Cosmos
Prayer changes our skin color
America is becoming a majority nonwhite nation because we PRAYED that it would. And not just an ordinary prayer. It was a prayer composed by our "best and brightest" and "hand delivered" to God.
The prayer was delivered to the heavens on March 2, 1972 aboard the spacecraft Pioneer 10. The purpose of the mission was to explore the solar system. After passing the moon, crossing Mars' orbit, and traversing the Asteroid Belt, Pioneer 10 passed within 81,000 miles of Jupiter on December 3, 1973. The spacecraft obtained the first close-up images of the planet, taking measurements of its radiation belts, magnetic fields, and predominantly liquid composition.
Pioneer 10 then explored the outer regions of the solar system, studying cosmic rays and particles from the solar wind. On March 31, 1997, when the mission formally ended, Pioneer 10 was 6.28 billion miles from Earth and heading away from our system.
America is becoming a majority nonwhite nation because we PRAYED that it would. And not just an ordinary prayer. It was a prayer composed by our "best and brightest" and "hand delivered" to God.
The prayer was delivered to the heavens on March 2, 1972 aboard the spacecraft Pioneer 10. The purpose of the mission was to explore the solar system. After passing the moon, crossing Mars' orbit, and traversing the Asteroid Belt, Pioneer 10 passed within 81,000 miles of Jupiter on December 3, 1973. The spacecraft obtained the first close-up images of the planet, taking measurements of its radiation belts, magnetic fields, and predominantly liquid composition.
Pioneer 10 then explored the outer regions of the solar system, studying cosmic rays and particles from the solar wind. On March 31, 1997, when the mission formally ended, Pioneer 10 was 6.28 billion miles from Earth and heading away from our system.
In the event an alien civilization would someday encounter Pioneer 10, scientists had placed aboard the spacecraft a plaque intended to represent our world. The plaque shows a naked man and woman standing before an outline of the spacecraft. The man's hand is raised, representing a gesture of good will. The features of the man and woman represent a computerized analysis of the average person on our planet. While the drawings are not richly detailed, the male is depicted with a broad nose, which is not a Caucasian feature.
The plaque also shows a schematic illustration of hydrogen, the most common element in the universe. The plaque was designed by Dr. Carl Sagan and Dr. Frank Drake and drawn by Linda Salzman Sagan.
Expecting an alien civilization to discover Pioneer 10 is like dropping a dime in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean in the hope that it will one day be recovered by a deep-sea diver. But who are we trying to communicate with, if not aliens? Since the heavens above have traditionally been considered the abode of the gods, a message into space is a message intended for God. Pioneer 10's "message in a bottle," thus, was a prayer to God, expressing the hopes and aspirations of the people who sent it: the people of the United States. And that message on the plaque, though unintended, said, "We want the people of America to look like the average human being, a mix of every race on earth."
Our prayer is being answered.
The universe is God's version of CERN
One objection to the existence of God and, more specifically, a God who meddles in human history, is the immense size of the universe. Astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan observed, "There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain(s) something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe."
The idea that our lone planet would be the center of divine attention in the vast cosmos seems ridiculous. But maybe not. If we want to understand how God plays God, we might get a hint from how man plays God.
Arguably, man’s first attempt to play God was the creation of the atomic bomb. If God made a sun in the heavens, man could make an artificial sun on earth. But the Manhattan Project involved constructing something very big just to produce something very small. The gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, measuring a half mile long with 42.6 acres under roof, could produce each day only 7.2 ounces of 80 percent enriched uranium, in a process that took more than six months to create just one A-bomb. That would be like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory making only one candy bar each day.
More recently, scientists at the CERN complex at the Swiss-Franco border “play God” when they try to recreate, in miniature, elements of the Big Bang that started our universe. Their pursuit of the “God Particle” also suggests divine aspirations.
The experiments at CERN far exceed the scale of the Manhattan Project. Scientists and engineers created giant machines and a tunnel 17 miles in circumference for the purpose of studying subatomic particles. If they would construct something so humongous just to examine something so incredibly tiny, it is conceivable that God would create a giant universe just for the purpose of focusing on our speck of human life on Earth. The universe is God’s version of CERN.
