The Magic That Already Is (Part 1)

“There’s always something magic.  There’s always something new … .”
-  Jim Steinman

Imagine a room.  Imagine a bunch of imaginary friends.  Now, imagine that the room is filled with the bunch of imaginary friends.  And imagine that the bunch of imaginary friends move around in the room and bump into each other.  How profoundly and dramatically would it change everything we know about the universe if the bumping into each other caused the bunch of imaginary friends to somehow coalesce …  and turn into a real friend?  

The answer is, “not even a little.”  Stay tuned to Exus The Podquest for more about “making everything out of nothing at all!”  

– Jim Steinman, again (this time slightly modified).

How Could So Many People Be So Wrong?

When it comes to the origin of the universe, the formation of our planet, and the existence of life as we know it, the overwhelming majority of people who have ever lived (and who are living now) have believed, and continue to believe, in something.  That is, people have always believed that a god or gods, or some other creative force, made all of those things — made everything — happen.  So, if that’s the case, then we must ask:  How could so many people be so wrong?  

Although that question, at first blush, seems like the query of a hardened atheist, that’s not the case.  Please note, I’m not disavowing atheism here, but I’m not endorsing it, either.  For purposes of this post (and Exus The Podquest in general), I’m not taking a position one way or the other on the fundamental question of whether there’s a god.  What I am saying is that, even assuming that there is a god or some creative force, it’s absolutely mind-staggering to consider how many people were — and remain — totally wrong about the specifics of such an existence.  

For instance, if it is finally determined that the Judeo-Christian God of the Bible is the one and only true God, just think about how many people were totally mistaken all along.  All of the millions and millions of Hindus were wrong, as were the countless number of Buddhists, the Jainists, the Shinto, the Native Americans, the Scientologists, and so on.  And then there are the untold scores of atheists and agnostics and spiritualists to account for, not to mention new agers, and many others.

And the same is true if you switch things up: If you substitute Hindu or Buddhism or Naturalism, etc. for Judeo-Christianity.  In those cases, all of the Jews would have been wrong, as would’ve been the legion of Christians, and the millions and millions of … well, you get the point. And this situation continues to persist, even today.

So, again, any way you slice it, the question remains — and it demands an answer:  How could so many people be so wrong?  

Or are they?  

Subscribe to Exus The Podquest for the answer to those questions, and an “unbelievable” number of others just like it!

“Infinity”

We’ve incorporated that term into our everyday communications and exchanges so ubiquitously that it has, astonishingly, lost its luster, its wonder, its indescribable awe.  Step back for a moment and consider the unimaginable depths that are being plumbed here:  No borders.  No boundaries.  No limits.  Infinity - how can that even be possible?  The stupefying monumental-ness of the concept that there is no end to everything is almost too difficult to grasp. When we truly examine the notion of infinity, our immediate reaction isn’t “what?” or “how?” or even “why?”  It’s “huh?”

And the extended implications are just as mind-boggling.  According to Einstein's Theory of Relativity, space and time are effectively the same thing - a combined "spacetime."  So, if the universe is infinite in terms of space, it is also infinite in terms of time. It is endless and eternal. And as a result, anything that can possibly happen - even the most highly unlikely of events - has not only happened, but has happened an infinite number of times.  That would be true because if there is an infinite field to work with, and if an event took place once, the workings of forever and boundlessness would dictate that it would also happen a second time, and then a third, and so on.

That would mean that life has not only arisen and evolved on Earth once, it has done so repeatedly and on innumerable other worlds throughout the timelessly existing cosmos.  As such, we would be far from alone in the universe; "we" would instead be legion.  

And an infinite existence dispenses with the need for a multiverse to explain why the laws and constants of the universe seem so finely tuned to give rise to life.  An "infinite universe" is effectively the same thing as the "multiverse," only it doesn’t need extra dimensions or branes or the like to work its magic. There aren't a limitless number of universes; there's just one, but it has limitless features.

It is, to say the very least, staggeringly difficult to put one's mental arms around such bizarre concepts, but from a scientific viewpoint the above conclusions are surely inescapable.  

That is, of course, unless the universe isn’t truly infinite ...  

Is it?

Subscribe to Exus The Podquest for the answer to that question, and an “infinite” number of others just like it!

Everly

My Nephew and his wife recently had a child, and named her Everly.  Here’s a copy of the text that I sent to welcome their daughter into the world: 

Stage 1:            Potential … Something … Motion … Order … Formation … Stars … Elements …
Supernovas … Intergalactic Travel (Heavy Elements) …

Stage 2:            Motion … Order … Formation … Sun … Solar Satellites… Solar System … Earth
… Moon … Precise Development (Primordial Soup or Thermodynamic Oceanic Vents or …) …

Stage 3:            Heavy Elements Encounter/Seed Precise Development On Earth … Energy
Source Strikes/Activates … Primordial Life Emerges …

Stage 4:            Prokaryotes … Eukaryotes … Multicellular Organisms … Macroscopic Life
Forms … Biological Evolution …

Stage 5:            Animal Life … Plant Life … Mammals … Common Ancestor … Pre-Humans …
Ancient Human Life … Early Human Life…

Stage 6:            Pre-Civilization … Hunting/Gathering … Tool Making (Rudimentary) … Extinction
Events … Pre-Modern Human Life … Ice Ages … Modern Human Life …

Stage 7:            Civilization … Exploration … Colonization … Culture … Diversity … Tool Making
(Advanced) ... Writing …

Stage 8:            Ancestral Socializing … Romantic Relationships … Intimacy …
Great-Grandparents … Grandparents … Parents … Children …

Stage 9:             … Children … Growth to Adulthood … Romantic Relationships … Intimacy …

Stage 10:           … Everly!!!
Friends/family:  “Oh, a baby - that’s cool.”

Hahahaha!!!