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Post by tolpuddlemartyr on May 15, 2010 2:10:40 GMT -5
Imagine a guy who gets into a time machine that reverses time. He steps in, and to him, when he steps out, he sees himself walking backwards out of the machine. In fact, everyone's moving backwards. Basically, time is going in reverse. To everyone else, of course, he looks like he's walking backwards. The man he sees walking backwards out of the machine, after five seconds, is him ten seconds ago. Does that make sense? Perfectly... (link very slightly NSFW)
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letipex
Full Member
The true ouroboros
Posts: 197
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Post by letipex on May 15, 2010 5:39:22 GMT -5
You can treat positrons as electrons traveling back in time, actually. It's kind of weird stuff. In fact, antimatter behaves the same way when time goes backward than matter does when times goes forward. That's a more correct way of putting it. A bit more mind blowing too, I guess. ^^ Physics is fun! But to answer the OP. I do believe. I have faith in something that permeates the whole of reality. A divine essence, if you will. I'd like to believe that this essence has a purpose, but I don't. I'm left with an amoral universe. A scary as it is, it can be pretty exiting.
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Post by Tempura on May 15, 2010 6:44:43 GMT -5
As for the question the OP asked: Yes, I want to believe. Or in better words - I believe some, but I wish I believed more. I don't mean gaining the sense of certainty where I can state my religion as a fact, but just for peace of mind. I consider myself a Christian, but I don't feel like one, or not good enough. I already know that it's a lifetime process for me. For me it's important to be searching, that there's always a chance to find something more in life too, not just in religion. I do believe in a soul, and I think Jesus as a character is very inspiring, and I have much respect for him.
I feel it's important for people that have faith/want to have faith - that they recognize it as a faith, not a fact (and I'm not saying peoples own experiences with spiritual things aren't fact for them). When you're dealing with a religious "fact", you're already there, if you know what I mean. You have nothing more to learn, or gain, spiritually.
I'm sorry if this makes no sense, english is not my first language. Didn't mean to preach aynone too, so don't be offended. And I already think that you people don't get offended by this. I tried christian forums just for curiosity. Most people seem to have good will there - even if I agree with them or not - and even some tolerance, but of course it's the fundies again that boiled my blood. I believe it was a thread called "who are your friends?" that really got me fucking angry. The drama has been deleted from the thread, but I really don't like people, who do not know me or my friends, to tell me that I have to find a way to "save" my friends, or else my love for them is meaningless and I am merely loving them to hell for eternal suffering. FUCK.
I'n new here, but It seems that there are every kinds of people here. Believers, Atheists, Heteros, Gays, but especially most of you people seem to have compassion. Compassion is so underrated in some circles.
That qualifies as a novel, I think. Sorry for that.
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Post by kristine on May 15, 2010 11:01:12 GMT -5
Imagine a guy who gets into a time machine that reverses time. He steps in, and to him, when he steps out, he sees himself walking backwards out of the machine. In fact, everyone's moving backwards. Basically, time is going in reverse. To everyone else, of course, he looks like he's walking backwards. The man he sees walking backwards out of the machine, after five seconds, is him ten seconds ago. Does that make sense? Now, to other observers, that aren't him, they see a man walk forwards into the machine the exact second another identical man walks backwards into the machine. That's when the man switches time flow. But as soon as they both step into the machine, they disappear forever - because the guy who was going forward flipped and is now going backwards. I hope I'm getting the message across. Now imagine that instead of a man walking forwards into the machine while his future self walks backwards into the machine, there is an electron going forward that touches a positron. When they meet, they disappear - the electron is now going backwards in time, as the positron. It doesn't necessarily mean anything, but that is one way to think about antimatter. I want to believe that but have seen no proof that exists...
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Post by cagnazzo on May 15, 2010 12:59:43 GMT -5
No proof that antimatter exists?
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Post by Vene on May 15, 2010 13:00:12 GMT -5
No proof that antimatter exists? I want you to prove to me that existence exists.
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Post by cagnazzo on May 15, 2010 14:00:29 GMT -5
No proof that antimatter exists? I want you to prove to me that existence exists. Well, in that case my philosophy minor will aid me in explaining to you that no one's ever managed to satisfactorily prove that, in the mathematical sense, though René Descartes managed what almost everyone accept as a proof of self existence.
