23 Responses

1. This is more easily understandable if one considers the actual structure of an atom and the scale and placement of its components. If one takes into account the fact that the neutrons and protons form a dense cluster at the center of the atom and that the electrons orbit in such a way that huge spaces exist between them and the nucleus it becomes clear that the atoms that make up seemingly solid objects are made up of 99+ percent empty space at any given moment.

   This alone does not seem too important until you add the idea that the atoms that make up many seemingly solid objects are more of a loose conglomeration that share a similar attraction but never really touch each other.

   At first glance this does not really seem relevant, but closer analysis reveals that this adds a tremendous amount of empty space to solid objects that are already made up of atoms that could be thought of as 99 percent space. When so-called solid objects are seen in this light it becomes apparent that may not be the seemingly solid objects they appear to us to be.

   We ourselves are not exceptions to this phenomenon.

   These seemingly solid objects are more like ghostly images that we interpret as solid objects based on our perceptual conclusions.

   From this one could conclude that Perception is some sort of a trick that helps us to take these ghostly images and turns them into a world we can associate and interact with. This clever device seems to be a creation of our intellect that enables us to interact with each other in what appears to be a three dimensional reality.

   I want to add that this is based on my own personal way of looking at the situation and was never intended to be a physics lesson.

   Love and blessings Don

2. I’m an atheist, not a scientist :)

   I don’t know the answer to that, but I’m willing to bet that there is a reasonable explaination other than “goddidit.”

3. I thought that this might be serious, until you called the formation of heavy elements blasphemous.

   As for the unstable matter – that’s surely evidence of the unguided formation of the universe, rather than creation. Why would a creator make so many particles which have little practical use?

4. Just because it is unlikely doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.

   Just watch Colombo reruns. .

5. So the atheist view is that heavy elements formed accidentally?

   Sure, that true. But only if by “accident” you mean as much accident as the Sun rising tomorrow from the east, as opposed for example from a random direction. Actions in a deterministic universe are not “accidents”.

   Edit: “Also, what makes matter turn into energy and energy into matter?”

   Well, the physical laws of our Universe. But as to why exactly do we have those physical laws, I don’t know. I guess that makes ‘goddidit’ a valid answer now. Yep, that’s right: Whenever you don’t know something it’s perfectly okay to go with ‘goddidit’.

   Remember that on your next test.

6. I can believe that the Universe could form without the help of a Supreme Intelligent Mind,
   I can also accept that the Universe could form by Big Bang.

   But it’s illogical to believe that heavy elements like Uranium, Plutonium, Thorium could form accidentally. They have too many protons and neutrons in their nucleus.

   It’s logical to believe that light elements: Hydrogen, Helium, Lithium, Oxygen could form by Big Bang or by nuclear fusion in stars because people can produce them by nuclear reactions in the laboratory, but to believe elements with hundreds of protons and neutrons could form by random chance is a BLASPHEMY

   Your contradicting yourself.

7. Does it matter if we had a Creator? Where’s the proof that He didn’t abandon us, that He wrote the Bible, that He performs “miracles”?

8. “I don’t know” > “my sky daddy did it”.

9. Take an Astronomy class.

   Elements form from the life-cycle of stars.

10. the universe is not obliged to make sense to us but the intellectually and psychologically immature cannot grasp that so they make up deities to explain things

11. Lol. This is priceless. So now we not only have a God who can simultaneously monitor the thoughts and actions of 6 billion people but at the same time He holds together each individual sub-atomic particle????? And you say that a being like that just fizzed out of thin air. Boy. Next to you Quantum theory seems like kindergarten.

12. No, they were not designed. Ask this in the physics section.

13. And again:

    Atheist = no belief in any god(s).
    Atheist =/= anything else (that includes “scientist”).

    If you really wanted an honest answer (which you don’t) then you would ask this in the science section.

14. You are looking for answers that are extremely complicated. There are so many thing about life, matter, energy that will probably take us hundreds of years to discover, but just because the answers are far doesn’t mean you have to loose all your logic and revert to a creator.

