An Extremely Brief Look at the Big Bang: Part One

The current picture of the universe is one that had emerged from an approximately golf ball sized parcel of matter to explode into what is today our universe. All this occurred about fourteen billion years ago, and the universe has been expanding ever since. In the early moments (relatively) of the universe the planets began to form, and our current planet began to take shape around five to six billion years ago. Yet from this model there are some serious questions. The greatest and most perplexing is the ‘first cause’ question. How did the ball get there? The next question is why did it explode? Science has no answer to this only that it existed and it exploded.

This leads to a few other questions that must be addressed. The first of which, did the constants of nature (to borrow a phrase from Professor John D. Barrow) sort themselves out after the Bang, or are they the only constants that make sense in the universe. Some of the more important physical constants are α, ħ, G, and c to name a few. It could be argued that G is not a constant, but another essay, another time. But for the constants, would the universe function if α were two digits larger in the eightieth decimal place? One is inclined to say no, but a concrete answer is far from known. So, did the Big Bang breed these constants, or are these the only sets of numbers that will make the universe functional? I do not know the answer, but I am inclined to say that maybe a change in an insignificant decimal place will not affect the structure of the universe, but if G were larger in say the tenths place, life may not be able to exist on Planet Earth. The main question from this paragraph is are the constants concrete in the universe?

If the constants are concrete, who decided them? I will assume it was not Carrot Top, but if not him, then who did? Did God decide that Plank’s Constant had to be around 10-34? The short answer is we will never know, but it is worth investigating.

In this too brief for my liking (I am pressed for time and I desperately want to post something) post, the Big Bang model of the universe has begun to be investigated, and the question of if the Bang brought the constants to their final resting amounts, or if an intelligent being did, or randomness made the constants what they are. I intend to write much more on the subject but first I need more time and knowledge.

Biblical Wisdom Literature

At this time, I would like to take a short look at the wisdom literature of the Hebrew Bible. There are usually five book in this genre, and they include:

Psalms תהלים
Proverbs משלי
Job איוב
Song of Songs שיר השירים
Lamentations איכה
Ecclesiastes קהלת

My favourite book of the bible, and probably of all time, is the Kohelet, or Ecclesiastes. The book is a personal account of a man who travels around looking for wisdom. The book is saturated with wisdom anecdotes and wisdom quips, but overall the final message was a massive dissapointment. The author decides that happiness can only be attained by living a life insipred by God. This is similar to what Descartes and Kierkegaard formulated, the latter with his leap of faith and the former with his final analysis. It was a massive dissapointment, yet in my selfish and self-contradictory way I ignore the ending. I would like to examine a quote or two from Ecclesiastes.

And so I loathed life. For I was distressed by all that goes on under the sun, because everything is futile and pursuit of wind. (2.17)

Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my hert had great experience of wisdom and knowledge (lost the exact lines)

So I observed: wisdom is better than valor; but a poor man's wisdom is scorned, and his words are not heeded. (9.17)

So appreciate your vigor in the days of your youth, before those days of sorrow come and those years arrive which you will say, 'I have no pleasure in them'; before sun and light and moon and stars grow dark, and the clouds come back again after the rain: (12.1-12.2)

Of revelry I said, "It's mad!"Of merriment, "What good is that?" (2.2)

For in much wisdom in much grief: and he that hath increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow

For as wisdom grows vexation grows;To increase learning is to increase heartache. (1.18)

As I have demonstrated, with wisdom of Ecclesiastes is one that few can match. Even as an atheist, I am in awe of the book of Ecclesiastes, and it may be the greatest thing I have ever read. Only Beowulf and Hamlet can compete.

It is prudent to give a brief overview of the other wisdom books. I will save the book of Job for last, having it be the worst thing I have ever read besides Scott O'Dell's Island of the Blue Dolphins.

The book of Proverbs is a collection of wisdom poems, many of which are pure wisdom, as is Ecclesiastes, and others are wisdom of submission to God (Islamic doctrine ring a bell?).

