...against One of the most popular questions today is, “Are we alone in the universe?” Believe it or not, you’re in the minority if you believe that absolutely no intelligent life exists outside of planet Earth. In the United States alone, at least half of all Americans say that we’re not alone in the universe. Fifty percent of Americans already believe that there is some form of life on other planets, while only seventeen percent believe there is not. A quarter of Americans believe that intelligent extraterrestrial visitors have already come to Earth and have been doing so for a long time. (source) Here’s one of them: “Yes there have been crashed craft, and bodies recovered. We are not alone in the universe, they have been coming here for a long time.” (source) (source) – Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 Astronaut, Air Force Captain, and Founder of the Institute of Noetic Sciences There are multiple reasons why the extraterrestrial question continues to gain popularity. People are starting to ask questions about the world around them, utilizing critical thinking and investigative skills. After thoroughly looking into this topic, it seems inevitable that you will arrive at these conclusions: We are not alone, and we are being visited. The first one that comes to mind is Paul Hellyer, Former Canadian Defence Minister, the man responsible for combining the Canadian Air Force, Army, and Navy into one united force, now known as the Canadian Forces. Someone with such a background coming...
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... and quite honestly more nothingness than some-thingness. Yet, here we lie. Not even a visible speck to the universe. So, the question becomes, are we alone? In the science community, two theories exist on the existence of extraterrestrial life: the rare earth hypothesis and the principle of mediocrity. The article “The Rare Earth Theory: Logic and Math Says It’s Wrong-We’re Not Alone in Universe” written by Casey Kazan argues that the Rare Earth theory is incorrect. Meanwhile, the article written by John Prytz, “The Rare Earth Hypothesis,” debates that the Rare Earth theory stands some ground and should not be so easily dismissed. Both articles attempt to persuade...
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...) The order of the universe cannot be explained by chance, but only by design and purpose. Design and purpose is a product of intelligence. Therefore nature is directed by a Divine Intelligence or Great Designer. Paley 1.)Human artifacts are products of intelligent design. 2.)The universe resembles human artifacts. 3.)Therefore the universe is a product of intelligent design. 4.)But the universe is complex and gigantic, in comparison to human artifacts. 6.)Therfore, there probably is a powerful and vastly intelligent designer who created the universe Tennant • Physical matter gathers together in galaxies, stars and planets because of gravity. The gravity balance is perfect for us to survive.• Therefore, the universe has been so ‘finely tuned’ it could not have been a matter of chance.• Humans could only survive in this kind of universe. R – RATIONALITY Life and the world is all about being rational: it seems rationally true to Tennant that God is the designer and creator as the world is comprehensible as such. For him it is the logical and sensible conclusion. Criticism: This is very debatable. Others have claimed that they have also used logic and that rationally their conclusion that there is NOT a God/Designer is correct. U – UNLIKELY It just seems too unlikely that the world has come about by chance. Apparently it is 1 x 100,000,000,000124 that the Big Bang could have occurred – and even more so that we could come out as we have following the Big...
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...is named Al-Fatihah because of its subject-matter. Fatihah is that which opens a subject or a book or any other thing. In other words, Al-Fatihah is a sort of preface. Period of Revelation It is one of the very earliest Revelations to the Holy Prophet. As a matter of fact, we learn from authentic Traditions that it was the first complete Surah which was revealed to Muhammad (Allah's peace be upon him). Before this, only a few miscellaneous verses were revealed which form parts of `Alaq, Muzzammil, Muddaththir, etc. Theme This Surah is in fact a prayer which Allah has taught to all those who want to make a study of His book. It has been placed at the very beginning of the book to teach this lesson to the reader: if you sincerely want to benefit from the Quran, you should offer this prayer to the Lord of the Universe. This preface is meant to create a strong desire in the heart of the reader to seek guidance from the Lord of the Universe, Who alone can grant it. Thus Al-Fatihah indirectly teaches that the best thing for a man is to pray for guidance to the straight path, to study the Quran with the mental attitude of a seeker- after-truth and to recognize the fact that the Lord of the Universe is the source of all knowledge. He should, therefore, begin the study of the Quran with a prayer to him for guidance. From this theme, it becomes clear that the real relation between Al-Fatihah and the Quran is not that of an introduction to a book but that of a prayer and its...
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...In 1982, E.T, the movie about an extraterrestrial alien who crashed on Earth, came out. Ever since then, people have wondered if there really is something out there. Over half of United States citizens believe that there is extraterrestrial life. Twenty percent of them believe they are already walking among us. So the big question is this, Are we Alone in the Universe? Have you ever wondered how big the universe is? Think about .3%, picture it in your head, now add 50 zeros in front of .3%. That’s how much volume the Earth takes up in the universe. Scientists believe that there are between 100 billion to 200 billion other galaxies. Scientists also believe there could be 10 billion planets that could sustain life. Now, those planets don’t have to be like Earth. Life can adapt very well, as long as it has the bare minimum. What we think we need to survive could be unnecessary on that planet. So, given the estimations, the odds that we are not alone have skyrocketed....
