Monday, October 31, 2011

The Science of Cosmology

Cosmology: The scientific discipline dealing with the origin, structure, and relationships of the universe
A cosmology: Any theory or doctrine that describes the natural order of the universe.

Every civilization has had a cosmology as far back as it known and they have usually taken the form of a philosophically based mythology.  Increased knowledge in Physics and Chemistry has resulted in a more scientific approach but philosophic assumptions still play a major role in Cosmology.

The expansion of the Universe was discovered by Edwin Hubble discovered in 1929 by measuring the redshifts of distant galaxies. In 1998 it was discovered the expansion of the universe to be accelerating based on observations of type Ia supernovae.

Cosmic Background Radiation is the thermal black body spectrum that is nearly uniform in every direction, It represents a temperature of 2.725 K peaking in the microwave range a frequency of 160.2 GHz, with a wavelength of 1.9 mm. It was first observed in 1965 by Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson at the Bell Telephone Laboratories in Murray Hill, New Jersey. The CBR temperature fluctuations discovered by the WMAP data of the entire sky showed an average temperature is 2.725 Kelvin with tiny temperature fluctuations spanning about 0.0002 degrees Celsius.

The Big Bang Cosmology is the current Cosmology of the scientific establishment. The model starts with all mater and space squeezed into an infinitesimal dot called a singularity. This infinitesimal dot suddenly underwent an extremely energetic expansion commonly described as an explosion. Over time the heat of this expansion cooled eventually forming galaxies, stars, planets and eventually us. CBR is seen as residual heat from the Big Bang red shifted by the expansion of t he universe. The Big Bang is based on three main purely philosophical assumptions. First there is absolute naturalism with no intelligents or purpose being allowed in the process. The universe is considered to be unbounded with no edge that is no point beyond which there is no mater. Finally there is the cosmological principle which states that the universe looks the same from every place. The goal is to deal with the fact that we seem to be at the center of the universe by making every place look like the center

There Other Naturalistic Cosmologies such as the steady state cosmology which has no beginning or end to the universe but requires a continual source of new matter. There is a new Cosmology called the electric universe which depicts much of the phenomenon in universe as being electrical in nature. It is not yet fully developed.  

Creationist Cosmology is based on three main purely philosophical assumptions. The first is God as the creative intelligents with purpose in the process. The universe viewed as bounded with an edge beyond which no mater is found. There is a center to the universe and the Earth is near it. Now this is not Geodetic because the universe does not rotate around the Earth Plugging these assumptions along with the observed expansion into relativity results in time dilation at the center where the Earth would have been producing a time line on Earth consistent with the Biblical account. CBR is seen as the light God created on day one red shifted by an expansion factor of about 3,300.

In conclusion Cosmology deals with the origin, structure, and relationships of the universe but is heavily dependent on philosophical assumptions since we only see the universe a one location that is the Earth. Evolutionary and Creationist Cosmologies are based on different assumptions producing different results for the same data.

Saturday, October 29, 2011

The Manner in Which Creationists Use the Term Evolutionist Explained

Creationists have often use the term Evolution to refer to entire naturalistic view of origins that starts with the Big Bang and goes to Man. Creationists will also use the term Evolutionist to refer to proponents of the Big Bang to Man view of origins.

The way Creationist use the terms “Evolution” and “Evolutionist” has recently come under attack. The claim is that evolution only refers to biological evolution and that Creationists are ether ignorant or misrepresenting the term Evolution. It further claims that abiogenesis, planetary formation, stellar formation and the Big Bang are all independent disciplines unrelated to evolution.

Creationists fully understand that these are different disciplines nor is Evolution being misrepresent because it is wrong to claim that they are unrelated to biological evolution. They form one complete view of origins and are referred to as evolution by main stream sources like NASA and the NSF. They use distinguishing terms like biological evolution, chemical evolution, planetary evolution, stellar evolution cosmic evolution.

Biological evolution refers to the development of life. Chemical evolution refers to the origin of life. Planetary evolution refers to formation and development of planetary bodies. Stellar evolution refers to the formation, development and death of stars. Cosmic evolution refers to the beginning, development and possible end of the universe. Some times this by itself refers the entire Big Bang to man concept.
Note that these are all labeled evolution so it is not inappropriate to refer to them all collectively as Evolution its proponents as Evolutionists. The terms Evolution and Evolutionists are often used by Creationists simply do to a lack of better terms.

