God sucks!

[Locutus]

< Interjection >

Star Trek fans know that V-ger eventually will return with everything there is to know. 

< /Interjection >

[Bo D]

Unfortunately, it's most likely going to take a few more thousand years. 

My guess is that it will take far longer.

Let's throw another monkey on to the fire. What if we did learn everything there was to know? What then? What would be our purpose to continue?

[Palehorse]

I believe it will take another "Hitler" like event to initiate the change necessary. Only problem with that is it would likely result in a nuclear event. . .

[Bo D]

< Interjection >

Star Trek fans know that V-ger eventually will return with everything there is to know. 

< /Interjection >

Awwww...but V-ger had a flaw. It had forgotten who its "creator" was. 

[Y]

Oh, but that wasn't an answer to my question, now was it?

Ah but yes it was...

You apparently mistook my placing it in a humorous vein (who knows) for no answer when it was simply one that needed some insight and thought.

You asked me a question regarding the future, my answer (though humorous) pointed to the fact that the future is based upon far too many variables to make a prediction anything more than a random guess.   

Let's assume for conjecture's sake that we overcome all resistance to  intellectualism.

Do you ever think there will come a time when we know everything there is to know?

Personally, I don't think that mankind in it's present form/stage-of-evolution will last long enough to fathom every single mystery of the universe.

Now that's a different proposition altogether, and a prediction would be dependent upon whether humanity's increase in knowlege will increase it's civilized state or whether that increase in knowlege will simply give us more self-destructive power for which we lack the humanity to control.

[Bo D]

You apparently mistook my placing it in a humorous vein (who knows) for no answer when it was simply one that needed some insight and thought.

You asked me a question regarding the future, my answer (though humorous) pointed to the fact that the future is based upon far too many variables to make a prediction anything more than a random guess.   

So sorry, but when you start bringing "authoritarian political and religious lust for power and possessions".........

As long as the authoritarian political and religious lust for power and possessions doesn't render intellectualism something which should be (metaphorically speaking) burnt at the stake, humanity might continue to learn enough to cast off the ghosts of its less civilized past.

.....into the discussion, I get the heebie jeebies and lose all sense of humor. 

It's funny. There have been several articles published recently and even a TV show on predictions of future life.  We can't even predict 100 years out very well, much less the millennia we are talking about.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/30/AR2007053002305.html

A Peek at Our Far-Flung Future
"embarrassing predictions have been made by futurists over the years. There were certainly a few: "Aeroplanes for Everybody; English Balloonist Says They Will Cost Only $500 Each in Ten Years" (from 1908); "Science Will Save World From War, Physicist Avers" (1929).

[Y]

So sorry, but when you start bringing "authoritarian political and religious lust for power and possessions"..............into the discussion, I get the heebie jeebies and lose all sense of humor. 

LMAO!!!

Din't mean ta' skeer ya'...

It's funny. There have been several articles published recently and even a TV show on predictions of future life.  We can't even predict 100 years out very well, much less the millennia we are talking about.

I wanna' know where my damn flyin' car is!    

[Bo D]

I wanna' know where my damn flyin' car is!    

Screw the flyin' car, Dude. I want a teleporter. 

And what about this one...."Science Will Save World From War, Physicist Avers" (1929)."

[Y]

Screw the flyin' car, Dude. I want a teleporter. 

Ya' better want a second one, I don't think one is gonna' do anything but scramble yer atoms out into the universe...

And what about this one...."Science Will Save World From War, Physicist Avers" (1929)."

That's not gonna' happen until critical thinking and the ability to discern propaganda becomes the norm.  Until then people are going to be manipulated into supporting those authoritarian political and religious (had ta' throw that in again  ) < caution -  hyperbole ahead! > devils hiding behind smiling faces and under halos.

[Bo D]

That's not gonna' happen until critical thinking and the ability to discern propaganda becomes the norm. 

I don't have much faith in that happening.

Stimulating conservation, Dude. Thanks, but I gotta go.

[Y]

Lata' dude, I smell supper myself!   

[dan foster]

Dark Matter =/= Dark Energy

Of course, Dark Energ only describes an effect.  There may not be anything "new" to attribute the effect to.  Since we don't know where the center of the universe is, we don't know what is accelerating the galaxies in any direction.  Dark Matter (a real possibility) is just that, unseen matter, that can be predicted to add enough matter to the universe to slow it back to an implosion vice ever expanding.

I don't there is going to be a Dark Energy car around very soon.  At least not until gas is over $10 a gallon :>)

[Bo D]

Since we don't know where the center of the universe is, we don't know what is accelerating the galaxies in any direction. 

Indeed. In fact there are opinions that there is no center of the universe....and no edge.

[dan foster]

Some think there is an edge, an "event horizon" looking back far enough in time that one can see the earliest formation of the universe as we know it.  However, is there an end, or a beginning?  An infinite universe is hard to comprehend and the reason there are so many religions trying to put some sort of box around that.  Has to be something controlling, making, behind all this, right?

[damfast]

Could God be man's excuse for the unthinkable, and the unexplained?

Maybe thought of God, or any other deity is man's way of moving responsibility for their behavior from themselves.  Certainly if a person "believes in"  God, then  God is completely responsible for any good, bad or benign event in life.  God can be given responsibility for almost anything.  Loss of loved one, job, possessions to name a few.  On the other hand, God can be thanked for positive movement during life.  If all things belong to God, good or bad, then the person is only responsible to exist and follow that belief.  That removes responsibility from  the person to God, who is unseen and unexplained.

I believe that the idea of God is man's way of reigning in behavior, thought and deed through expected punishment and reward.  It is a basic law of civilization, but not necessarily a correct theory.