--- In [email protected], s3raphita wrote: > > > Re I stayed out of the latest tempest-in-a-pisspot discussions of the Big Bang, and how REEEAAALLY STOOOPID some people here think those who don't believe in it are,: > > > I think it was the other way around. Ie, me saying how credulous people are in *believing* in the Big Bang ie, in believing the mass of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars could be squashed into a point when there are other speculations like Fred Hoyle's steady-state theory which don't require that Bang hypothesis. As cosmology is now having to get to grips with dark energy (about which it hasn't a clue) it's all up for grabs again. I'd love it if the Big Bang theory got overthrown just to see the sheepish looks on the faces of those who've solemnly told us it was gospel truth.
I think I was riffing more off of jr-esq's kneejerk putdowns of Stephen Hawking and anyone who doesn't believe in 1) a Big Bang and 2) that God was the banger. :-) I'm just always amused at the kneejerk reactions to anyone (often moi, admittedly) who suggests that no such concept as "God" is necessary to explain the universe, or even the fairly simple belief that the universe has no beginning or end. I honestly think that many of the knee-jerkers can't get past their indoctrination early in life that there IS a God, damnit, and there WAS a Creation, damnit, becuz God said so, in one of those books He wrote. :-) Me, I find the notion of an infinite, eternal universe with no "God" or intelligence behind it FAR more interesting and inspiring than I find the silly notion that it was all created by a "God." But then again, I have no need to believe that there is a "Plan" or a "Reason" for all of this -- for the universe, for the earth, or for each of us. I am completely comfortable with it all being a form of chaotic controlled folly, "reality" being determined by nothing more (or less) than the combined sentience of all sentient beings in the universe. But go figure. Some people get REALLY bent out of shape (like Ann just did) when someone believes something different than they believe. And when they get their panties in a twist over this, they tend to lash out. It happens. I tend to ignore it, because in my experience it tends to happen to people whose opinions I really couldn't give a shit about. :-)