I have also used the terms General Evolution and General Evolution theory to help avoid confusion.



References

Friday, October 28, 2011

Introducing to the Science of Chemistry

Chemistry: The field of science that is the study of the interactions of atoms to form molecules and their properties.

The beginnings of Chemistry go back to before known civilization with fire and metal work. According to the book of Genesis in the Bible metal work goes back to Tubal-cain who lived before the Flood. Modern Chemistry grew out of Alchemy and its search to turn metals like lead into gold and the so called elixir of life. Chemistry got much from Alchemy particularly its affinity research and experimentation. Once Chemistry broke from Alchemy it lead to an explosion of knowledge about the nature and structure of matter.

Chemistry begins with individual atoms of different elements such as hydrogen, carbon and oxygen. Atoms come together to form molecules such as water which is made of one oxygen atom getting together with two hydrogen atoms, methane which is made of one carbon atom getting together with four hydrogen atoms and carbon dioxide which is made of two oxygen atoms getting together with one carbon atom. These are all different substances with different properties.

The Periodic Table is a list of the chemical elements organized by recurring properties. The information about each element included varies but often includes element’s name, atomic number, symbol, and atomic weight. It is a vary use full took in Chemistry and one the most recognizable things associated with Chemistry.
Chemical reactions are the process by which atoms come together or are rearranged to form new molecules. There are two main types of chemical reactions. Endothermic reactions which use heat energy in forming new molecules and exothermic reactions which release heat energy in forming new molecules. Exothermic reactions are some times explosive which is a common danger in Chemistry.

There are two main fields of chemistry. Organic chemistry which is chemistry based on the element Carbon and may or may not involve life and inorganic chemistry which is chemistry not based on the element Carbon.

In conclusion chemistry is a major field of science and it is the most experiment based field of science. Chemistry embodies the ideal of science stated in the scientific method more than any other field of science.

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Why Neutrinos Moving Faster than Light is not the Problem for the Theory of Relativity.

In a recent report by CERN they claim to have measured neutrinos going faster than the speed of light by about 20 parts per million causing quite a bit of internet chatter. Given that the speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s these neutrinos were going 6 km/s faster than light which could easily be an experimental error.

Despite all talk about thiis being a problem for Special Relativity it is not since even close to being a problem. the proabition against traveling at or faster than the light only applies to particles with a real non zero rest mass. A particle like a photon that has a zero rest mass travels at the speed of light. Particles that travel faster than light have been speculated for years under the name tachyons. Tachyons would have a negative imaginary rest mass giving it a real non zero mass at speeds above the speed of light. It would however be incapable of being decelerated to the speed of  light below it.

Also there are quantum effects like quantum tunneling provided another way around the light barrier by allowing particles to instantly skip over an area of space without actually going through them while traveling sub light through the space it does go through thus not violating Special Relativity. 

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Biology the Science of Life

Biology: The study of life and living organisms
Life: That which undergo metabolism, grows and reproduce.
Cell: The basic functional unit of life.
Organism: A contiguous living system.

DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) is the information storage device of  living cells. Amazingly DNA is actually a digitally encoded information storage system.

The living cell is the basic functional unit of life and yet they are still highly complex organized systems of information, structure, molecular machines and much more. Each cell has a level of complexity similar to a city but possesses more organization making even the simplest living cell more complex and organized than any man made machine. Single-cell life includes organisms that are  made of only one cell. Examples include bacteria, single cell animals and single celled plants such as blue green algae. Multi-cellular life includes organisms consisting of multiple cells usually billions such as plants animals and people.

In really there are essentially only two possible origins for life: A naturalistic origin called abiogenesis or a supernaturally intelligently designed origin. Other suggestions don’t actually solve the problem but merely move it some place else in the Universe.

Abiogenesis has the problem of overcoming the overwhelming gap in  organized complexity between a living cell and the chemical constituents that make up a cell. Furthermore no natural process actually demonstrated to exist can accomplish the task but known natural processes indicate that it can not happen. Going from non living chemicals to a living cell requires reducing entropy by an immense amount and statistical thermodynamics shows that natural processes tend to go towards increased entropy; which is the opposite direction of that needed for abiogenesis. Now adding energy can decrease entropy it only does so if applied in a sufficiently organized manner and no known natural process can apply energy in a sufficiently organized manner to achieve abiogenesis suggesting that abiogenesis is impossible. 

