<div dir="ltr"><div><div><div>David et al.,<br><br>If I may ask you: <b><i>What is the significance of research? </i></b>Or more deeply: <b><i>What is the purpose of meaning?</i></b>
I'll leave you to answer the latter question for yourselves. I'm a
staunch advocate of research for the reason being most of mankind's
greatest advancements wouldn't have seen the light of day if a certain
man/woman hadn't taken the initiative to investigate better ways on how
to execute certain/everyday tasks. <br>
<br>Here are a few of them:<br></div></div><ul><li><b>Alexander Graham Bell & his invention of the telephone. [Communication]<br></b></li><li><b>Alexander Flemming & his discovery of penicillin. [Medicine]</b></li>
<li><b>Thomas Edison & his invention of the electric bulb. [Engineering?]<br></b></li></ul></div>In the advancement of knowledge:<br><ul><li><b>Albert Einstein & his theory of relativity. [Physics]<br></b></li><li>
<b>Alfred Wegner & his theory of continental drift. [Geology, Geography]</b></li><li><b>Charles Darwin & his theory of evolution. [Biology]<br></b></li><li><b>Nicolaus Copernicus & his theory of heliocentric cosmology. [Astronomy]<br>
</b></li></ul>Onto the subject of the experiments being conducted at the <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_Hadron_Collider" target="_blank">Large Hadron Collider</a></b> situated at <b><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CERN" target="_blank">CERN,</a></b> the<span><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" size="2">ir raison d'être</font></span>
is to scrutinize The Big Bang Theory. One of science's (& life's)
greatest mysteries is the origin of everything (the universe, life
itself etc). There are two schools of thought that try to illustrate
this: Religion & Science. The former explains that the universe was
created by a supreme being, God, at the beginning of time & took
six days with our Heavenly Father resting on the seventh day. The
latter explains that the universe was created in a cataclysmic
explosion originating from the most infinitesimal particle of matter
which has expanded (over the course of fifteen billion years &
counting) to what we observe today through telescopes. Of course, these
schools of thought have their respective weaknesses. Religion can't
describe how God executed the creation process e.g. did he just snap
his fingers when an idea came to mind or did he follow a procedure
which culminated in an entity (star, planet, black hole etc)? Forgive
me for offending/insulting my fellow Christians but what most of them
don't understand is that the Bible is just a chronological series of
events & not a biographical-like text. Picture this: the book of
Genesis tells us the world was created in six days. How supremely
confident are we that these are six <b><i>Earth days?</i></b> My quagmire is this: <i><b>Does time pass at the same rate between us & God?</b></i> My answer: <i><b>Time Dilation,</b></i> i.e. from the perspective of any observer within the same
frame of reference & without reference to another frame of reference,
time always passes at the same rate. <a href="http://www.legendarytimesbooks.com/product.php?productid=179" target="_blank"><b>"According To The Evidence"</b></a>
by Erich Von Daniken gives a good case of this. Science, on the other
hand, explains how matter operates (from the atomic level) which
answers questions as how the ozone layer is depleted, how the sun
creates its energy that sustains life on Earth (though partly) etc
though it can't explain who kick-started creation. My school of thought
combines both religion & science to explain the origin of
everything. My proposition is this: <b><i>Science explains how God created & Religion explains why God created.</i></b>
God used science to create the universe & religion explains why we
are here in the first place. Peter, understand why the physicists are
conducting these experiments. They just want to find answers to
questions that have plagued us since time immemorial. Whether or not
they succeed, they'll definitely uncover knowledge that could be
beneficial in our comprehension of the universe. <br>
<br>Mike.<br><br><b>My blog: <a href="http://kipsang.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">http://kipsang.wordpress.com/</a><br>
</b>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">2008/9/11 David Kago <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:kago@ultimate-security.net">kago@ultimate-security.net</a>></span><br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"><span>I have been watching
the big bang experiment with interest and was amazed when they finally announced
on the media that they have been able get the proton beam to go all the way into
the supercooled (-273C) 27km tunnel. While this is a scientific and engineering
marvel, the sums spent to set up the largest machine on earth together are
stupendous, $10 billion is not your everyday lump of cash, that's kenya's
2008/2009 budget; all in the name of proving a theory... Of whose benefit will
it be if they finally prove that antimatter and dark energy exists... what will
quark gluon plasma and bosons mean to the everyday earthling. I believe science
should be used for the betterment of the human race, not to prove a theory that
is infinitely larger than us. I can see all those suffering masses in the third
world who would have benefited greatly from such funds...</span></font></div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"><span></span></font> </div>
<div><font size="2" face="Arial"><span>On a side note, the
data produced in the experiment is being channeled through the other
internet (the Grid). Who wouldnt want to download whole hard
disks from halfway around the globe in a few seconds...!!!
</span></font></div></div>
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