Still on the old topic.
To add:
I think it was Dr Close (Physics, associated professor) who very briefly covered Giordano Bruno while lecturing on astrobiology. Most pop-sci tends to momentarily veer into topics like Galileo and Bruno as lessons from history, but what was interesting is that Dr Close was the first to state something about the matter that others hadn't (unless I'd simply forgotten that they did):
Dr Close said that Giordano Bruno - whom Close dubs the first astrobiologist - contemplated not just the possible existence of a countless number of worlds (planets) in the heavens and countless other life forms living there, but also the existence of countless numbers of other Gods [i.e. he was proposing symmetry]. Close then declares that it was this *last* proposition - the existence of a multiplicity of other Gods - that got Bruno burned at the stake by christianism. Which I thought was rather telling.
A few more quaint factoids,
from Hawking's "did gawd create the universe" episode:
- Hawking said that a medieval Pope was so disturbed by the existence of Natural Laws, which were obviously not christian, that the pope banned natural laws. Then Hawking went on to casually report that this didn't stop said natural laws and that the pope died because of one, despite all his efforts to curtail them: gravity caused his place to collapse on him. More proof that physics is real and true and gawd/babble isn't.
- Hawking recounted how of course the church then decided that suddenly gawd would have created the natural laws after all (when previously he hadn't, as per christianism, and which is why these laws of physics had been banned). <- When christianism can no longer fight something, christianism then subsumes it, before proceeding to claim that this was always a part of christianism/theology and was foreshadowed in gawd's word "all along". AKA pathetic apologetics/excuses and forgery to make christianism appear as still relevant (but was it ever?)
And physicist (cosmologist) Krauss:
- He declared something along the lines of how "forget jeebus dying for your sins, stars have died so you could live!"
Here, found the actual quote:
goodreads.com/author/quotes/1410.Lawrence_M_Krauss
The operative part is "forget jeebus". Taoists are right to make the stars central to their views, rather than chasing after non-existent spooks like jeebus.
To add:
I think it was Dr Close (Physics, associated professor) who very briefly covered Giordano Bruno while lecturing on astrobiology. Most pop-sci tends to momentarily veer into topics like Galileo and Bruno as lessons from history, but what was interesting is that Dr Close was the first to state something about the matter that others hadn't (unless I'd simply forgotten that they did):
Dr Close said that Giordano Bruno - whom Close dubs the first astrobiologist - contemplated not just the possible existence of a countless number of worlds (planets) in the heavens and countless other life forms living there, but also the existence of countless numbers of other Gods [i.e. he was proposing symmetry]. Close then declares that it was this *last* proposition - the existence of a multiplicity of other Gods - that got Bruno burned at the stake by christianism. Which I thought was rather telling.
A few more quaint factoids,
from Hawking's "did gawd create the universe" episode:
- Hawking said that a medieval Pope was so disturbed by the existence of Natural Laws, which were obviously not christian, that the pope banned natural laws. Then Hawking went on to casually report that this didn't stop said natural laws and that the pope died because of one, despite all his efforts to curtail them: gravity caused his place to collapse on him. More proof that physics is real and true and gawd/babble isn't.
- Hawking recounted how of course the church then decided that suddenly gawd would have created the natural laws after all (when previously he hadn't, as per christianism, and which is why these laws of physics had been banned). <- When christianism can no longer fight something, christianism then subsumes it, before proceeding to claim that this was always a part of christianism/theology and was foreshadowed in gawd's word "all along". AKA pathetic apologetics/excuses and forgery to make christianism appear as still relevant (but was it ever?)
And physicist (cosmologist) Krauss:
- He declared something along the lines of how "forget jeebus dying for your sins, stars have died so you could live!"
Here, found the actual quote:
goodreads.com/author/quotes/1410.Lawrence_M_Krauss
Quote:ââ¬ÅThe amazing thing is that every atom in your body came from a star that exploded. And, the atoms in your left hand probably came from a different star than your right hand. It really is the most poetic thing I know about physics: You are all stardust. You couldnââ¬â¢t be here if stars hadnââ¬â¢t exploded, because the elements - the carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, iron, all the things that matter for evolution - werenââ¬â¢t created at the beginning of time. They were created in the nuclear furnaces of stars, and the only way they could get into your body is if those stars were kind enough to explode. So, forget Jesus. The stars died so that you could be here today.ââ¬Â
ââ¬â¢ Lawrence M. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
The operative part is "forget jeebus". Taoists are right to make the stars central to their views, rather than chasing after non-existent spooks like jeebus.