The Song of Songs is more of a book of poems. I question its pure wisdom, but it is an impressive piece of love poetry worth reading. It is allegorical in a sense, but it can be intepreted literally. It is a field day for the poetry critic, but in terms of pure wisdom it is less grand than the other book, Job the exception.

Lamentations is an impressive work of theology but I am not currently educated enough in this to be able to discuss it.

The Psalms, writtten by any numbers of poets or psalmists are devotional literature. The wisdom outside of theological wisdom is fleeting, and it is difficult to analyse it from a purely philosophical standpoint. Either way, it is impressive and if one is a true believer in God they can be very moving. Psalm 23 has been immortalized in numerous sources, and the psalms are important in the bible.

I have saved the book of Job for last. The book of Job is the story of a man named Job who is God's puppet for proving to Satan that Job will beleive in God. Modern criticism has extreme trouble with Job. I say that it is impossible to reationalize it with other Jewish theology, and it is a piece of literature that should be ignored. The thought that God would stricked one of his most beloved and devoted children with great punishment to prove a point to Satan (who in Judaism should not exist) is preposterous. God should not play games with his children. So, Job is contradictroy to Jewish doctrine and one of the worst pieces I have ever read. It is sad that this is in the same book with the extreme masterpiece that is Ecclesiastes.

Bernhard Riemann: A Short Life in Mathematics

I wrote this piece for school, and I deem it blogworthy. I would like to write upon the history of mathematics, and this is a start on my favourite mathematician Bernhard Riemann.

In the nineteenth century, Germany produced the foremost mathematicians in the world. One of the most famous of these was Bernhard Riemann. He was born on September 17, 1826 in Germany. Riemann would go on to produce the greatest unsolved problem in mathematics (since Fermat’s Last Theorem fell to Andrew Wiles in 1994), the Riemann Hypothesis.
Riemann’s father was a pastor and hoped for his son to continue in his footsteps. So, when Riemann enrolled at the University of Göttingen he set out to study philology and theology. Yet once he attended lecture of the immensely influential Carl Friedrich Gauss, his interest shifted to mathematics. He wanted to switch his major, but feared his father would not support him. Yet he finally did ask him, and while his father was slightly disappointed he embraced his decision. Now Riemann could finally embrace mathematics. He also studied with the famous mathematicians Lejeune Dirichlet, Jakob Steiner and Ferdinand Eisenstein.
In 1854, Riemann developed the field of non-Euclidian geometry known as Riemannian Geometry. This is the field that in differential geometry (essentially geometry using calculus) that basically deals with curved surfaces and differential equations. It also is applicable in hyperbolic geometry, which is the field of geometry where the parallel postulate fails to hold true.
Riemann’s greatest contribution (in the opinion of many including myself) to mathematics was his 1859 paper “On the number of primes less than a given magnitude.”
In this he detailed the holy grail of mathematics, the Riemann Hypothesis:
Hitherto no mathematician has been able to write a proof if, when graphed, there is or a 0 on a real or imaginary axis that crosses the x-axis. The Zeta Function deals with the spacing of the prime integers.
The problem was brought to the forefront of the mathematical community by German mathematician David Hilbert in 1900, along with a list of 23 other problems. At the close of the twentieth century it was still unsolved and another committee of mathematical elite developed seven problems with a million dollar reward for solving them. So far no one has been able to solve anyone, and judging by the Gödel Theorem it is possible that no one will ever solve it. The practical ramifications of this is that if it is solved it may be the end of e-Commerce because people could potentially crack the codes that keep anonymity in fiscal transactions of the world wide web.
Riemann’s life was cut short in 1862 by tuberculosis. He had a wife and child at this time, and he was on his way to Italy. Throughout his mathematical career Riemann remained at Göttingen except for two years spent at the slightly more prestigious University of Berlin from 1847-1849. However, Göttingen will always be remembered for being home to two titans of mathematics: Carl Friedrich Gauss and Bernard Riemann. Riemann’s contributions to mathematics are wide ranging and everlasting, and it is remarkable all he contributed in his short life as a mathematician.