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Julie G.'s picture

Vastness

The universe is so incredibly big! I  believe this. I believe that the sky is not just a piece of fabric with elaborative glowing shapes painted onto it, but that it is the atmospheric lens for Space. I believe that Space is huge.

Why do I believe this? Is it because, as one of our classmates highlighted, this story of the universe is the "least wrong story" we have today? Maybe. I think there's so much more to find out. I think that, as another class-member suggested, this information is potentially falsifiable. Especially as regards the Big Bang Theory. I like that we have it, and that it was deduced by current observation, working backwards, but I think it's a little shaky. What existed before the Big Bang, and how did it get there? Emptiness tends not to explode. But I'm excited about that. I hope I see a new theory emerge in my lifetime.

 

I kind of like being a little uncertain about these things. We've seen a number of creation stories thus far, and I like how they show how our ideas have, and can change. I like the notion that we are comprised of our stories, because it means that we can change. I hope that I change. I'm sure I will.


I believe in my reality, as well as the malleability of that reality. I like to think that I am "insignificant" (one of the words from the Brain Drain) in the grand scheme of the universe . . . it takes a little pressure off. I am "small" to the universe, but I am "huge" in my life. The ones I care for are also, "tiny" compared to the universe, but they are "so much" to me.


But does that make "all truth relative" (as was proposed in Tuesday's class)? I'm not sure. In some ways, yes. In others, no. It makes me think of yet another Brain Drain word -- "proof." What is proof? I need proof. Proof is the difference between the blanket sky, or the lens sky. Proof is why I will fly in an airplane without thinking it will fall, or cook without thinking the stove will catch fire (theoretically! If I use it correctly). So what is this "proof" thing, and how does it relate to "truth?" Or faith? When something is proven, does that mean it is true, or just that we can have stronger faith in it? Is that what truth is? Is truth is just "the least wrong story" and as such, we believe it?

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