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...The Major Universe The Universe is everything we can touch, feel, sense, measure or detect. It includes living things, planets, stars, galaxies, dust clouds, light, and even time. Before the birth of the Universe, time, space and matter did not exist. The Universe contains billions of galaxies, each containing millions or billions of stars. The space between the stars and galaxies is largely empty. However, even places far from stars and planets contain scattered particles of dust or a few hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter. Space is also filled with radiation (e.g. light and heat), magnetic fields and high energy particles (e.g. cosmic rays). The Universe is incredibly huge. It would take a modern jet fighter more than a million years to...
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...Siddhartha Gautama. They believe the teaching of this name and to them this may be their God. Siddhartha Gautama teaches them to realize that there is no rebirth after we die and everything should be a self mind controlled focus on your life. As for Christianity we argue these beliefs because the evidence we articulate overwhelms our faith and strengthen our minds to a logical understanding of ontology through what we experience and who we know as God. There are a few things that most of the general population share. It is the fact that we are all human beings who have a belief in some one or something, and when we find our worldview we tend to see life from a new aspect. Christians may tend to live whole-heartedly for Jesus Christ and share to others of the amazing joy and love that changed their hearts and lives because of their faith of what he does to change lives in general. Others may develop a world view that can separate their hart from the truth of God for they are revealed to their own religion alone by God. The existence of God is presented in four different philosophical arguments that support a certain conception of God. One is the ontological argument. It dates back to St Anslem an eleventh century philosopher/theologian. The ontological argument is studied to prove God’s being from the laws of logic alone. This...
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...Lawrence-Copley Ethics (Notes) January 25, 2010 CHRISTIAN THEISM Orthodox Christians believe in a triune, personal God. God is both transcendent and immanent. Meaning, He exists independent of His creation and exerts full sovereignty over it but that He is also omnipresent and entirely involved in His world. What are the basic assumptions about the nature of reality? Theism views reality as both material and spiritual. Theism asserts that God is volitional, moral, creative, purposive, rational, and knowable to other persons. Transcendent means that God is distinct form the universe. He is able and willing to interact with the creation, but His existence is not bound by or limited to the universe. Everything that exists is contingent upon God’s creative act. God is both creator and sustainer of all things. God maintains access to the created order and involves Himself with it as he chooses. God designed the universe in such a way that nature follows a recognizable patter. Because God acts with purpose, reality is inherently meaningful. What is a human being? Human nature is both biological and spiritual. Humans are the unique creation of a personal God, and shares His likeness as personal being. Therefore, they have intrinsic worth as human beings. They were created to enjoy and external relationship with our Maker. Our lives have objective meaning and purpose. Because human nature is a composite of external spirit and mortal flesh, the death of the body is not the end of personal...
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...Is there really life on other planets? You have probably asked yourself a question like this at least once in your life. Perhaps we will never really know because there is not any solid evidence. The only evidence is the testimony of people who have supposedly seen something out of the ordinary. There have been reports of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) all over the world and even reports of people being abducted by strange beings. Are people making all this up or are they really seeing something from another world? In the article “Extraterrestrial encounters: UFOs,” Alexander Geppert, an Emmy Noether Research Group Director at Freie Universitat Berlin, contends that people throughout the country and around the whole world have seen UFOs. The size of the UFOs seen can vary from eyewitness to eyewitness. The first UFO sighting occurred on June 24, 1947. While flying his plane, pilot Kenneth Arnold reported seeing nine objects, glowing bright blue-white, flying in formation over Washington State’s Mount Rainier.After the Arnold sighting, a “reputed” UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico occurred on July 8, 1947; this crash is known as the Roswell incident. Reported UFO sightings in Great Britain, North America, Japan and Eastern Europe, all within weeks of each other, showed a global phenomenon. People refer to these sighting as the “First Waves” of UFOs. Immediately following these encounters from 1947 to 1953, UFOs invaded popular culture; they were everywhere from movies...
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...Is believing in God reasonable or is he even real for that matter? Why do people choose to believe or not to believe in him? If you do believe is there any true value in doing so? The question of God’s very existence has been discussed throughout time. H.J. McCloskey, an atheist, expounds on this matter in his article “On Being an Atheist.” Of course this article is from the atheist point of view. McCloskey alleges that atheism is a more agreeable explanation of the world than theism, and the very existence of God must be dismissed. He believes this because of the presence of evil in the world and states that without definitive “proofs” God therefore cannot exist. McCloskey refers to arguments for God’s existence as “proofs.” I believe that McCloskey stresses this word to much. The term “proof” comes from the field of mathematics and it implicates certainty. For example 5 + 2 = 7 and 2 + 5 = 7 is a math formula that can be proved. It is a formula that can be proven according to the addition property of mathematics. The reality of God is not that simple. One should not look to prove his existence, but one should look to present the ideal that God is the best explanation for the world and life itself. A theist could do this by overlapping multiple ideas and together there is enough strength to present an argument for God being the best explanation for the world. McCloskey presents the following on the cosmological argument: He claims that “the mere existence...