15. “But it’s illogical to believe that heavy elements like Uranium, Plutonium, Thorium could form accidentally. They have too many protons and neutrons in their nucleus.”

    All this says is that you have no understanding of the strong nuclear force. It’s really a very typical type of question you ask. Basically what you’ve said is that b/c you don’t understand it it’s incapable of being understood and that there isn’t anyone else that does understand it. And that’s wrong.

16. sounds like you are a qm expert and should know that not much about the universe is ‘logical’

    after all, ‘logic’ is a human idea.

17. No
    You seem to think that if someone is an atheist
    they should automatically have superior knowledge
    as too how the earth was created and minerals were formed
    we are not afraid to admit we do not know the answers to questions
    nor does it leave us desperate to put our trust in religion
    that is based upon books that have been written by unknown authors
    over large time scale

18. There is much we don’t understand about our universe. The study of science helps better our knowledge of these things. You seem to have come to the conclusion that a supreme being created everything in existence, because the questions you ask are too difficult to comprehend.
    Who created the supreme being?
    Who created their creators?
    What is the meaning of life?
    We may never know the answers to these questions, but the study of science helps better our understanding of how our universe works and how it all started. Concluding with ‘A supreme being created everything’ brings us no closer to answering these deep, complex questions…it just brings more questions, based on unsupported facts.

19. you obviously do not understand much about science then

20. congratulations, i’m nominating you for a golden crocoduck. if you have any decency you will use it to take your own life and spare the human race from your idiocy.

21. Heavy elements are formed when massive stars are in the process of burning out. They explode as supernovae (or just novae), distributing these elements, along with lighter ones, that form new solar systems. It doesn’t take much research online to read about that.

22. “But it’s illogical to believe that heavy elements like Uranium, Plutonium, Thorium could form accidentally. They have too many protons and neutrons in their nucleus.”

    Supernovae do it. The r-process is extremely endothermic, and so the energies involved in supernovae are required.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernova_nucleosynthesis

    “but to believe elements with hundreds of protons and neutrons could form by random chance is a BLASPHEMY”

    Now you’re getting silly. Because you don’t understand something, you pass judgement on others who do.

    “matter turn into energy and energy into matter”

    Matter is energy, but is in stable quantum states where the various properties (spin, charge, etc) are in stable equilibria. In the early universe, for example, that was impossible, and it required the energy density to reduce because of the expanding universe. There is nothing about that quantum state that ‘fades away’ – why would there be?

    As for leptons, quarks and the rest of the standard model, we don’t yet know why it is as it is – indeed we haven’t even validated that all members actually exist yet, hence the hunt for the Higgs boson. There are hypotheses to explain their existence, but we don’t yet have evidence to validate or refute them.

    “Isn’t it a Supreme Mind that holds energy together into a particle?”

    We have no evidence of that, and nobody has formally hypothesised that. To do so would require a full explanation of such a mind, including how it came to be, so as to pass Occam’s Razor. Briefly, that idea would be regarded as utterly far-fetched.

    “How did the laws of physics and the laws of matter and energy that we study today come into existence? Weren’t they designed?”

    That’s a contradiction – any sentient desiger of anything would require underlying laws of nature so as to process information and make decisions. So the most fundamental level of nature must underlie everything more complex, including any sentience. There is no evidence of any sentience or design anywhere other than human & animal design.

    At the heart of this, you seem to be saying “I DON’T know how this happens” = “I DO know a god did it”.

    So, which is it? Don’t know or do know? If you claim you do know, HOW do you know? What evidence?

    Intellectual honesty demands that don’t know = don’t know. If you jump to conclusions without evidence, then that conclusion cannot be distinguished from untruth. You cease being intellectually honest.

    You also seem to lack understanding of natural processes, hence your attribution of “random chance” instead.

23. theres nothing that prevents nuclear fusion from creating heavier elements, you just need the right conditions, for example a good part of the heavier end of the periodic table is composed of elements we’ve discovered through fusion experiments specifically designed to create atoms of a specific weight.