A supernaturally intelligently designed origin of life does not have these problems because it is known that intelligents can create complex organized systems because humans do so. It is also known that intelligents can encode a functioning genome because human scientists have done so. Intelligents does have a sufficient degree of organized complexity to create a living cell. Furthermore the intelligents that started life in the universe would have to be from out side it and thus would be supernatural.

It is often claimed by evolutionists that evolution is just change over time in the inherited traits found in a population. If this were really all that was meant by evolution there would be no issue since creationists agree that there is change over time in the inherited traits of a population. The real dispute is with the idea that observed variations can start with one cell and produce all life found on earth including man. Going from microbe to man requires adding a lot of information by nothing but than mutations and natural selection. The Evolutionist argument is that given enough time mutations and natural selection can produce any thing, however such large degrees of change has never actually been observed. They are however a necessary assumption for a totally naturalistic origin of current living systems.

Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Quantum Physics and the Bible.

Since the Bible is the word of God we should expect its view of reality to fit with the reality we see around us. The Bible describes events and ideas that do not fit well with the clock work deterministic universe of Classical Mechanics. The clock work deterministic universe made many of the events in the Bible seem to be impossible. However Quantum Mechanics eliminates this purely deterministic universe. It turns out the Quantum Mechanics is a good fit the Bible and the following examples show why this is the case.

Genesis 1:1, In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
Exodus 20:11, For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is…
Proverbs16:4, The LORD hath made all things for himself…
Hebrews 11:3, Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

God made every thing from nothing and Quantum Mechanics shows this to be possible. Quantum Mechanics has what are called virtual particles that pop in and out of existence all the time. Wave-particle duality eliminates the idea of particles as solid ball like objects. Particles are exhibiting their wave nature have only a quasi existence where they are essentially every place at once. This alone suggest the Universe could be created out of nothing however the Big Bang is thought to have started with a quantum fluctuation from nothing. Now the Bible does not agree with the Big Bang theory but the point is that Quantum Mechanics supports a creation from nothing.

Colossians 1:17, And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

This verse indicates that the universe is actively maintained by God. The indeterminacy of Quantum Mechanics is expected with intelligent control of the universe. General Intelligent Design is a perfect match to this concept. General Intelligent Design depicts quantum mechanical waves and their collapse as being the result of intelligent agents that determine the states resulting from the waves' collapse. In this case God would be the intelligent agent behind Quantum mechanical waves and their collapse

According to the Bible, Jesus Christ died on the cross to save us of our sin this salvation comes to the individual by acceptance of God’s offer as a free gift. He then rose from the dead on the third day. Following His resurrection Jesus was no longer restricted in space. He could now appear at will where he would and then disappear again.  Even a locked room was not a problem since Jesus appeared to his disciples inside as locked room and then He then disappeared again.

Quantum Mechanics provides a possible scientific description of these events. A particles wave function can have a high probability at one point and a low or non in another. If the waves swap positions then the probabilities would be swapped and a particle which is in the first position will instantly jumps to the other. If a wave function starts with a high probability outside a locked room and a low or zero probability inside a locked room and that wave function changes so that it has a high probability inside a locked room and a low or zero probability outside a locked room then the object would suddenly appear inside the locked room.

If Jesus started out side a locked room His body would have wave function starts with a high probability outside the locked room and a low or zero probability inside the locked room. If He could change His wave function at will; not a stretch since He is God; to a high probability inside a locked room and a low or zero probability outside a locked room then He would suddenly appear inside the locked room. Changing His wave function back again He would then disappear again. This provides a possible scientific description of the post resurrection appearances and disappearances of Jesus. This is just a possible description of how He could do these things and in no way detracts from the miraculous nature of these events.

The existence of the soul and free will have come under attack by two philosophical concepts materialism and determinism. Materialism is the theory that the only reality that exists is physical matter and that everything can be explained in terms of matter physical phenomena including mind, thought, feeling, consciousness and will. Determinism is the doctrine that all events are fully determined by preceding events and conditions including human choices and actions.  As a result of these doctrines freedom of choice is considered illusory. It needs to be realized that modern studied of neurology do allow any consideration of dualism is dealing with the mind / brain issue. Only theories that assume from the start that them mind is nothing but a by product of the brain are allowed consideration so it is no surprise that there conclusion leave not place fore the sole or free will.