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...explanation for these occurrences? I believe that these occurrences scream of an intelligent designer which also leads us to the existence of God. First I must explain what an argument for design is and then we will look at Paley’s Watchmaker Theory to give us better insight on this argument. Then I will point to Betty and Cordell’s argument that the things of our universe lead us to a belief in God (intelligent designer) and that the Big Bang theory is not the best explanation alone for the existence of God, and that a multiverse is not the best explanation for the existences in our universe. Design arguments most often try to explain the existence of God by pointing to various occurrences and objects within our world and universe that lead us to believe that there is an intelligent designer. According to the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, design arguments usually consist of three premises. One is a premise that asserts that the material universe exhibits some verifiable property (F); Two is a premise that asserts that (F) is persuasive evidence of intelligent design or purpose; Three concludes that the best or most probable explanation that the material universe exhibits (F) is that there exist an intelligent designer who intentionally brought it about that the material universe exists and exhibits (F) (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy). A simpler way to say this is that the theory of intelligent design holds that certain...
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...the birth of reason, and the same question that has plagued scientists and philosophers without coming close to an accepted conclusion. God is a word that means different things to different people. The definition for God, according to most monotheistic religions is the creator and ruler of the universe, and the source of all moral authority. When it comes to the possibility of God's existence, the Bible states that there are people who have seen sufficient evidence, but they have suppressed the truth about God. Up to this day, there are many differing opinions as to whether a God exists or not. The great controversy has led to my personal belief that God exists through the teleological, ontological and cosmological arguments. These major ideas help to back up my statement that God exists. Based on our everyday experiences, just about everything seems to have a beginning. William Paley was a philosopher during the eighteenth century who is best known for his exposition of the teleological argument for the existence of God. Derived from the Greek word "telos" which means "design or purpose", the teleological argument proposes that God must exist because the inner workings of the universe are too complicated and precise to just have come about on it's own. Through often confused with the argument from simple analogy, the watchmaker argument from Paley is a more sophisticated design argument that attempts to avoid...
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...others who choose a neutral approach. Several arguments have been presented to prove and disprove his existence based on scientific explanations and personal explanations. Scientific explanations have laws and principles that can explain the natural whys we have in our present universe. Personal explanations are provided when science can not explain the causes but provide the intentions of something just as good an explanation as the scientific one. The Cosmological Argument by Bruce Reichenbach seems to most likely to convince a rational and open-minded agnostic that they should believe in the existence of God because nothing natural in this universe could have caused the beginning of the universe. Reichenbach states that “theists are in good company when they look for explanations either of the universe or a particular phenomena within it” (p. 187). The argument Reichenbach presents has a different structure, but I will present it in a shorter form as followed: the universe (the contingent) had a beginning, so everything with a beginning/effect has a cause or explanation, the universe had a cause, nothing natural could have caused it or caused itself, therefore a non-contingent (necessary) being, we will name God, caused the universe to begin. I will discuss the primary objections to the argument and then explain why this argument would most likely convince someone, namely an agnostic, on rational grounds to believe in God’s existence. The Cosmological Argument provides, under specified...
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...Are We Alone in the Universe? Throughout its history humankind asked itself this question and constantly tried to answer “no”. The idea of sentient living beings who are not people is present in writings of historians, geographers and other scientists for as long as the science itself exists. Mermaids, cynocephali, various bizarre species of beastmen, antipodes: all of them were embodiments of this dream. In course of time, the limits of the known Universe expanded and it became known that no such creatures existed. The only place to seek for non-human life now is other planets. Is there any hope for finding it? There are a great number of theories concerning extraterrestrial life. According to the “rare Earth hypothesis”, the conditions on Earth are close to unique and the possibility of them taking place on any other planet is close to zero. However, this theory takes it for granted that the appearance of life requires conditions identical to those on Earth. But is it true? If life on other planets exists, it may be completely different from what we are used to not only in form, but in fundamental principles as well. Of all the chemical elements only carbon and silicon seem to be suitable for being the basis of life, although silicon can form connections with far less other elements. Needless to say, we have never encountered silicon-based lifeforms, but if they exist, they may have properties that have nothing in common with what we used to associate life with. According...
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...Principle which states that every atom can appear from the vacuum, but the chance of it is very low. This theory has two options, one state that the entire universe appeared in one moment. The chance that the kind of thing happened is very low but possible. The other option is that many atoms appeared and that they were the base of the Big bang theory. Uncertainty principle, the basis of the vacuum genesis, in quantum mechanics, is also a theory stating that it is impossible to specify simultaneously the position and momentum of a particle, such as an electron, with precision. Also called the indeterminacy principle, the theory further states that a more accurate determination of one quantity will result in a less precise measurement of the other, and that the product of both uncertainties is never less than Planck's constant, named after the German physicist Max Planck. Of very small magnitude, the uncertainty results from the fundamental nature of the particles being observed. In quantum mechanics, probability calculations therefore replace the exact calculations of classical mechanics. It is also a hypothesis that the universe began as nothingness, from which matter and energy arose by a process analogous to the appearance of virtual particles from a vacuum. Some limited experiments in the production of matter have been confirmed. We can create electron and other matter out of the vacuum state by providing the vacuum with enough energy. According to modern astrophysics and cosmologists...
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