Stephen Hawking along with other phyiscists have determined that space time and matter are totally interwoven.One affects the other.Gravity permeates all space.It is like a blanket that warps around matter and lays the path for our journey.If it had been a tad more powerful our present universe would not exist.Gravity is the handmaiden that defys the logic of physics.

According to the Big Bang theory the universe began 13.7 billion yrs ago,and space,time,energy and matter was smaller than an atom.The theory goes,that at the inception of the universe all energies united,ie electro magnetic,nuclear and gravity to produce the mother of all explosions.Part of Hadron Collider experiment was to determine the influence of sub atomic energy and the possibility of demensions of which we are unaware of.Hawking's theory of everything could have been substanciated,if post the collision of these particles in the Hadron Collider,some of the energy was lost to another dimension.[Physicists have postulated that there are 10 dimensions of alternate realities of which we are unaware of.]This would have explained the lapse in gravity's influence in relation to the other energy influnences.

Regardless of our ability to understand the concepts portrayed by the likes of Hawking,the ordinary reality that pervades our human condition makes us feel insignificant.We at the same time are free to determine our destinies.

One thing is sure,there is nothing ordinary about our universe.Perhaps we should aspire in kind.Merry Christmas.

Arjay “our human condition makes us feel insignificant. We at the same time are free to determine our destinies.”

I have never felt insignificant.

I have felt irrelevant at times, ignored and many times, just plain ‘wrong’ but in my small world (the one which exists only between my ears), not insignificant.

When young, I never realized the reward of parenthood was to see my daughters fly free and make their own ways in the world, another generation stepping forward into the future.

That might be all which defines my “significance” to everyone else but, to me, it is but a part.

May we always be free to determine our own destiny because

When we do not, there is no point and ‘insignificance’ is guaranteed.

Best wishes to you and yours for Christmas and 2009, Arjay.

we have no trouble believing science when it reveals an unseen by our personal senses range of vision[like uv or ultraviolet]nor of sounds abouve and below 'human hearing'

we cant see gravity[radiation,or the'wind'streaming from the sun]yet demand'proof'of their reality[it is interesting that science now admits the other realm[not dimentions]that co-egsist,unseen[unheard] unfelt

[yet is in denial that these realms are the'many rooms'jesus reveals our fathers house to have[loosly divided into the realms of light[heaven]and the realm of darkness[hell]we allow our perceptions into

one of the'science'theories even postulates that two realms collided to form this one[and still it is claimed no'proof'for their reality egsists]but they do[being that unseen unfelt via our present material senses,loosly caled'dark matter']but in reality mostly light

space is not empty[there is greater and lesser than this present reality'ho-ratio']
science is a mere novis in the study of these realms]the hard_ON collider is an attempt by those of the darkside to drop[smash]the'veil'betwixt'vile'and'live',little wonder it didnt get built'properly'[those of the dark side do sloppy works]

there is more those of the darkside[knowing of the'darkmatter'who think to reveal witness of their darkness,[they hope to realise hell here on earth],we live in precarious times[not that our spirits can be subverted unless we surrender to fear,hate or judgment]

yes space is not empty[but there is no such thing called space-time]god lives in real_time[this present'living'moment['spacetime'is a special term that has relitive meaning only at this time]

yes matter is interwoven[but what does that matter?when we are only able to vieuw one space[realm]at a time

think of the absurdity[logiclly]of all matter being the size of a dot[by what manner does its'relitive'material'measure'applie?

[in the beginning was the dark void,then with a bang satan fell into HIS realm[the pit]

thus at the end there[SEEMINGLY] will be the dark void[just as those who now are unable to see that which we know is not able to be seen/heard /felt]

yet its unseen void'contains the vast majority of'reality'simply being that it allways was[timeless continuence]

its all relitive

Arjay
Perhaps it's just as well we do not have a "theory of everything" just yet - if we did, then what would be the point? However, that is not stopping physicists and mathematicians from looking.

In the scheme of things (space and time) I too think we on this lump of rock buried in the vast cosmos is insignificant. But I agree with Col, in our own mind - we are not. Otherwise, again ... what would be the point.

Have a safe and happy one Arjay.

______

Col, merry Xmas (again) to you and yours from me and mine - you grumpy old huff-n-puffer.

Strangely enough, though I struggle my entire life with feelings of self-worth and significance, the thought of space has the opposite effect.

The more vast and unknowable and strangely beautiful our cosmos is revealed to be, the more excited and part-of-something-great I feel.

Our world may be revealed one day to be a tiny outpost in a much grander scheme but I feel - like those who left a lighted candle in the window for lost travellers - a sense of collective significance to be part of the community who faithfully keeps that candle alight.

Even if the significance of that candle is not appreciated until well after my own life-time I consider it wonderful to be part of a race of beings who strove to keep the light shining.

Merry Xmas to all of you - and thanks for this thread which, in a land where Xmas does not really exist, gave me a little of that feeling of fellowship and connectedness that the season always brings.

Some years ago I took an evening walk from a bush campsite to a beach with a good friend (my brother-in-law actually). There was a breeze blowing off the water, the stars were very bright and the surf was pounding. I expected my evangelical Anglican friend to expound on the majesty of God's Creation and, at that moment, I'd have agreed with him. Instead he looked up and said (more or less) "Isn't it amazing that come the End Times, God will pack the entire universe away."

I was so thunderstruck, I didn't know what to say. There are 100,000,000,000 stars in our galaxy and our galaxy is but one of perhaps 125,000,000,0000. Our Earth, big as it seems to us, is but a pebble in the sky. The notion that the entire Universe was created specifically as a stage for our sinful lives to play out seems like the height of egotism to me.

When I look at the stars, or stare into the depths of the Grose Gorge or pick up a 500,000,000-year-old Ordovician fossil I am reminded of the smallness of my life and how quickly it will end. But if my life is small, then my problems are even smaller. Nothing like a walk in the bush (or a peek at the stars) to put life into perspective.

So to all posters, I wish you all the best for 2009. May your lives be enlivened by laughter, music, beauty and friendship.