Both materialism and determinism fit well classical mechanics but quantum mechanics refutes both ideas. Under quantum mechanics the future position of a particle can not be determined precisely which refutes determinism. Under quantum mechanics particles do not have an exact position and can be everywhere at once which refutes materialism. By refuting materialism and determinism quantum mechanics also refutes the naturalistic view of the mind that is the idea that the mind is nothing but the neuron activity of the brain opening the door to two alternatives dualism and quantum mind theory. Dualism where the mind and brain are totally separate and quantum mind theory which depicts the brain as a quantum computer. Both ideas allow for free will and the possibility of life after death.

Quantum mechanics allows for a new theory of dualism where the mind and brain are separate but connected by quantum entanglement. Quantum mechanics then becomes the means of mind / brain interactions.  Based on this view mind is not limited to the brain thus can have free will and survive the death of the brain.

Quantum mind theory says that the mind results from quantum activity in brain. Basically the brain is seen as quantum computer where quantum indeterminately allows for the possibility of free will. Quantum nonlocality and entanglement allows for the possibility of the mind surviving the death of the brain.

The point is quantum mechanics provides for the possibility of a non materialistic mind. So is there evidence for a quantum mechanical aspect to the brain. Yes: in he synaptic activity in the brain. Calcium ions that trigger exocytosis needs to cross a barrier to the synaptic vesicle and the Calcium ions can not classically cross this barrier. As a result quantum tunneling is needed fore the Calcium ions to cross this barrier but the odds of this occurring are 1 in 10,000,000.  The problem is that the functioning of the brain requires this quantum tunneling to occur on demand. The only way to get quantum tunneling on demand is for the mind to be able to control quantum events.

This means that the mind must be a result of more than synaptic activity. There needs to be an immaterial aspect to the mind that does not depend on the brain and that controls this quantum tunneling.

As a result quantum mechanics shows the Biblical view of man is possible. It allows for the possibility of free will and the possibility of an eternal soul.

The point is Quantum mechanics allows for possibilities that classical mechanics does not. Consider what a being with total control of quantum phenomenon could do such a being would literally be capable of miracles. For over 200 years the idea of miracles has been criticized. However quantum mechanics shows how miracles could be possible. It is actually powerful support for the truth of the Bible.

Monday, October 24, 2011

The EPA’s Carbon Dioxide Pollution Myth is Totaly Busted

The Environmental Protection Agency has declared that carbon dioxide is a dangerous pollutant and have started regulating it accordingly. This move is totally stupid since the notion of carbon dioxide being an air pollutant is absurd since carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring atmospheric gas that is exhaled by people and animals and is used by plants. Not only do plants thrive on higher levels of carbon dioxide it is not dangerous because you breathe it in and out in every breath of your life with no affects.

Carbon dioxide is actually the most natural atmospheric gas for terrestrial planetary. The Solar system has three terrestrial planets with substantial atmospheres two of them Mars and Venus have predominately carbon dioxide atmosphere. Even Earth would have a nitrogen / carbon dioxide atmosphere if it were not for plants producing lots of free oxygen. So once again the idea of dioxide as a pollutant is absurd.

Ok so what about climate change or global warming or what ever the flavor of the week may be? Now if you ignore the fact that the computer models used to support man caused global warming make the thermodynamically impossible assumption that as the global temperature raises the amount of heat lost to space is reduced and if you ignore Climate Gate which shows that climate data has been manipulated. Even if you ignore all this and take the proponents of global warming at their word, they are only predicting a rise in temperature comparable to that of the Medieval Warm Period. The Medieval Warm Period was actually beneficial allowing the Vikings to reach America and helping Europe recover from the black plaque and producing increased food production and prosperity.  So once again carbon idea of dioxide being a pollutant is absurd.

So why did the EPA take such a ludicrous step? The answer is Cap and Trade. President Obama could not get congress to pass Cap and Trade; a scam that would enrich those behind the plan at the expense of the U.S. economy. After congress refused to pass Cap and Trade seeing it as a job killer during a time of high unemployment President Obama used the EPA to do get it by way of regulation. The EPA ruling carbon dioxide as a dangerous pollutant is President Obama’s way of doing this.

References