God is a “flat space” — a void trying to fill itself with 92 per cent hydrogen. 

 

I mean that the universe is an accidental weirdo disc with a variable thickness and with no intent nor purposes. It is made of various states and combinations of this massive amount of hydrogen with helium coming second at 7.9 per cent of the total substance or 90 per cent of the rest. So the universe is like a gas combo with some bitsy grit, trying to fill a void with no limits. Because it sort of spins around, the universe flattens out. Modern space theories cannot give the universe a curvature, because it is said that this would make it finite. But space-time is curved according to the very entertaining theory of general relativity. This is not a contradiction in scientific interpretation. 

 

Observations are complicated by the fact that there is no evident scalar relationships between the universe itself and the small bits that make the universe. Atoms are not small universes. While atoms could deemed to be “spherical” packet of energy, the universe is pseudo-flat, like a giant galaxical conglomerate of billions of galaxies, themselves made of the hydrogen/helium gaseous mix.

 

So, the big bits of the universe are made of many small bits in great numbers — all making oozing condensing relationships between hydrogen and helium. This eventually lead to the formation of other components — stars of various shape and sizes, like our sun which is considered to be a small star. Some bigger heavier stars “fabricate” (and have fabricated before our sun was even “born”) the other 92 “natural” elements — which we can observe on the local scale — with high temperature and gravitational pressure. Silica is only 0.000025 part of the universe. Iron is about 0.000018 part of the universe, while oxygen is a bit less than 0.00008 part of the universe. As the universe modifies in long-timed slow eddies and “changing blots”, stars can collapse into “black holes”. 

 

In black holes, gravity is superior to that of the energies that stabilise atoms and is superior to the escape velocity of photons which get trapped inside a small super-dense soup of the smallest elements of matter, quarks. Yet, gravity is the weakest force in the universe though the gravity field controls the shape and momentum of the universe.

 

At this stage, the “cosmos” has been imagined to be divine, by various scholars and theorists, including silly religious mobs, but sciences tell us that the big bang theory (BB) holds a greater amount of truths that cannot be denied. Mathematics can give us a reasonably precise historical perspective of a few nanoseconds after the big bang which some adventurous scientists equate to the forces of energy and anti-energy battling it out to create a reality — an accident with no intent.

 

The fast expanding hot but cooling universe was opaque for a short time until the “(re)combination” of electrons and protons (probably the most stable composite particles in the universe) created hydrogen atoms and allowed photons a clear passage through. “And there was light”. Actually photons were “always there” but could not travel far, due to the “foggy” state of the universe with loose disorganised particles, mainly electrons in search of a mate (proton). The cooling of the universe became what we know today, measured at 2.5 Kelvin by observation of the background microwave (or the whatever) with minute (observed and expected) variations in various regions of the cosmos.

 

In this “universal” evolution with spectacular change of status (cooling and expansion over 13.8 billion years), other level of energies under specific conditions (heavy stars, etc) could condense other elements including those that are unstable, such as some uranium isotopes.

 

We also know through mathematical models that there is still some anti-energy and anti-matter lurking inside “our” universe. It’s cunningly hidden from view because so far we have not developed technologies that allow us to see these anti-thingies. There is some “dark matter” because our precise complex calculations are correct and tell us so... 

 

At the infinitesimal scale, we enter a different form of inter-relationships. Quantum mechanics give us accurate ways to quantify these energies. Electricity, nuclear and mechanical energies being some of them. So far the “standard model” of QM is quite clear in allowing us to make predictions such as the Higgs boson in the early 1960s and find Higgs boson through statistical experimentation in 2013. Other predictions such as the graviton could upset the “standard model” but so far no graviton has been found.

 

Here we need to reiterate that there is no intent, nor purpose in the “combinations” of atoms, nor in the universe itself. There is also an immense possibility to the several billion factor that “planet Earth” is not unique. Evolution on these other “worlds” would be, could be, may be of a different but similar trend, because of variability in the environmental factors and of local availability of elements — but most basic elements only combine in specific orders. 