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Post by shiftyeyes on May 15, 2010 20:52:27 GMT -5
Pretty common sort of thing for quantum-level operations. Stupid probabilistic universe! Actually, I think it's also because electrons are waves, not particles. . These are two ways to explain the same thing. Electrons appear to be waves b/c the universe is probabilistic or the universe appear probabilistic b/c what we think are waves are actually particles. Also, the story behind antimatter and travelling backwards in time is pretty cool. Dirac's fusion of special relativity and quantum (yes those are perfectly reconcilable; it's gen rel and quantum that don't mix) did not specify any spatial directions (which is good) or time directions (which isn't as good). So they allowed particles travelling the wrong way in time. Of course a negatively charged thing moving back in time looks just like a positively charged thing moving forward. The same applies for most other physical properties, mass and handedness (I think) excepted. Cagnazzo already did a great job explaining why they annihilate. There also were some conservation problems with beta decay. The predicted antimatter solved both of these. Like black holes, antimatter was predicted by theory before verified by equations.
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Post by cagnazzo on May 15, 2010 21:26:56 GMT -5
We use antimatter all the time, anyway. The P in PET scan stands for positron. Anyway, talking about matter waves just made me want to share this.
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Post by Dragon Zachski on May 15, 2010 22:23:02 GMT -5
We use antimatter all the time, anyway. The P in PET scan stands for positron. Anyway, talking about matter waves just made me want to share this. Okay, I managed to type into Ironbite's secret of resurrecting and-- *head asplode again*
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Post by MaybeNever on May 16, 2010 12:36:54 GMT -5
As for the question the OP asked: Yes, I want to believe. Or in better words - I believe some, but I wish I believed more. I don't mean gaining the sense of certainty where I can state my religion as a fact, but just for peace of mind. I consider myself a Christian, but I don't feel like one, or not good enough. I already know that it's a lifetime process for me. For me it's important to be searching, that there's always a chance to find something more in life too, not just in religion. I do believe in a soul, and I think Jesus as a character is very inspiring, and I have much respect for him. I feel it's important for people that have faith/want to have faith - that they recognize it as a faith, not a fact (and I'm not saying peoples own experiences with spiritual things aren't fact for them). When you're dealing with a religious "fact", you're already there, if you know what I mean. You have nothing more to learn, or gain, spiritually. I think you'll find that the majority of people here sympathize with this point of view. The problem, I think, with fundamentalists (of any stripe) is that they start from the position that they're right and everyone else is wrong, and go from there. There's no growth. There's no interest in the world outside of themselves. The idea that people who take this position have nothing more to learn or gain spiritually sounds just right to me. That's one of the reasons I love science so much. It's not about me, or any one scientist, it's about the world. You gather the facts, and then you figure out how they fit together. Everything's a puzzle, and every puzzle in the universe has some pieces we don't have yet, so we're always having to change and improve our understanding. I'm a pretty thorough atheist, simply because the natural world has a grandeur far greater than anything I could hope to create from my simple imagination. But I know that many scientists find religion acceptable, and in some sense I find it hard to blame them in a general sense - there is a great deal of beauty and orderliness* in the universe that can be highly suggestive. *OTHER THAN THOSE FUCKING QUANTUM MECHANICS
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Post by anti-nonsense on May 16, 2010 19:40:04 GMT -5
I want to believe during those moments when I feel depressed about my own mortality, but mostly I don't.
And mostly, it's not so much wanting to believe it as wishing it was true, I don't want to believe it if it's not true, because that's just a waste of my time and energy.
I wish a lot of things were true, but I have to face the fact that they aren't, I've never been able to ignore what I see and understand in order to believe something that doesn't have any evidence for it.
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Post by Deimos on May 16, 2010 19:57:10 GMT -5
I do, then I could blame a higher power for making me.
EDIT. Post 1000!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Tempura on May 16, 2010 23:34:52 GMT -5
That's one of the reasons I love science so much. It's not about me, or any one scientist, it's about the world. You gather the facts, and then you figure out how they fit together. Everything's a puzzle, and every puzzle in the universe has some pieces we don't have yet, so we're always having to change and improve our understanding. Why wouldn't you love science? I have never seen science as an enemy of faith, at least not for me. I don't get people that fear and condemn science with such dedication, and yet at the same time, they have electricity, running water, computers, medication, cars, phones and whatever someone sometime has invented. If someone (like you, perhaps, since you love science) has the brains, imagination and motivation, why should he/she waste his/her talent? Best Case scenario - you will contribute to the world. And I have always wanted a lightsaber. Everyone wants a lightsaber. Darth Maul's lightstaff is for pussies.
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Post by Vene on May 16, 2010 23:41:38 GMT -5
I don't get people that fear and condemn science with such dedication, and yet at the same time, they have electricity, running water, computers, medication, cars, phones and whatever someone sometime has invented. Oh, that one's easy. All those examples are technology, not science. And science, as we all know, is completely divorced from science.
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