Friday, January 26, 2007

A little knowledge is a good thing

From what I glean in Scientific American, a favorite of mine, the universe consists of 95% or more Dark Matter and Dark Energy, neither of which we really have any good idea what is. Furthermore the entire universe will at some future time explode to the point where not just the atoms are scattered, but the atoms themselves and their component parts will utterly unravel and matter as we know it will cease to exist, as will presumably energy, time and space.

I'm glad God did not tell the ancient Hebrews this. If He told them that pi was 3, that's fine by me. It is a good start for engaging with the world.

The Buddha actually did tell his followers: "All composite things are subject to unraveling." And then he added: "Strive diligently!" and died. I am not sure they have yet managed to make sense of those two sentences, though they have tried for about 2500 years.