Posts by thatchickinpa

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I am struck by the comments of thatchickinpa regarding the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It drove me to a little bit of research.

It is an interesting structure, and I find it fascinating. But as you probably saw, there is doubt whether it even exists. More studies are needed using the THESEUS satellite which won't be put into orbit for at least another decade.

I am curious why you chose the quotes you did. Do you feel that they support your point?

If so, I will ask the same thing as before - how are these sourced? When I plug them into google, the first and third are referenced in two websites - one I've never heard of, the other simple wikipedia - neither which are sourced themselves. The second looks like it is from HuffPo where the scientist is just basically saying "I don't know how it came into existence" which is quite common in most scientific fields for new discoveries. More data is needed.

And the blurbs themselves aren't claiming or denying anything about the structure itself & the Big Bang, and therefore have no evidence attached to them.

My point is not to convince you or anyone else to accept the Big Bang as true. It is for those stumbling onto this thread who may not be sure to always question the facts presented, their sources, whether the points presented are cherrypicked, etc. While not believing the Big Bang happened probably won't hurt anyone, there are other cases of other science denial that could cause a lot of pain.

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In this presentation around the 45 minute mark that's where this really pops up. He starts talking about "universe" and seems to be referring to "observable universe" though the terminology to a layman is still as it was 2000 years ago - universe means everything.

I don't mean to sound like Cicero criticizing Epicurus, because it's perfectly acceptable to re-define your terms if you are going to be clear about it.

I haven't viewed it yet, but most physicists use "universe" as a shorthand for "observable universe". I think its because not much is really known about the universe outside of what can be observed, so it can be safely assumed. It is confusing for those outside the field though. IMO most technical experts are generally poor at communicating their findings outside of their fields.

Are there references to substantiate the claimed facts in this essay? For example:

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In any case, supercluster complexes have been observed - huge sheets of galaxies called ‘great walls’ stretching over a billion light-years of space. They take hundreds of billions of years to form. But the pathetic big bang is only 15 billion years old.

The largest known structure in the observable universe is the Hercules-Corona Borealis Great Wall. It is about 10 billion light years in length. I can find no reference to it - or any other structure in the universe - taking "hundreds of billions of years to form".

The age of the observable universe is approximately 13.8 billion years and is approximately 93 billion light years across (and expanding). There are explanations - supported by the math - as to why a simple speed of light and time calculation for distances does not work for determining its size (or distances).

Frequently Asked Questions in Cosmology

The observable universe means something different than "the universe", and the former is usually what is meant when people talk about it. Is it the former that is referred to in this essay?

The universe is potentially infinite - meaning that the size of the universe is currently unknown - and that link discusses it. The way I think of it is if I go outside in the dark with a candle, I only see as far as the light reaches. But there is more beyond it that I cannot see and is therefore unknown to me. As far as I know, there is only one constraint put on its age - it is at least 13.8 billion years old. It could possibly be infinite.

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But in the meantime, I am not going to let the Lawrence Krausses of the world bother me by injecting doubt as to the existence of a possible supernatural factor into my day to day life.

I have his book, A Universe from Nothing, on my bookshelf, but I haven't read it yet (so many books, so little time) so I can't really comment on his theories. Has Krauss claimed / implied a supernatural force was responsible or is this being inferred? From his talks with Dawkins (that I've seen), he rails pretty hard against such things.

As a disclaimer, I am not a cosmologist and don't pretend to know the field well. With my rudimentary understanding I don't see how believing the theory of the Big Bang is inconsistent with Epicureanism or suggests a supernatural force.

Hey there!

I live in the United States and work as an engineer, primarily writing software.

From reading previous welcome threads, my path here seems relatively common. I've explored various philosophies and recently listened to an audio book on Stoicism from the Great Courses. The instructor specifically called out why he was not an Epicurean - he wanted to be politically active which (he said) the philosophy frowned down upon. I didn't remember hearing about Epicureanism before, and didn't really think to look into it if I had, but inferred from his description that it was a philosophy that celebrated "partying" which honestly amused me so I looked it up.

After doing a bit of internet searching & reading, it seemed much different than I expected. So I found Emily Austin's book, Living for Pleasure, which was what I was looking for - a "conversational" & jargon free introduction to Epicureanism. After reading the book, I searched the r/Epicureanism subreddit to see if there were any discussions about it and stumbled onto a link to the Lucretius Today podcast of the two part interview with Dr. Austin. It is an excellent interview which I enjoyed very much, and I do hope she is invited back for another!

I am considering what I should read next. It seems that Epicurus and His Philosophy by Norman DeWitt comes highly recommended here, so I will probably move on to that next.

Thanks for hosting this website, the forums and the podcast. I am looking forward to learning from everyone here!