Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'cosmology'.
-
To go along with some of the other recent discussions about the nature of God and creation and cosmology, I have seen a couple of different themes that have caused me to wonder just what we think (if we all think the same thing) about the scope or extent of our Father's creation. I'm not quite sure how to explain what I am thinking here, but a few examples might show the idea I am trying to convey. From smallest to largest: 1) One discussion talked about us "creating planets". Is our Father's/Christ's creation limited to the Earth/Solar system, and everything outside of that is beyond what He created? 2) The scriptures say that God created the Sun, Moon, and stars and placed them in the firmament of heaven. With a couple of notable exceptions (I will come back to them), every star, cluster, nebula, object that we can see naked eye is within our own Milky Way galaxy/"island universe". Is God's creation limited to a single galaxy? Pertaining to this case, the notable exceptions are the Andromeda galaxy and the Triangulum galaxy (and maybe a few others, but definitely those two), both of which can be seen naked eye (when modern light pollution does not interfere). When I look up and see these clouds of light, am I looking beyond what our Father has created? When I pull out my telescope and observe any of the dozens of galaxies that my 150 mm diameter mirror will allow me to see, am I finding things that my Father did not create? I have seen some suggest that God must exist within the universe, so He cannot have created the entire universe, so this model might make sense if that is true. This also might appeal to those who believe in a "steady state" "the universe has always existed" "matter is eternal" kind of universe. 3) Did God create the entire observable universe? No matter what tool I devise, I cannot see anything beyond what the Father created. Does this place the Father (and the Son and our premortal selves) in a "place"/"dimension" outside of our universe? I'm sure there are other variations, but hopefully that gives some sense of what I am pondering. Personally, I am partial to something along the 3rd example -- that God through Christ created the entire observable universe. This suggests to me that the universe's existance (as I can see it, anyway) does not extend back in time indefinitely -- there must have been some beginning point. Whether the big bang's hypothesis that time and space were "created" together, I don't know. Since this kind of observation is beyond my mortal ability, I find it difficult to impossible to conceive of what "state" the universe was in before its creation, or to conceive of God's state outside of that universe. My hypothesis is that few LDS will go with a narrow scope of creation like 1. I would be curious, though, what we might think beyond that.
-
From Scientific American website, copied 10 January 2016. https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg22930554-300-supermassive-black-holes-might-be-hiding-entire-universes-inside/ Quantum mechanics says that information cannot be destroyed Can someone explain to me what this means please? LDS theology says that matter and intelligence cannot be destroyed. There are not too many classes of things that have this property of indestructibility so it makes me wonder, when we do come across this property, whether we are seeing just one thing, or two different aspects, or manifestations of, the same thing, but calling it by two different names.
-
Three ideas: 1. Our spirits are made of matter (D&C 131:7) 2. Our spirits are gnolaum – that is, without beginning or end (Abraham 3:18) 3. Matter had a beginning, only coming into existence sometime after the Big Bang Can these statements be reconciled with each other ? If so, how? If not, which one is not true or needs to be reinterpreted/reconstructured?