Pale Blue Dot

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Hermann said:
As far as we know, this pale blue dot of ours is the only place in the universe where the universe has become consciously aware of itself. Ever human brain is a sense organ, governing the individual organism to which it is attached. But, above and beyond that, each individual brain and organism is also a cosmic sense organ experiencing the universe uniquely, and the universe is experiencing itself uniquely in and through it.

And, if the universe is self-creative--as it appears to be--and the self-creative universe is regarded as God, then every one of us experiences God uniquely, and God is experiencing ITself uniquely in and through every one of us. And everyone and everything is also inseparably united within this eternally self-creative singularity called God.
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How small is small? How large is large? My own little view of the Universe(s) is that everything is connected to everything, so I am a part of everything and everything is part of me. We humans, with what we perceive to be highly functional brains, learn about the empirical universe(s) by measuring. So how far is it to the closest star from earth? On average, about 8 Light Minutes. The closest star is the one we call `Sun'. The Voyager 1 is approaching 20 Billion km away from us and the (reflected) light from earth takes about 18 hours to reach it. So it's about 18 Light Hours away. It took 38 (Earth) years for Voyager to get there. When we look up to the sky from earth, we are looking across time. The distance to the second closest star is 4.2 Light Years (approximately). It is called Proxima Centauri, a dim red dwarf star in the Alpha Centauri star system. We see it as it was 4.2 years ago! Here's some further distances to consider. All are approximate. Remember that as each distance listed increases, so does the time for the light to reach our human eyes. The distance is also how long ago we are viewing or measuring the object listed:
Farthest individual star visible to the naked eye: 2000-4000 Light Years. We see things from before the time that Jesus walked on Earth (and/or water?) with our own eyes. If you count the nebula and star clusters that we can see with our own eyes, the time and distance we see is 15 million Light Years! Estimated age of the universe, about 18 Billion light years. I cannot see that far. But parts of me are that old!

Atoms always existed - even before we `discovered' them. How small is small? How large is large? It is fantastic to be a part of IT all.
 
The pale blue dot makes us all humble, or at least it should. The idea that God has only manifested once, as the "one and only" Son of God seems less likely to me when I see this pale blue dot.
 
Void said:
How small is small? How large is large? My own little view of the Universe(s) is that everything is connected to everything, so I am a part of everything and everything is part of me. We humans, with what we perceive to be highly functional brains, learn about the empirical universe(s) by measuring. So how far is it to the closest star from earth? On average, about 8 Light Minutes. The closest star is the one we call `Sun'. The Voyager 1 is approaching 20 Billion km away from us and the (reflected) light from earth takes about 18 hours to reach it. So it's about 18 Light Hours away. It took 38 (Earth) years for Voyager to get there. When we look up to the sky from earth, we are looking across time. The distance to the second closest star is 4.2 Light Years (approximately). It is called Proxima Centauri, a dim red dwarf star in the Alpha Centauri star system. We see it as it was 4.2 years ago! Here's some further distances to consider. All are approximate. Remember that as each distance listed increases, so does the time for the light to reach our human eyes. The distance is also how long ago we are viewing or measuring the object listed:
Farthest individual star visible to the naked eye: 2000-4000 Light Years. We see things from before the time that Jesus walked on Earth (and/or water?) with our own eyes. If you count the nebula and star clusters that we can see with our own eyes, the time and distance we see is 15 million Light Years! Estimated age of the universe, about 18 Billion light years. I cannot see that far. But parts of me are that old!
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Does time exist in space? Can we know the past present and future all at the same time? How do we know what part of time we are in?
 
Waterfall said:
Does time exist in space? Can we know the past present and future all at the same time? How do we know what part of time we are in?
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Perhaps another way to ask the question would be `Does space exist in time?' Time is a measuring tool. It is unlikely that it existed before creation - Big Bang or `Let there be light'- whichever suits you. After all, what would there be to measure? No events = no duration = no time. Time is a constant. We and Everything travel through it. Time does not fly. It doesn't stand still. It is not bent by gravity or any other force. It can appear to bend, be slowed or sped up to an observer but only relative to the observer. Time simply exists.

`You see what you want to see, and you hear what you want to hear...'
(Thank you to Harry Nillson - The Point). We live in the present. Because it has already happened, we can observe the past from the present. If we look to the sky, we can see `far ago'... my reference is to the space/time continuum. I believe the future would be observable from the present, if we were to be moving at the speed of light. Light seems to define the division between dimensions. Our eyes cannot see one dimensional objects. It's just not the nature of the equipment. We can see only one face of two and three dimensional objects. You cannot simultaneously see the front and back of a human being (3D object). Nor can you see the front and back of a shadow (2D object) - not without changing something for the observer. Ah, that relativity thing. I chose those two objects to illustrate that light is the division between those two dimensions. If you pass light over a 2D object the result is a 1D object. Our eyes are not equipped to see a direction or a location, so we express these as lines and points in geometry - another human measuring tool. So to `view' the future in a human physical way we would need to be traveling at the speed of light. What do we need to do that? Because mass increases with the velocity of an object, you either need no mass, which I think is pretty much impossible for a (current) human, or you need access to an unlimited power source to attend to the increase in mass as you approach the speed of light. So, can we physically observe the future from the present? Not likely in this human form. I think the best we can do is feel a part of the past, present and future. Do clairvoyants see the future? or do they feel the future? For me, my form of meditation allows me to blend in with the universe. Do I `see' the future? Not really and how would I know - until I got there? But it's kind of reassuring that the components that make up Void have always, and will always BE. It is a closed system, this all inclusive Everything, so for me, it's not necessary or likely that it will always be in this form, called here, `Void'.