 

That a god decided to torture us, humans, with pain and death in a small corner of a small galaxy does not make any sense at all. It would not make any sense either on another planet. That a god decided to allow us to kill non-believers to go to a banquet with umpteen virgins when we die is also totally ludicrous. But these silly “visions” give some of us the comfortable delusions to accept the unacceptable. 

 

This is where the question “— this universe of one and only living reason?”... by poet Mykola Bazhan is most important. It is the conclusion of a poem published in a science fiction framework. It has the right tone for asserting that what is our reason may not be the reasons on other living planets. We need to be more analytical of our own position to understand while managing imagination through proper knowledge.

 

Our human bio-story is linked to enzymes. The evolution of enzymes is fascinating. Enzymes are basic proteins that have survived the harsh hot earth and some of the coldest environments on earth. The relationships between enzymes and other proteins such as DNA in time are formidable and precise. Several complex bio-reactions (such as DNA duplication et al) should take several million years to process on their own. The proximity of specific enzymes speed up this “reaction time’ to less than a millisecond or so. Such enzymes are evolutionary catalytic time savers. 

 

Imagination is better than knowledge?... We know. One problem which rises from this fine statement is that religious beliefs, born in imagination because of the lack of knowledge, became stale and static with dictums that do not fit the observation of the next.

 

Since the 18th century, all religions have tried to do catch up with scientific knowledge and imagination, but they are stuck in the mud of their nonsensical interpretations that are stylistically and interpretively deficient. The universe cannot be “intelligent”. It is disorganised and chaotic. As I have said many times, we can see the universe but the universe cannot see us.

 

At least the Roman poet Manilius had a more elegant interpretation of the world in which the divine had no involvement in sin nor redemption nor purpose of adoration. The divine could be the universe itself or a divine creation “just to be” — as is. Whatever...

 

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(Adapted from Wikipedia):

 

According to Volk, “the basic tenet of what we might call Manilius’ natural philosophy is the idea that the universe is divine”. However, there is some discrepancy in the Astronomica as to the presence of the divine in the universe. In his first book, for instance, Manilius, while discussing the argument from design, claims that the perfectly regular movement of the heavenly bodies is proof enough that the universe is not just the product of a god, but rather some sort of god itself (mundum ... ipsum esse deum). 

 

However, later in the same book, Manilius argues that the universe is the “work of a great divinity” (magni ... numinis ordo). Concerning this inconsistency, Volk writes: “It is clear that there is a certain elasticity to Manilius’ concept of the divinity of the universe ... Is the world simply ruled by a diuinum numen or is it a deus itself?” Volk answers that in the cosmology of the Astronomica, “god can be understood as the soul or breath ...  present within the world [and] since this divine entity completely pervades the cosmos, it makes equally much sense to call the cosmos itself a god.”

 

This interpretation of the universe—which states that it has a sense of intellect and that it operates in an orderly way— allows Manilius to contend both that there is an unbroken chain of cause and effect impacting everything within the cosmos, and that fate rules all.

 

It is the prevailing belief of critics that the world view espoused by Manilius in the Astronomica is Stoic.

 

A comparison between Manilius’s beliefs and those of other Stoics reveals parallels that, according to Volk, “are immediately obvious”. For instance, Stoics and Manilius agree on: the divinity of the universe, the argument from design, the assumption that the supreme god is both the creator of as well as the active force within the universe, the interconnectedness of everything, the understanding that humans are intimately connected to the cosmos, the importance of considering the heavens, and the belief in an inescapable fate that rules over all.

 

The agreement on this latter point is of special importance, as, according to Volk, belief in fate is “one of the most notorious aspects of the Stoic system”.

 

There are dissenting minority opinions. In 1887, against the common opinion of scholars at the time, Gustave Lanson contested the idea that the poem is Stoic. More recently, in 2005, Alexander MacGregor argued that while contemporary scholars, such as Goold and Volk, read Manilius as a Stoic, the Astronomica actually breaks with or contradicts Stoic tradition in a number of places.

