I know that it is partially due to errors in early scientific models, but our solar system seems to have a lot in common with an atom or cell. the oort cloud of asteroids could even be some sort of membrane. As things get larger and larger or smaller and smaller, there could be a pattern that holds up infinitely in both directions. Maybe there are tiny aliens living on electrons, who, five minutes from now will evolve into higher beings and organize sub-atomic particles into new cells. This could correspond with humans living on the planet Earth, who, in five zillion years will evolve into higer beings and say "let there be light" in order to create new universes. I mean, there must be some reason why god made us in his image and lets us fool around with evil.
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"This could correspond with humans living on the planet Earth, who, in five zillion years will evolve into higer beings and say "let there be light" in order to create new universes."
I am reminded of a very nice Asimov short story...
Ooooooh, what a wonderfully geeky, if amateurish, bit of speculation, right up until that final sentence; the poster's underlying assumptions presented there are what marks this as fundie commentary after all.
[SFnerd]The Golden Age science fiction story "He Who Shrank" by Henry Hasse follows this basic "worlds within atoms" idea quite nicely; it's cool, but hardly original (even if come by independently). The Asimov story to which Geek alludes is titled "The Last Question," by the way, and in my opinion is his very best, "Nightfall" being a close second.[/SFnerd]
~David D.G.
The Last Question is easily my favourite. I'm not as fond of Nightfall as a lot of others seem to be, though (not that it's bad, I just don't put it at the same level).
Anyway, I don't see this as at all fundie. It's actually a fairly sophisticated independent philosophical reasoning. I remember wondering about something like that as a kid, albeit I had the entire universe contained within a crystal ball, and our own universe would invent universes in crystal balls.
The things we do to escape the two contradicting intuitional problems: to our puny brains, it seems obvious that the universe cannot have started, and it cannot have always existed. Neither makes sense.
But, who said the universe had to make sense?
I have to say, this guy's scenario is a lot better sounding than "GOD is allt here is and he is infinite... oh well the universe cant be infinite... but the Bible tells us... I know the bible says that the Bible is right, thats how we know its right.... No you are a fucking retard whos going to Hell"
Yeah, except the fact that the atom is nothing like the solar system because electrons don't orbit the nucleus in fixed paths, but in an electron cloud.
There's really not that much difference. It's just a matter of scale - the combined uncertainty in position and momentum is insignificant for a planet-sized object moving at thousands of kilometers per hour, but it's pretty damn significant for an electron.
To those who say that this one "isn't very fundie," please reread that last sentence: "I mean, there must be some reason why god made us in his image and lets us fool around with evil." That's as solid a foundation of fundyism as one could ask for, in spite of the fact that his mind has a creative and analytical streak struggling to break free.
[SFnerd]Oh, and I just have to say that I am freaking thrilled to see that there are so many fellow Asimov fans here! I haven't felt this many sci-fi related warm fuzzies since I was last buried in tribbles![/SFnerd]
~David D.G.
This post is so illogical a five year old could point out its flaws, but I see no fundamentalism here, religious or otherwise. The very last sentence is strongly religious, and ties in nicely with the general simple mindedness of the rest of the post, but is it really fundie?
Oh, and he doesn't exactly have no problem with us "fooling around with evil", according to the relevant literature - he just thinks it's a much better idea to let us do bad things then punish us forever, rather than prevent us from doing it in the first place.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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