From: John Leppik (jleppik@rogers.com)
Date: Mon Jun 17 2002 - 08:25:06 MDT
"Emlyn O'regan wrote.......
> I understand the fundamental idea that nothing *cannot* exist, by
> definition; there must always be something. I think the more useful
question
> is always "Why does this particular something exist, rather than some
other
> something?"
>
> Emlyn
It seems that we cannot let go of the ORIGINAL CAUSE. In "A Brief History
of Time: from the Big Bang to Black Holes" Stephen Hawking tells a story
that apparently he and many astrophysicists cannot understand or
accept........
"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a
public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the
sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the center of a vast collection
of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at
the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish.
The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise."
The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise
standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old
lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"
Today's pursuit is the Big Bang. Tomorrow's will be "What banged?" and
after that "What made it bang?" .... Why must there be a beginning? Can
it not just be process?
John
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Sat Nov 02 2002 - 09:14:52 MST