior of mine was a black physicist who worked on the South Texas nuclear project. Last week, I joined, Dr. Mae Jemison, a medical doctor and former astronaut on her program funded by DARPA, 100 Year Star Ship.
Finally, we have here at AD a fellow founder of the Montgomery Improvement Association with Dr. King and a superlative author and chronicler of the civil rights movement, Dr. Uriah J Fields.
Ron
The age of the earth (Article) - 9/29/2013 7:16:16 PM
Thanks, Ron, for your kind remarks. It amazes me that so many people insist that the earth, even the universe, is only 6000 years old. I agree that Christians who insist one must accept every word in the Bible as literal fact are very foolish. Christians who preach that error as truth seriously damage the image of all Christians. One of the reasons I wrote the book, A Matter of Faith, was to help every one understand that the truths taught in universities does not conflict with Christian faith if the Bible is read in an intelligent manner. That is difficult for many Christians to understand.
Ben
The age of the earth (Article) - 8/4/2013 6:28:01 AM
Another of your extremely well-written and researched articles. I was amazed a few years ago when a project manager I had to do some construction on my house, an educated African, told me that the world was only 6000 years old according to his Christian beliefs.
I'm with you that the age of the earth, well determined by science, is not in conflict with the Bible, especially the poetry of Genesis. All good Christian should read your article. Unfortunately, many Christians are so close minded that they do not read anything other than religious dogma and propaganda.
Ron
Christian Belief (Article) - 7/12/2013 8:18:16 AM
As I get older, I tend to simplify articles like this. After much instruction in my early youth about Christianity, I came to the conclusion, at about 23, after reading both the Bible and many other philosophical writings, that it was okay not to believe in Christian dogma but to think for myself and believe what I believe without relying on any religion to justify my being or to control my thoughts in any way.
You are a fine thinker, but I found this article to be overly wordy in trying to describe your belief in Christianity. You could describe your belief in far fewer words. Again, the key word is, “belief.” For that is all anyone has for something that has no real proof. Natural selection has made most of us, “followers,” in the hierarchical schema of social human behavior. We are prisoners of our genetic makeup making us extremely subject first, to our families, and then larger social networks, including religions, and a host of other social structures like governments, clubs, and schools. Some have called this the, “Matrix,” but I'll just say it's natural––part of our natural evolution. Quite frankly, almost everyone is a backslider who does what they are told because it's the only thing they know how to do in this world to get along. If they are born into Christianity they become Christians and while they might rebel briefly as a teenager, they fall into the habit that repetition of dogma creates and end up believing, because they believe, not because they know anything of physics, philosophy, or anything else. The older they get, the more they believe, because it's the only thing that doesn't change in their lives. In the end, they only wish that they could stop all the pain from all their ailments and look forward every day to be released from the pain and enter “heaven” that they have been promised because they believe.
Sorry, but I escaped the matrix a long time ago and the only thing that I believe in is myself. The only thing that will remain after me is my life work, my writing. I will not live some glorious afterlife in some made-up heaven because I was born a Christian or worse, “born again,” as a Christian.
Ron
Is There Life out There? (Article) - 5/13/2013 6:58:49 AM
From a scientific standpoint, I agree with you, that much of what we have been doing in our effort to define and contact extraterrestrial life is primarily psychological and not logical or scientific. Unlike you, I believe that life can be spontaneously created from inorganic materials because life appears to be so pervasive.
I have written novels on the subject. The novels, The Kaleidoscope Effect and Alone?, view the question from two directions, the former being most likely, that extraterrestrials will find us first, and that we will eventually become extraterrestrials long before our Sun consumes the Earth.
Yes, we have a psychological need to explore and to repair all of our psychological problems before we attempt to travel to the stars, perhaps within two hundred years from now.
As an atheist, I find that most of religion is not based in wonderment about the universe and its possibilities, but on a basic fear of the unknown (only defined by gods––a single God is relatively new phenomenon in the fear factor that created the gods) and death. Thus the simple explanations and rituals that go back to early tribal culture appease the masses and keep them under control.
I look to the universe with wonderment and don't view human discovery of it in terms of the few years we have left this planet since we landed on the moon. There's much more to learn and if by some infinitesimal chance extraterrestrial life discovers us the next thousand years, it will be wonderful and have nothing to do with God.
Ron
Why Genesis is Not Taught in Science Classes (Article) - 5/10/2013 8:24:59 AM
Thank you for your detailed and delightful explanation of why teaching science should not include the Bible. However, true believers will always deny science in favor of their mythology, and many will even claim that the Bible is literal truth and therefore the world that we know, and even the universe, was created in seven days about six thousand years ago.
From my brief time in school and discussions with fellow humans over the years, I find that most people know little of history, geography, or science. They are so busy wrapped up in their jobs, family, church, and social activities, that they rarely question what their family, friends, and church says or does. That's why politicians can manipulate them into believing almost anything. There is little critical thinking outside of a good scientific background.
I will keep trying to convince my friends and family whenever they are wrong about science, because it's the right thing to do. Just like you have done by writing this article. The force is with you (more people believe that than believe real science).
Ron
Why Genesis is Not Taught in Science Classes (Article) - 5/9/2013 6:11:16 PM
Well written, Bengamin. But as an economist I feel compelled to point out one error in your concluding paragraph: economics is a social science,and not part of that group consisting of history, French,and religion. We have enough problems with politicians who believe that any assertion or opinion is as good a fact or scientific principle.