It's movie time for Null Ann (Mrs. Void) and I. Tonight, she can decide if we watch the past or the future, here in these moments of the present.
 
Waterfall said:
Does time exist in space? Can we know the past present and future all at the same time? How do we know what part of time we are in?
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For me, belief in an eternal God is the belief that there is a realm which exists beyond time, in which past, present and future indeed wrap themselves around each other, so to speak. There is also a realm in which space has no meaning. Everything is together all at once. It is the basis for me of my belief in God's omniscience. My belief in God's grace assures me that at some point I will exist in that realm. In what form, I can't be sure, but I believe that I will and that I will be conscious of it. How that will happen I am content to leave to God.
 
Thing is, such a realm may be possible scientifically. If our universe was indeed spawned from a black hole in a "higher" universe (the theory is that our 3D universe was spawned from the singularity of black hole in a 4D universe), then that means an existence beyond our universe and, likely beyond that one and beyond that one and so on. Time and space for us and our Universe began with the "Big Bang" but universes have likely been appearing in various forms forever. Now, where a God like the Christian one would fit into that picture is a matter of faith, not science.
 
Void said:
How small is small? How large is large? It is fantastic to be a part of IT all.
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"Small" and "large" are relative to each other, and relative to the viewpoint of the observer, and space and time may just be human inventions: cosmic analyses we have created to enable us to analytically comprehend a universe that is beyond analytical comprehension. And if this incomprehensible universe really is an inseparably unified whole in an ultimate state of synthesis, then we are not only part of IT--we are IT!


Getting IT

IT is we; we are IT.
We can't comprehend IT without experiencing IT,
But we can experience IT without comprehending IT--
For we are IT!

IT reveals everything;
IT explains nothing.

The interpretations
Of ITs revelations
Are our creations.

-Hermann


I don't mean to say that the cosmic analysis is not true. If the cosmic analysis is undertaken according to the principles of logic, and the scientific method is strictly followed, then the cosmic analysis is analytically true. But if the universe is in an ultimate state of unity or synthesis, then the cosmic synthesis is the ultimate and higher Truth. (And is goes without saying that synthesis is antithetical to analysis.)

Then there are two diametrically opposed types of truth: small t truth and capital T Truth: analysis and synthesis: duality and nonduality; with the analysis being relatively true--relative to the viewpoint of the observer--and the synthesis absolutely True. But absolute cosmic Truth can only be experienced, and is being experienced, in the pure, unconceptualized experience of reality.
 
Neo said:
The pale blue dot makes us all humble, or at least it should. The idea that God has only manifested once, as the "one and only" Son of God seems less likely to me when I see this pale blue dot.
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Why does seeing the dot affect you in that way?
 
Pr. Jae said:
Why does seeing the dot affect you in that way?
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It's because it reminds me of the vastness of it all. Astronomers calculate that there are some 100 billion stars in our Galaxy and that there are some 100 billion Galaxies in the Unverse. This vast number, a 1 with 22 zeros, speaks for itself. I believe it makes more sense to see the difference between the Christ, and ourselves as a "degree of awareness" than to believe that there is one, and only one Son of God. In other words, we are all children of the God, the Universe. The only difference, I believe, is that the Christ was aware of His association and His identification with God, whereas we are not. At least, not yet.
 
Waterfall said:
Prove it.
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Actually, time is one of those things that is still up in the air.

It is a way of measuring motion, but it is also relative suggesting there is more to it than that. If you travel fast enough, time measurably slows down (in fact, time is slower for a faster moving object at any speed but it's not measurable at the speeds we are used to dealing with day by day). That's from Special Relativity and it is proven. In fact, we use it everyday to keep our GPS satellites' clocks synchronized with our Garmins and iPhones. Because the satellites move at a high velocity relative to ground stations, their clocks slow down relative to the clocks in the ground stations, requiring us to build in a correction that is calculated using some of Einstein's math. At the speed of light, time stops completely (ie. photons, the only objects that move that fast, do not experience time at all). Technically speaking, if you could exceed the speed of light, time would flow backwards for you but that, among other paradoxes that arise, is why Einstein hypothesized that exceeding the speed of light is impossible.

Some suggest that there is no time, but that all times exist simultaneously and what we perceive as "time" moving is really us moving through space within time. They even have math to show how you can derive the time dilation effect (what I talked about above) from this position.

And there are other takes on it.

Everyone involved in physics and cosmology agrees that there is "time" but exactly what it is and how it operates is still elusive.

So I'd say @Void is basically right and, yet, it can't be proven yet and may, in fact, end up being wrong.
 
PS. I have a love-hate relationship with theoretical physics. The ideas fascinate and astound me to no end but they also threaten to break my brain at times. :confused:
 
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