Pantheism vs. Atheism

Before, I'm sure that I've said that I am a deist and it turns out that I got the definition of a "deist" wrong. By definition, I am pantheistic, not deistic. Pantheism is the belief that the universe itself is what most people call "God." It can also mean that the natural force that exists in the universe is "God." Now, "God" is in quotation marks because it is doubtful that there is one true celestial being that rules over the universe in it's entirety.

The word "pantheism" comes from the Greek roots "pan_" (all) and "hyle" (matter). To break down the word, the Greek root "pan-" means "all" and the word theism means "belief in the existence of one god that controls and created the universe" (to paraphrase how Google responded when I typed in "meaning of theism").

One famous example of a pantheist in Albert Einstein (read "Important  Figures in Astrophysics"). However, he never stated his true religion. He grew up in a Jewish household and left Germany long before the Holocaust to go New Jersey (his first action in New Jersey was to purchase a comb).

Baruch Spinoza (or Benedict de Spinoza, as he is more commonly known) had a philosophy that was often labeled as pantheism. However, he never used the term to describe his beliefs. While he never used the term, he is often regarded as the father of pantheism.

However, pantheism is not the same thing as atheism. Atheism is the belief that there is no deity, no matter what shape or form it may have taken. Pantheism states that the natural force in the universe, or the universe itself, is "God." Famous atheists included Richard Dawkins, Bob Geldof, David Gilmour, and Billy Joel.

(By no means do I disrespect people based on their religious/spiritual beliefs just because my belief system is bizarre. This is a simple explanation of one belief system that many scientists have adopted. If you're offended by this, that's your problem.)

White Holes

Most people have heard of black holes, the vacuum cleaners of the universe, but those same people may not have heard of "white holes." The basic explanation of a white hole is that it's the opposite of a black hole in the sense that light and matter can escape and that it cannot be entered from the outside. That's just the basics. Let's get into the exciting scientific explanations.

If a white hole cannot be entered from the outside, how would matter and light be there in the first place?

The simple way to explain this is that it had to have been there when it was first forming. The complex way to state this is that since matter cannot enter from the outside, it had to have been in the general area before and during the formation of the structure.

Are they, well, real?

No one has proven that yet. There is about a 50/50 chance that they exist.

If they are real, could they be viewed?

Well, since a black hole is invisible and white holes are the polar opposite of black holes, then most likely yes. This is only going by what we know of black holes, though.

Who "came up with" white holes?

No one really came up with white holes. It's rather difficult to explain exactly how this theory came about. Read this article to clear things up. If you do not read/speak English, you can select a language on the bar on the left.

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The Natural Force in the Universe vs. Religion

This is not meant to offend the religious people that may view my blog on a regular basis. I am writing to merely show how the "natural force" in the universe is what people often think of as a "god." I don't define "god" as "one old man in the sky." I define "god" as "a force that drives the universe through its entirety." (Again, this is not meant to offend or argue against anyone's point of view.)

What do you mean by "natural force"?

A natural force is something that causes the universe to "work." The natural force is what keeps everything in check. All black holes suck things in, all galaxy spins, and matter and anti-matter are forever enemies. This is because of the natural force. It basically does what religious people say their god (Allah, Buddha, Yahweh, etc.) does.

What a second! Are you saying that my religion is phony?

No, not at all. What I'm trying to say is, people believe their god to be what drives the universe around its eternal racetrack.

Ah, phew! Is there proof that a natural force even exists?

The answer is, yes. There are four powerful natural forces that make the universe run the way it does. For example. gravity. The most powerful force in the universe is gravity. Without gravity, the universe itself could not exist at all, because nothing would be held together and everything as we know it would collapse.

What about the other three?

The other three are electromagnetism, weak nuclear force, and strong nuclear force.

Electromagnetism is what makes the magnets work. (Have you ever heard, "Ask a Mormon how magnets work?")

Weak and strong nuclear forces are, well, exactly what they sound like.

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The Big Crunch Theory

Now, this is a new one. I'm surprised that no one has suggested that I write about my feelings on the Big Bang theory already. Anyone who wanted me to write about it is in for an extra-special treat, I'm writing about the exact opposite of the Big Bang: the Big Crunch.

What's the Big Crunch theory?

