Cosmology

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

deja vu — Thu, 15 Mar 2007 09:57:45 GMT

The idea occured to me once that the large parts of the brain that i've heard it said are unused or redundant might in some sense mirror the apparent massiveness of the universe or the dark stuff you are talking about or might mirror the history of the universe in some way.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

Pavan Keshavamurthy — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 09:40:18 GMT

Indeed. you're right on xtopher.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

xtopher — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:37:06 GMT

The Sanskrit word prana, meaning the universal life force, also literally means breath, doesn't it, Pavan?

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

Pavan Keshavamurthy — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 06:51:42 GMT

Seems like the discussion's venturing out of phsics unto metaphysics..

The concept of the soul.. something really more in the mind than anything else would probably better fall under the genre of mind, consciousness and neuroscience.. There're a whole bunch of people digging up new things in this domain.. A field so vast it seems, the arguments about unpercieved dimensions and the intricacies of life are really something fantastic.. There're hundreds of thousands of great books on it which make claims anything from utterly convincing to truly shocking.

All though none I've come across make any direct references in the cosmological context.. I'm sure (atleast me .. the kind who're always on the look out for ubiquitous hierarchy in the universe.. And I believe thats the trait of qite a lot of ppl) it'll spring up in some corner of your mind to extend these things beyond to the cosmological context.

So far as to cite a reference, Please google Subhash Kak.. Try finding some of his books on eSnips.. I'll assure they'll be worth a read.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

starramus — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:11:02 GMT

Not so. Curved space is a common concept in cosmology and extrapolating this to time (as it is nothing but another dimension) is easily performed. Visualizing the universe as a hypersphere curving back in upon itself and then adding time too into this mix makes time endless and yet a finite quantity. I do not view this as a fantastic departure from a soundly materialistic and scientific view of the universe. Nothing like the wildly imaginative and unrealistic human invention of "the soul".

Feel free to consider this just my opinion, and as they say "everyone has an opinion just like a certain body part." However there is direct evidence of those body parts, but i am yet to meet anyone with a substantive and provable soul.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

astronewbie — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 04:56:58 GMT

Bending time like a circle is as weird as assuming soul as dark matter. Though some sci-fi movies give the illusion of going back and forth in time, did anyone have practically done it ? Hence I would assume 'forever' is still undefined and 99.99999% of the universe (or multiverse) is still a mega unknown to humans. There seem to be so many things hidden in the universe which cannot be felt, heard or tasted as in the case of dark matter and dark energy. To prove that these things exist is the similar to ask someone to prove time travel.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

starramus — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 19:47:59 GMT

When one bends time into a circle forever can easily be understood. As for love I reduce it to testosterone euphoria or reproductive strategy of the Kappa rather than the Rho type. My world view may be somewhat stark, but more realistic than sugar plum fairies dancing in my head. Be it they are made of dark matter, dark energy, or some other illusive substance. If i cannot see it, hear it, feel it, taste it, IT DOES NOT EXIST!

Pie in the sky is only the fruit of an overactive human imagination. We have too many brain cells in our heads being utilized for magical thinking.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

buddymydog — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 02:12:11 GMT

Can man in his own limited reasoning understand what forever is or love or any other mysteries of the universe , I find that as a christian myself, that a man with an experiance in never at the mercy with a man with an argument. So a good question would be when your last breath expires out of your lungs, then where will your dark matter go. JJG

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

starramus — Sat, 26 Aug 2006 22:30:41 GMT

That's OK hurren. We have a revolving door policy here at the cosmology forum for spooks. They come and they go all varieties. At times you might think it were Halloween.

Regards and clear skies,

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

hurren — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 19:08:14 GMT

I didn't mean to gourge this forum with 'spooks'. I just wanted to see if anyone else had read this type of article.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

quarkstar — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 18:27:25 GMT

oh i still contend dark energy and dark matter are mistaken and problematic on their own besides the problems they're purportedly invented to fix. but doing the math is a real bear. in that sense i could mention soul.

seems heart mind soul spirit are all in the brain.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

starramus — Thu, 24 Aug 2006 03:46:22 GMT

recarrion wrote:
It's too easy to call dark energy as human soul's home. Many years ago I read K Tsiolkovsky and found a lot of interesting things there. I'm going to re-read some. There was original opinion about dark matter and dark energy as I realized now.

Dark energy must exist as we see a result of its presence. We do observe the universe accelerating in its expansion. The illusive human soul however is an imaginary quantity that does not exist in reality. It is only the fruit of an overactive human imagination. It does not mesh with dialectical materialism. More spooks snd spirits once again haunting the cosmology forum.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

recarrion — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 20:30:39 GMT

It's too easy to call dark energy as human soul's home. Many years ago I read K Tsiolkovsky and found a lot of interesting things there. I'm going to re-read some. There was original opinion about dark matter and dark energy as I realized now.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

Spacer — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 06:06:11 GMT

Call me ignorant but I thought that "dark energy" had been identified as "vaccuum energy", what is often called "zero point energy". It certainly qualifies: according to Quantum Mechanics it is the implicit and irreducible energy of empty space, and manifests as a sort of negative energy: without it, space is "emptier" than empty. With it, there is a force that tends to expand space.

Re: Dark energy and the human soul

cyris8400 — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 02:41:31 GMT

"Dark matter" and "dark energy" are called such because we can't see them directly but we can see the effect they have on luminous objects.

In another thread, I jokingly spoke of reasons why we don't call dark matter and dark energy "God matter" and "God energy," but it seems like some actually want to use that line of reasoning.

Wikipedia has a relevant entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps

[God of the gaps] refers to a theistic position that anything that can be explained by human knowledge is not in the domain of God, so the role of God is therefore confined to the 'gaps' in scientific explanations of nature.

"God of the gaps" is often used to describe the perceived retreat of religion in the face of increasingly comprehensive scientific explanations of natural phenomena. An example of the line of reasoning starts with the position that early religious descriptions of objects and events (such as the Sun, Moon, and stars; thunder and lightning) placed these in the realm of things created or controlled by a god or gods. As science found explanations for observations in the realms of astronomy, meteorology, geology, cosmology and biology, the 'need' for a god to explain phenomena was progressively reduced, occupying smaller and smaller 'gaps' in knowledge. This line of reasoning commonly holds that since the domain of natural phenomena previously explained by God is shrinking, theistic or divine explanations for any natural phenomenon become less plausible.

Of course, souls are different than God, but the premise is the same.

It's also noteworthy to address the topic of where exactly the concept of souls, spirits, and ghosts originated.

In ancient times, people defined "alive" or "dead" by breath, and over time, breathing became associated with soul. Living things breathed, dead things didn't, so they thought that breath itself was the essence of life. Note the similar spelling between spirit and respiratory.

Also, this is the origin of the etiquette of saying "[God] bless you" after someone sneezes, as early Christians believed that a sneeze forcefully ejected your spirit from your body, momentarily rendering your body soulless. The blessing was too prevent ever-lurking demonic spirits from possessing your temporarily vacant body.