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sammy7, on 16 May 2012 - 08:46 AM, said:

There are two options here: either the universe is FAR FAR FAR older than 6,000 years, or God is a liar. Since God isn't a liar (by definition of the traditional YHWH as being morally perfect), that leaves us with only one option. It's a simple Disjunctive Syllogism:

OvL
~L
O


But how can we set up that initial disjunction? Well, it involves knowing a couple of things about physics, astronomy, and the Bible.


The speed of light is both constant and invariant. This follows directly from the Maxwell equations that describe how electric and magnetic fields behave and is the basis for one of the most well tested theories ever. If the speed of light weren't constant and invariant, your computer you use to read this post wouldn't work since it's based on the Maxwell equations.

Maxwell equations:






These are the equations that describe how electric fields and magnetic fields interact. Think of as describing whether or not a vector field is pointing inward or outward, think of as describing which in which direction and how tightly a vector field is curled, and think of as being the rate of change of the vector field. A vector field is a space where there is a vector at every point. A vector is a mathematical object with both a number and a direction. Having no charges to worry about with light, we can set the charge density equal to zero which makes the equations:






Now, let's take the curl of the curl equations and see what happens.




Since for any vector field V, we can write:




which we rearrange to get:




which are the electromagnetic wave equations. The speed term is where is the permeability of free space and is the permattivity of free space. Plug in the numbers and that's how we get c.

Do any of those numbers depend on the speed or reference frame? The answer to that question is "no".

Ok, the speed of light is constant. So what? Well, a lot of things.

And if we make the speed constant, we get simply D=ct where D is distance, c is the speed of light, and t is time traveled. This means we can only see things that are so far away from us. This means that, if the universe is only 6000 years old, we can only see things within a radius of 6000 light years.

Let's look at an example:

Supernova 1987A is a supernova that we saw happen in 1987. This supernova was 168,000 light years away from Earth. This means the supernova actually happened 168,000 years before 1987. This supernova is 28 times older than you say the universe is.

But what if God created the light on it's way for some mysterious reason?! Well, that seems like a good question. But, what did we see there prior to 1987? We saw a star. This star, according to your timescale never existed which means God would have been lying to us. God cannot lie and as Psalms 19 says, the heavens declare His glory and the firmament shows His handywork. The heavens say the universe is old....VERY VERY OLD.

I recently tried a pressure point for one of my chronic headaches and it did reduce the intensity significantly. Is that just placebo effect, or is something actually going on?

I've not really been able to find any information about acupressure. Everything that I can find just lumps it in as a type of acupuncture and either praises it as ancient wisdom or dismisses it offhand via the genetic fallacy. I can't find any actual rational discussion of what, if anything, actually happens when these nerve clusters are massaged.

Does putting pressure on nerve clusters do anything? Google searches for acupressure throw out mostly neurological uses, which makes me think there might be something to it. Things like pain, nausea, etc. Could massaging nerve clusters induce release of neurotransmitters or something?

Papers are welcome if you can find them.

Is it a sin to be rich?

"And, behold, one came and said unto him, Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? And he said unto him, Why callest thou me good? [there is] none good but one, [that is], God: but if thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. He saith unto him, Which? Jesus said, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Honour thy father and [thy] mother: and, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. The young man saith unto him, All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet? Jesus said unto him, If thou wilt be perfect, go [and] sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come [and] follow me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions. Then said Jesus unto his disciples, Verily I say unto you, That a rich man shall hardly enter into the kingdom of heaven. And again I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."-Matthew 19:16-24

The word for "rich" in verse 24 is "πλούσιος" which most certainly does not mean "greedy", in case you were wondering.

The same word shows up in Luke 6 when Jesus says "But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation".

Time and space are very similar things. So much so, in fact, that we treat them the same mathematically. But what are they? They are separations. Distance is the separation between objects within a state, and duration is the separation between states. The magnitude of both separations are relative and depend on the energy distribution within the reference frame of the observer.

How can one be outside of all separations. You cannot separate yourself without being separated. To speak of "outside" of the universe is to be unintelligible.

The typical answers for the shape of the universe are positive curvature, flat, and negative curvature. Is it possible that the curvature could be such that the entire universe is one closed timelike curve? One such that the Big Bang is caused by the Big Crunch? I'm not talking about a cylical model, but one where the end event and the beginning event are in fact the same event.

What would we need to look for to falsify this idea?