You have probably heard of the Big Bang theory that states that all of time and space was created in one massive explosion. Well, the Big Crunch is the exact opposite to the Big Bang. The Big Crunch is the theory that at some point, the universe will cease to tolerate all of the matter inside of it and therefore implodes and destroys all of time and space.

The problem with this theory is that it does not specify when the universe will implode. Like any theory, it has its flaws.

What Would Happen to Me?

If the Big Crunch were to happen right this very second, you would, obviously, die along with every other living thing in the universe. No one would survive and nothing would exist. Now, there is the possible that the Big Crunch could result in another universe forming (which scientists have already said anyway).

When Will This Happen?

Well, some scientists theorize that the Big Crunch will take place in thirteen billion years (which is the approximate age of the universe). There is no reason to worry about it. The human race (and the Earth) will be long gone by then.

Why Will This Happen?

Like I mentioned, this will happen because the universe will no long be able to hold all of the matter that exists within it, therefore having a panic attack and imploding (I've heard about people with that same problem).

The big question here is, Will this ever actually happen, or will the universe last forever? It will most likely last forever. Who's to say what the universe will do?

Our Size in the Universe

Putting Things into Perspective

Recently in my science class, we watched a video called "The Known Universe." As this is a popular video, you've probably seen it floating around on the Internet somewhere, such as YouTube. It shows the amount of time it takes for light from stars to go to the Earth. This video made me realize that all of us are no more than a trillionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a speck of dust in this universe and that we are almost totally isolated, as the Andromeda galaxy, the closest galaxy to the Milky Way galaxy, is 200 million light-years away from us. (Imagine how long it would take to travel there, remembering that a trip to Pluto and back would take about thirty years.)

I've noticed that people on this planet like to complain about petty things, such as relationships and who said what about who. Knowing that you are nothing more than a speck of salt in an ocean really puts the importance of these things into perspective. There is just no purpose to complaining about such petty things when we should really be worrying about the big things and life. The little things in life don't really matter in the scheme of things, so why worry about them at all?

Take some of the Facebook statuses that most people see on a daily basis. People say things like, "Ugh, I don't want to go to school in the morning," or the constant, "I can't BELIEVE what my boyfriend said last night." What irks me about these asinine Facebook statuses is that when someone finds out that they are, in the scheme of things, nothing at all and these problems that occur day to day are not important and shouldn't really matter to anyone. Of course, there will always be large problems in life that you really should worry about, like a divorce or a death, and those are the things that need to be taken seriously.

How Big You Actually Are

Imagine the biggest thing that you possibly think of. The first thing that will come to mind is probably Mt. Everest, the largest mountain in the world located in the Himalayan Mountain Range that runs through southeastern Asia. Now imagine one hundred of this monstrous mountain stacked one on top of the other. That would be even CLOSE to how big the universe is. As a matter of fact, that would be barely visible from space.

If you had a rather large basket full of one hundred suns, that still wouldn't be anywhere close to the size of universe. Think all of the galaxies in the universe put together. Still not even close.

The point I am trying to make here is that there is no such thing as something bigger or more important than the universe, despite what self-centered people like to think. As a matter of fact, the universe is always going to be the biggest thing ever. In all directions, the universe is infinite. Think about travelling in a spaceship going at the speed of light going in one direction from Earth. You would never get to the edge of the universe and you would most likely be wasting your time.


Stay tuned for the next post!

Important Figures in Astrophysics

There have been many men and women that have famously studied the field of astrophysical science and quantum mechanics. People have been looking at the sky since the days of the ancient Greeks, the people known for their discovery of stars and planets (some planets wouldn't be discovered until centuries after the ancient Greeks). There are a lot of people who study and are inspired by astrophysicists. You might be thinking, Which astrophysicists and quantum physicists should I care about the most? Read further, and your question will most certainly be answered.

(All information and photographs were been obtained from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. http://www.wikipedia.com)

Catlover9771's Top 3 List of Astrophysicists

#1 - Albert Einstein

Albert Einstein after receiving a Nobel Prize in physics in  1921

source: en.wikipedia.org

Albert Einstein is known as one of the Founding Fathers of quantum theory. He was born in Ulm, Germany on March 14th, 1879 to Hermann and Pauline (Koch) Einstein. Einstein left his parents' home when he was fourteen years old. He married Mileva Malic, whom he met at Swiss Federal Polytechnic in 1895, in 1903 and their first child, Lieresl was born a year earlier. (Lieresl's fate remains unknown, but was not mentioned in any discovered letters after her birth announcement from Malic to Einstein.) Later, they had another child, named Hans Albert. In 1914, they divorced because of being separated for five years.

