Australian Politics Forum - Stephen Hawking on ABC

BigOl64

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Re: Stephen Hawking on ABC
Reply #15 - Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:41pm

... wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:29pm:

BigOl64 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:24pm:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 10:37am:

I watched parts of the show. When he started talking about "dark energy" is what makes the universe expand, it started to sound awfully like religious or highly speculative mumbo-jumbo. What is "dark energy", isn't that just a phrase to replace "God"?

For example, religious folk will say "God makes the universe expand".
The astrophysics will say "dark energy makes the universe expand".

Same thing. It's a mysterious force being described but with a change of words.

What the bugger?

An astrophysists will go about designing various experiments to prove or disprove the 'dark matter hypothosis, the religious folk will break out a hymn and wait for death to take them to heaven.

So not the same, not even close. Grin

It's exactly the same. Religious folk interpret things as 'the will of god' whereas scientists interpret them as 'scientific principles.' All that differs is the terminology.

No they're not, one group accepts their information based purely on faith the other does not and conducts experiments based on scientific principles to verify their beliefs (hypothoses).

Science and religion are nothing alike in how they interpret and base their beliefs.

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...

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Re: Stephen Hawking on ABC
Reply #16 - Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:48pm

BigOl64 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:41pm:

... wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:29pm:

BigOl64 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:24pm:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 10:37am:

I watched parts of the show. When he started talking about "dark energy" is what makes the universe expand, it started to sound awfully like religious or highly speculative mumbo-jumbo. What is "dark energy", isn't that just a phrase to replace "God"?

For example, religious folk will say "God makes the universe expand".
The astrophysics will say "dark energy makes the universe expand".

Same thing. It's a mysterious force being described but with a change of words.

What the bugger?

An astrophysists will go about designing various experiments to prove or disprove the 'dark matter hypothosis, the religious folk will break out a hymn and wait for death to take them to heaven.

So not the same, not even close. Grin

It's exactly the same. Religious folk interpret things as 'the will of god' whereas scientists interpret them as 'scientific principles.' All that differs is the terminology.

No they're not, one group accepts their information based purely on faith the other does not and conducts experiments based on scientific principles to verify their beliefs (hypothoses).

Science and religion are nothing alike in how they interpret and base their beliefs.

Simply hypothesizing is a kind of faith, and astrophysicists need to have more faith than most, because they cannot directly observe the phenomena they are trying to explain. Nobody has ever seen a planet orbiting another star - they are detected by seeing the effect their gravity has on other celestial bodies. So because they have not been directly observed, it requires faith that their hypothesis is correct.

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In the fullness of time...

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Postmodern Trendoid III

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Re: Stephen Hawking on ABC
Reply #17 - Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:50pm

BigOl64 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:41pm:

... wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:29pm:

BigOl64 wrote on Jul 7^th, 2011 at 4:24pm:

Postmodern Trendoid III wrote on Jun 15^th, 2011 at 10:37am:

I watched parts of the show. When he started talking about "dark energy" is what makes the universe expand, it started to sound awfully like religious or highly speculative mumbo-jumbo. What is "dark energy", isn't that just a phrase to replace "God"?

For example, religious folk will say "God makes the universe expand".
The astrophysics will say "dark energy makes the universe expand".

Same thing. It's a mysterious force being described but with a change of words.

What the bugger?

An astrophysists will go about designing various experiments to prove or disprove the 'dark matter hypothosis, the religious folk will break out a hymn and wait for death to take them to heaven.

So not the same, not even close. Grin

It's exactly the same. Religious folk interpret things as 'the will of god' whereas scientists interpret them as 'scientific principles.' All that differs is the terminology.

No they're not, one group accepts their information based purely on faith the other does not and conducts experiments based on scientific principles to verify their beliefs (hypothoses).

Science and religion are nothing alike in how they interpret and base their beliefs.

That is correct in most cases, but in this case they still don't really know what dark matter is - hence its positing as a "mysterious force".

It seems the religious folk had the jump on the scientists here.

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