My favorite part of the article:
A preposterous proposition
The normal matter in the cosmos - atoms that make up stars, planets, air and life - accounts for only a small fraction of what must exist, based on the fact that without an additional source of gravity, galaxies would fly apart and galaxy clusters could not hold together as they do. Nobody knows where all that gravity comes from, so scientists say there must be some invisible stuff out there, which they call dark matter. Its presence is indirectly supported by many observations. Given what's known, this is the makeup of the universe:
* 5 percent normal matter
* 25 percent dark matter
* 70 percent dark energy
So in a nutshell, 95% of the universe is an invisible, unknowable force that keeps the other 5% of the universe (That's us and the billions of other galaxies) from falling apart.
...Does that sound like anyone you know?
Link:
http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/060821_dark_matter.html
This post of yours has been chewing at me for the past week or so... I'm not the church-going type, but I have always wondered how we can just accept that an object with enough mass creates gravity and all those other laws of nature and physics. I don't for a second doubt that the laws are entirely true, but why does it have to be that way?
ReplyDeleteThese are the questions that this little piece of information feeds into and reawakens...
Hi dharma bum,
ReplyDeleteI wonder the same thing every time I watch Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
:-)
ha ha
ReplyDeletei try to be all philosophical and DEEP and...
...you make me laugh.
:)
Well that is pretty much the thing with philosphy... If you do not laugh, you will end up crying, having a drinking problem, or both.
ReplyDeleteI have trouble accepting natural law either in church or out. Take flycasting. You watch a textbook presentation and it is a thing of beauty; force and momentum working together with aerodynamics. You tend to forget that the fisherman is even there because you get so mesmerized watching that line go back and forth.
Then there is the way that I cast. The same physics, the same laws of gravity, and it is tailing loop after tailing loop, assuming that I do not manage to get hung up in a tree first. This summer's trip was a major victory for me in that I did not lose a single fly. I would say 'huzzah,' but then again I only got one fish because I couldn't close the deal.
In the end, all that rod-waving probably is causing an unspeakable catastrophe in some other part of the world due to the butterly effect. And now I have to try and live with THAT on my conscience.
I do not have anything against scientists trying to learn more about our universe. I think that science and discovery are actually encouraged by God and not limited to the horizon of our own planet. With that in mind I would like to think that if I had lived in the time that I would have NOT have participated in the persecution of Galileo.
When I hear that 95% of the universe consists of incomprehensible forms of matter and energy that we can only understand in terms of how they affect the 5% of the universe that we CAN see, it brings a smile to my face.
I really do think that we are God's children and that we will ultimately need to grow more before we can comprehend more. Death is just a growth spurt.
Anyway, that is what I would have said yesterday, had I been feeling philosophical and deep.
Thanks for posting comments, dharma bum, I am enjoying where this post has gone.