Post on 11-Jan-2016
-Origin Beliefs-The Big Bang
Theory-Universe Concepts-...and Playing Nice
Together
Wisdom from Kenneth Miller Summarizing The Point of
TodayThe point is to UNDERSTAND the scientific theories and the evidence for them
Good luck deciding what to believe in
This is not “Religion vs. Science”
I believe I believe in a in a
creator, creator, not in the not in the big bangbig bang
I believe I believe in the big in the big bang, not bang, not a creatora creator
Wrong words! These people don’t understand the difference between religion
and science!
Religion ScienceSomething you may choose to believe in
Not falsifiable / not testable
Something to understand, not believe in
Must be falsifiable / testable & repeatable
This is not “Religion vs. Science”
I believe I believe in a in a
creator, creator, not in the not in the big bangbig bang
I believe I believe in the big in the big bang, not bang, not a creatora creator
These people imply that science is something to either believe or not believe
There’s Lots of Possible Perspectives
Have a cultural belief and understand science
Not have a cultural belief and understand science
Have a cultural belief and not understand science
Not have a cultural belief and not understand science
Others...?
Well informed
Not Well Informed
Why we teach, not preach
Separation of church and state...
We teach you to understand science
We teach you that there are cultural beliefs
We don’t preach to you which one to believe, if any.
Creation MythsDifferent cultures all over the world have different stories describing how the world began
These stories are called “creation myths”, but the word “myth” simply refers to story, it is not meant to imply false.
We’re going to share a few here. Be respectful. You might think one story sounds silly, but it may be the cultural underpinnings of the person sitting next to you.... maybe they’re thinking this about your family’s beliefs. Mockery is strickly forbidden.
Tlingit:Raven and the Sun
Judeo-Christian: 7 Days
Hopi- The infinite creates the finite, created a God to create the universes
Aztec: One God looked over the
darkness--> birthed 4 other gods--> created Earth
Iroquois: Island floating in sky, where sky people lived, hole in the island, creatures
below...
ZuluThe Ancient One, known as Unkulunkulu, is the Zulu creator. He came from the reeds and from them he brought forth the people and the cattle. He created everything that is: mountains, streams, snakes, etc. He taught the Zulu how to hunt, how to make fire, and how to grow food.
Greek: Titan goddess,
bride of Zeus
Others?....
What Similarities and Differences Do You
See?Creation ex nihilo in which the creation is through the thought, word, dream or bodily secretions of a divine being
•Earth diver creation in which a diver, usually a bird or amphibian sent by a creator, plunges to the seabed through a primordial ocean to bring up sand or mud which develops into a terrestrial world
•Emergence myths in which progenitors pass through a series of worlds and metamorphoses until reaching the present world
•Creation by the dismemberment of a primordial being
•Creation by the splitting or ordering of a primordial unity such as the cracking of a cosmic egg or a bringing into form from chaos
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creation_myth
Religious/Cultural Beliefs & Science Are Very Different
ThingsScience must be falsifiable, testable, repeatable
Faith based beliefs are not, hence the faith
THIS DOES NOT MEAN ONE IS BETTER THAN THE OTHER, they are simply totally different ways of trying to understand our world
Scientists Are Skeptics, (but this does not mean atheists)...
Kepler (Protestant): had vision of God as the designer of a rational cosmos
◦Platonist: the divine order could be expressed in mathematical terms (Bowler & Morus, p. 351)
•Newton: Cosmos as a divine construct (Bowler & Morus, p. 350)
•Jesuits: active in many areas of science, including astronomy (though they favored the old cosmology)
•Buffon: days of creation correspond to geological epochs
•Robert Boyle: “conceded that it was in the study of living things that we see the clearest evidence of the creator’s handiwork” (Bowler & Morus, p. 353)
•Jocelyn Bell (Quaker): Discovered pulsars while working at radio astronomy observatory
What Does the Word “Theory” Really Mean?
LOTS of words have very different meanings in everyday life than they do in the context of science (theory, law, fact...)
As such, they are often misused and misunderstood
-Mock Congress Example-
TheoryCurrent explanation, subject to peer review, based on overwhelming amounts of evidence, which may still change someday as evidence changes
So There’s Lots of Theories, Right? One at the end of every
science experiment???
No! This has been misused
and misunderstood
.
What Theories Exist in Modern Science?
Theory of Gravity
Theory of Evolution
Big Bang Theory
Heliocentric Theory
...a few more, but that’s it!
The Big Bang Theory
28.3 The expanding universe
Edwin Hubble discovered that the farther away a galaxy was, the faster it was moving away from Earth.
This concept came to be known as the expanding universe.
28.3 The Big Bang theory
The theory that the universe was expanding implies the universe must have been smaller in the past than it is today.
It implies that the universe must have had a beginning.
Astronomers today believe the universe exploded outward from a single point.
This idea is known as the Big Bang theory.
28.3 The Big Bang theory
The Big Bang theory says the universe began as a huge explosion between 10 billion and 20 billion years ago.
According to this theory, all matter and energy started in a space smaller than the nucleus of an atom.
28.3 Evidence for the Big Bang theory In the 1960s, Arno
Penzias and Robert Wilson were trying to measure electromagnetic waves given off by the Milky Way.
The “noise” these scientists found was the cosmic microwave background radiation predicted by the Big Bang theory.
28.3 Evidence for the Big Bang theory
The proportion of hydrogen to helium is consistent with the physics of the Big Bang.
If the universe were significantly older, there would be more heavy elements present compared with hydrogen and helium.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tn35SB1_NYI
(Fun) Intro to Evidence
STOP HERE FOR DAY 2
Supporting EvidenceLeftover Radiation (Background Cosmic Radiation)
Galaxies Are Moving Farther Apart, Distant Ones are Older, Show Greater Red Shifts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uyCkADmNdNo
Understand Red Shift: The Doppler Effect (Sound
Version)
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3ogq9_doppler-shift_people
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/961110/doppler_effect/
or
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kg9F5pN5tlI
Understand Red Shift: The Doppler Effect (Light
Version)
Astrophysicists Are Funny
Motionless
A
B
C
D
Which is the farthest/fastest?
Science= testable, repeatable
Large Hadron Collider
Universe Concepts
Open vs. Closed
Open UniverseEverythin
g continues
racing outward
Eventually stars die off
Closed UniverseAll matter eventually
pulled back
together
Recurring Big Bangs
Wisdom from Kenneth Miller Summarizing The Point of
TodayThe point is to UNDERSTAND the scientific theories and the evidence for them
Good luck deciding what to believe in
Further Reading for Those Interested
http://www.sciencemag.org/content/282/5396/1985.full
Further Reading for Those Interested
http://www.amazon.com/Finding-Darwins-God-Scientists-Evolution/dp/0060930497
A large part of this book is about why creationism isn’t
science. Don’t misunderstand this and think it’s anti religion, it’s not. It’s simply about the difference between science and religion. Miller is both a famous biologist AND a very
religious person.
Let’s Try Some Spectroscopy
diffraction grating
=plastic with thousands of lines in it, functions like a ton of prisms!
(look at some spectral outputs, after Helium, play remaining slides,
then look at some more)
Helium
How would it look if it was moving fast away from
you?
exit slideshow and move the bar!
infrared
Stationary Helium Light
Source
Helium moving away super fast
showing red shift
So: we can see the light fingerprint of elements like this on Earth, and when we look into space, we can
recognize the same light fingerprint patterns, but the farther & faster
away the star or galaxy is, the greater the red shift!