 

Namely, Manilius exalts Plato, Socrates, and Pythagoras. He also  proposes a Platonic proof for the existence of God — the conclusion that God exists comes from premises which are from sources other than observation of the world — e.g., from reason alone. In other words, the argument comes from nothing but an a-priori premise that God exists;

 

Manilius denies the ekpyrosis (ekpyrosis — the universe is caught in an eternal cycle of fiery birth, cooling and rebirth); 

 

Manilius never discusses the six Stoic paradoxes. 

(i) that virtue is the only good; (ii) that a man who is virtuous doesn’t lack anything for the happy life (external conditions are indifferent); (iii) that all bad actions are equal, and so are all the good actions (i.e., there is no gradation of good and bad); (iv) that every fool is a madman; (v) that the wise man alone is free, everyone else being a slave; and (vi) that the wise man alone is rich. 

 

And Manilius ignores the importance of controlling the soul. 

 

Manilius also espouses a number of decidedly Pythagorean tenets, such as: the Pythagorean order of the planets; the importance of geometry and numbers; and the significance of tetraktys (a triangular figure consisting of ten points arranged in four rows: one, two, three, and four points in each row, which is the geometrical representation of the fourth triangular number).  

Finally, in key places, Manilius makes use of non-Stoics like Eudoxus of Cnidus and Cicero. Given these factors, MacGregor concludes that Manilius should be classified as a idealistic Pythagorean or a Platonist rather than a stoic.

 

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At this level, another commentator on Manilius poetry, A E Housman (1859-1936), showed how he could bite his colleagues of letters in his Preface to Manilius :

 

It has become apparent what the modern conservative critic really is: a creature moving about in worlds not realised. His trade (the critic) is one which required, that it may be practised in perfection, two qualifications only : ignorance of language and abstinence from thought. The tenacity with which he adheres to the testimony of scribes has no relation to the trustworthiness of that testimony, but is dictated wholly by his ability to stand alone ... And critics who treat MS (manuscript) evidence as rational men treat evidence, and test it by reason and by knowledge which they have acquired, these are blamed for rashness and capriciousness by gentlemen who use MSS (manuscripts) as drunkards use lamp-posts, — not to light them on their way but to dissimulate their instability.

 

Stoic or not, Manilius ignored the attractive tenets of “modern religions” which are designed for controlling the soul or the mind of others for some gain, including profit, war, slavery and sexism. 

 

The controlling artifice is simple: you’re in pain and you are going to die. Believe in god and you will live forever. We take cash and you are “one of us” in our book.

 

The story-line is simplistic: your ancestors goofed in paradise. Since then, their descendants, including you, are tainted with this original sin. The only way for you to erase their mistake, now a black spot on your own soul, is to believe in the redemptory son of god who was pinned to a cross, 2017 years ago. We take your cash to build temples dedicated to this false premise — in which the reality of evolution is completely ignored.

 

All these stories, including the umpteen virgins for the dead Muslim fighter, are a lot of crap. They don’t make any sense but they capture the simple minds, eager to have a comfortable yet fake crutch to understand a universe that really has no intent nor purpose — but is providing an unintentional platform for great imagination based on an hydrogenous gas. 

 

— This universe of one and only living reason?

 

Many living things but no single reason for being so.

 

Gus Leonisky

Your local atheistic existentialist. 

 

 

Further reading:

 

• Big Bang · Universe
• Age of the universe
• Chronology of the universe

Early universe

• Inflation · Nucleosynthesis

Backgrounds

• Gravitational wave (GWB)
• Microwave (CMB) · Neutrino (CNB)

Expansion · Future

• Hubble's law · Redshift
• Metric expansion of space
• FLRW metric · Friedmann equations
• Inhomogeneous cosmology
• Future of an expanding universe
• Ultimate fate of the universe

Components · StructureComponents

• Lambda-CDM model
• Dark energy · Dark fluid · Dark matter

Structure

• Shape of the universe
• Galaxy filament · Galaxy formation
• Large quasar group
• Large-scale structure
• Reionization · Structure formation