Some Important Facts for the Religious (and Everybody Else)
- The observable cosmos is 13.6 billion years old and has evolved into its present form.
- The earth is 4.6 billion years old and along with the rest of the solar system formed under gravity from a cloud of dust and gas in space.
- There no evidence that any consciousness can function without a living, physical brain.
- Humans and chimpanzees have a common ancestor, and we split off from that ancestor six million years ago in Africa.
- Prehistoric religion goes back at least thirty thousand years.
- Historic religion started about five thousand years ago in Mesopotamia and Egypt.
- The oldest religion practiced today is Hinduism.
- The creation stories in Genesis 1-2 are taken from Babylonian mythology.
- No religious or spiritual healer has ever been proved to have genuine healing powers although many of them have been exposed as frauds.
There are many more such facts, but my point is that if you know what's going on, then you know better than to believe what religion claims.
Clara Tea's opinion:
UNIVERSE'S AGE:
Ask Ethan: How do we know the universe is 13.8 billion years old?
The universe is
13.8 billion years give or take 1%, using Friedmann's Equation (from quantum mechanics), not 3.6. (source above)
Apparently, Miss Universe lied about her age (but only about 200,000,000 years off), and younger, of course. We'll find out when she applies for social security.
But, science doesn't assert that this is the final answer. It leaves open the possibilty that some other theory could change it.
The entire universe is not visible, since the metric of space (like a chess board grid) is stretching faster than the speed of light. Nothing can cross that grid (according to mainstream theory) faster than the speed of light.
The
age of the universe is also confirmed by variable stars, which are known to pulse at a fixed rate, due to internal pressure due to their mass. This means that even if the variable star appears to pulse slower (slowed by time dilation due to extreme gravitational fields, according to general relativity), they can still be used to determine how fast the stars are moving (due to the shift), and that is an indication of how far away they are. On the Hertsprung-Russel diagram, the acceleration of the universe is apparent due to these variable stars.
EARTH'S AGE:
The earth and solar system was not formed from merely a cloud of dust and gas. Rather, the
heavy elements of earth are theorized to have formed in supernova explosions. Otherwise, such heavy elements could not be produced by the big bang. I wonder if the extreme pressure of the big bang could have made those heavy elements, and maybe some day scientists will have to modify their opinions? The age of the earth is measured by radioactive dating. In other words, the solar system (including earth) is currently said to be made of recycled matter that used to be part of a star. But theories change.
Dr. Virginia Trimble, cosmologist of UC, Irvine, married Dr. Weber, a renowned physicist who is credited for the creation of the first gravity wave detector (which no one could duplicate, so didn't originally give him credit). She was his very very very much younger student. She said that Dr. Weber suggested that she dates the explosion of the crab nebula's super-nova by measuring the doppler shift (because it is close enough to do so). She succeeded. Dating old things was her specialty. The crab nebula is Tau X-1, which is the first X-ray source measured in space, and it is called Tau because it is in the constellation Taurus. All of the signs of the zodiac are on the ecliptic (the path that the sun takes through the sky).
PROOF OF CONSCIOUSNESS WITHOUT A HUMAN BRAIN:
What about an animal brain? What about a tiny fish in an aquarium that doesn't hide when the owner comes in the room, but hides when strangers come in. It is smart enough to know a friend, and it isn't just about food (probably).
Dr. Jessica Utts, UC Davis (at the time), cooperated with SRI (Stanford Research Institute, part of Stanford University) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and later the project was taken over by SAIC (a republican private think tank started by Iran Contra scandal generals who were given billions of dollars of US money to do research). Dr. Utts proved that ESP was real. She is a statistician, and was head of her department at UC Irvine (her current locale). Psychics insist that they grab info out of the thin blue sky. If so, there is some form of thought or fact storage in the form of psychic energy. Could that be the stuff that God is made of? Could God tap into that same information? Some psychics claim to contact dead people or spirits or angels, or even God. Can we prove that they didn't, knowing that ESP has been proven to be real?
HUMANS AND CHIMPS HAVE COMMON ANCESTOR:
Have you seen my sister? If that doesn't convince you.....
PREHISTORIC RELIGION:
Neanderthals were buried in what appears to have been a ritual, with arms crossed. Maybe that indicates religion? That's what current scientists think, but that might be stretching known facts.
HEALING POWERS PROVEN? MANY FRAUDS?
Yet, the government hires psychics. The CIA, the police, etc., hire psychics to aid in solving murders and finding things. My friend was employed by the CIA to find a sunken Russian nuclear submarine (which she did). She was also a docent at ARE (Edgar Cayce's Association of Research and Enllightenment). While there are many frauds, there are also many legitimate psychics.