h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

In the Old Testament of the Christian Bible in the Book of Job, God answers this question.

To paraphrase, He asks Job where he was when He created the Universe. Which I take to mean, shut up punny human, don't question me - I'm the boss!

Man, I love that mean and grumpy Old Testament God!

- X

A better interpretation I had explained to me once went: "Tell you what: here's what I can do. When you have the tiniest inkling of how I did that, then you can get back to me and we'll be able to talk the same language, as it were." A wee bit nicer, no?

And then Jesus (as the explanation went) was God's attempt to understand humanity, to brisge the gap.

I have a small question, relating to the above postings. (ish).

If we now know (through quantum physics etc) how to take things apart into the very small bits that make them up, and being able to take things apart is the 1st small step to putting them back together, then surely we have the tiniest inkling now.

So, does this mean quantum physisicits (sp!) only can talk to God on more equal terms, or that everyone in this world need to be able to dismember particles in order to truly have religion? Or.. I can go on with this argument, but all we are proving is that humans will argue over /anything/.

And that my friends, doesn't take much proving.

H&K
Z

Speaking from a failed minor in physics, I can safely say this: we don't have the tiniest inkling of a shard of a whisper of a hope of understanding how everything got put together, and we won't for centuries into the forseeable future, so the question is moot. We can take some things apart. We can even occasionally put things back together again. But we don't know why.

Put it this way: Why did the Big Bang?

Or how about this: Why are we here? If you actually take the time to look at the food chains, insects are abut a million times more efficient than we are. The Cockroach is the most highly evolved life form on earth. If every warm-blooded lifeform on earth disapeared, the ecosystems would carry on fairly well all by themselves. Sure, some plants would die because birds aren't crapping seeds, and there'd be a few population explosions, but that's it. We are moot.

Depressing, hey? Faced with that, God starts making sense.

This doesn't really answer the physics/God issue, but I for one have always found it interesting that physicists are about the only scientists that can talk about God without getting laughed at. They deal with the universe on such a fundamental level that a lot of them have no choice but to accept the fact that it couldn't have been an accident.

There is a question whether or not we are anywhere near the "smallest bits". Or indeed if there are any smallest bits. Bigger fleas have little fleas etc.

insects are more efficient? At what? Certainly not more efficient at colonising other planets, for example...

We know this, do we? Suppose insects lay eggs in the upper stratosphere, could they in fact be hoping that they may be being carried off to other planets?

Heck if we get bits of Mars rock landing on Earth anything is possible.

I can see gaping caverns in this suggestion but then who knows.