In 1901, Albert published his first paper, titled Folgerugen aus den Kapillaritat Erscheinungen ("Conclusions in Capillarity Phenomena") in the science journal, Annalen der Physik ("Annals of Physics"). In 1905, Einstein completed his thesis. Thus, Einstein was issued a PhD from the University of Zurich in Switzerland. That same year, he published four more papers (on the photoelectric effect, Brownian motion, special relativity, and the equivalence of mass and energy), which granted his world fame.

He is known for his theory of relativity (general and special) and his groundbreaking equation, e=mc2. Unfortunately, Einstein died at the age of 76 on April 18th, 1955 of an abdominal aortic aneurysm.

#2 - Max Planck

Planck in 1933, at the age of 75.

Max Karl Ernst Ludwig Planck was born on April 23rd, 1858 in Kiel, Duchy of Holstein. He is also known as a Founding Father of quantum mechanics. As a matter of fact, he was the one who started it all. He was a theoretical physicist. After he invented quantum theory, he won a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1918 at the age of sixty.

The Planck constant, which was first used as a way to link the amount of energy that a photon carries with the measured frequency of its electromagnetic wave. It can be written as E=HF. It was simply named after him.

He grew up in a tradition household of intellectuals. His paternal great-grandfather and his grandfather were both theoretical physicists in Gottingen. His father was a law professor in Kiel and Munich. His father's name was Johann Julius Wilhelm Planck. His mother, Emma Patzig, was his father's second wife. Planck was baptized as Karl Ernst Ludwig Marx Planck. Marx has been indicated as his primary name.

He was one of the academics that took notice to Albert Einstein's special theory of relativity.

Max died on October 4th, 1947 at the age of 89.

#3 - Erwin Schrodinger

Erwin Schrodinger is known for the thought experiment, Schrodinger's cat, which states that, according to the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, if a cat is under a box, it is alive and dead at the same time until one looks under the box. Once the box is removed, the cat is no longer simultaneously alive and died. (If you search for it, I wrote a post about Schrodinger's cat.)

Erwin Schrodinger's full name was Erwin Rudolf Josef Alexander Schrodinger. He was born to Rudolf Schrodinger, a botanist, and Georgine Emilia Brenda. Erwin was an only child. His mother was half-Austrian and half-English. Georgine was Lutheran and Rudolf was Catholic. Despite his religious background, Schrodinger was a known atheist in his adulthood.

Schrodinger was born on August 12th, 1887 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary.

My Background in Science

I've been running this blog for a while, I've got a little over 80 hits, and I still haven't given my personal scientific background. I don't have very many followers, but I do have people who view my blog regularly. (Thanks, Dad!)

My obsession with scientific studies dates back to a month and a half ago. I was explaining to my dad that it is utterly impossible that Slender Man could exist. He said, "What about that one theory? The one about all fictional characters being real in alternate universes?" I never looked up that theory, but something that he said caught my attention. He said that we would never be able to know if that theory was true due the observer effect, which I have written about before.

That's when I started my search on the Internet. I started doing some research on various websites, such as Wikipedia and the NASA website, and I found some really interesting facts and theories that I had never heard before. The next day, I talked to my science teacher, who said that it was cool how I was suddenly interested in astrophysics and quantum theory. Then she asked me, "How would you like to do a presentation to the class on astrophysics and quantum theory?" (Not the exact words, but close enough.) Obviously, I accepted.

Everyone in my science class thought that my vast knowledge of quantum theory and astrophysics was interesting, and everyone started asking me, "Are you going to become an astrophysicist?" I had to think about it. Did I want to become an astrophysicist? I told them, "Yes."

Ever since then, I've been researching the Solar System and the universe. In a way, both my dad and my science teacher inspired me to become interested in this subject. I've still got to find a decent college I can get grants for so I can get my PhD in Astrophysics.

Feel free to ask me any questions in the comments, and I will try my best to answer them.