Admittedly, the universe is exponentially (by several magnitudes) larger than CERN, but that is why we have the word exponentially: to allow us to think big. And, if we think big enough, perhaps we can start thinking like God.
One objection to the existence of God and, more specifically, a God who meddles in human history, is the immense size of the universe. Astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan observed, "There are in fact 100 billion galaxies, each of which contain(s) something like a 100 billion stars. Think of how many stars, and planets, and kinds of life there may be in this vast and awesome universe."
The idea that our lone planet would be the center of divine attention in the vast cosmos seems ridiculous. But maybe not. If we want to understand how God plays God, we might get a hint from how man plays God.
Arguably, man’s first attempt to play God was the creation of the atomic bomb. If God made a sun in the heavens, man could make an artificial sun on earth. But the Manhattan Project involved constructing something very big just to produce something very small. The gaseous diffusion plant at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, measuring a half mile long with 42.6 acres under roof, could produce each day only 7.2 ounces of 80 percent enriched uranium, in a process that took more than six months to create just one A-bomb. That would be like Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory making only one candy bar each day.
More recently, scientists at the CERN complex at the Swiss-Franco border “play God” when they try to recreate, in miniature, elements of the Big Bang that started our universe. Their pursuit of the “God Particle” also suggests divine aspirations.
The experiments at CERN far exceed the scale of the Manhattan Project. Scientists and engineers created giant machines and a tunnel 17 miles in circumference for the purpose of studying subatomic particles. If they would construct something so humongous just to examine something so incredibly tiny, it is conceivable that God would create a giant universe just for the purpose of focusing on our speck of human life on Earth. The universe is God’s version of CERN.
Admittedly, the universe is exponentially (by several magnitudes) larger than CERN, but that is why we have the word exponentially: to allow us to think big. And, if we think big enough, perhaps we can start thinking like God.
From cosmos to cosmos to cosmos
While a student at Cal State Long Beach, where I graduated in June 1973, I worked part-time as the production manager of a small New Age publication, COSMOS. At the time, I believed most of the content to be rubbish. A few years later, I was more in tune with Carl Sagan's TV series, COSMOS, which offered a rational explanation of creation and the universe. Two decades later, I would merge these New Age and scientific perspectives into a balanced view of the cosmos.
In September 2008, I purchased Issue 19 of COSMOS, an Australian science magazine, at a bookstore in Vacaville, California. As this was the January 2008 issue, apparently the publication arrived on a slow boat from Sydney.
Besides adding a third component to my intersection with the cosmos, the magazine coincided with material on my website (now gone) Tonya Harding Shot JFK. Both the magazine and the site had stories on nuclear fusion. The COSMOS article "The Real Sherlock Holmes" included the same quote "when you have eliminated all which is impossible" that introduces one of my essays. COSMOS included a "Weird Science" column title on page 13. My website also had a Weird Science heading.
I attribute these coincidences to common thoughts that travel the world through a collective consciousness. Since cosmos is a synonym for universe, perhaps my trek from COSMOS to COSMOS to COSMOS is evidence that parallel or multiple universes do exist and people are traveling among them. If you think these are crazy ideas, then you must concede another meaningful coincidence: The COSMOS article on page 58 asked "Do you have to be nuts to be a genius?" The answer: No, but it could help.
I sent an e-mail to a COSMOS editor commenting on the coincidences. In the October/November 2008 issue, my e-mail appeared as a letter to the editor. However, my correspondence was rewritten to falsely state that my fusion article and the reference to Sherlock Holmes were published in the old Long Beach-based COSMOS, not on my website. Apparently, the new COSMOS did not want to give any publicity to my blog.
A dream I had in March 2009 suggested I would continue to have problems with the media filtering my message. In the dream, Nexus magazine, an Australian New Age publication, accepts my fusion reactor article. I receive the magazine with the article soon after. The headline and first two paragraphs state I was inspired by some other author favored by the magazine. I am furious.
The dream seemed to suggest I cannot rely on other people to promote my ideas; they have their own agendas to push. I must be in charge.
In October 2015, I watched an episode of the Australian TV series Mr. and Mrs. Murder, in which the husband is reading a copy of COSMOS while sitting in bed next to his wife. The couple portray crime scene cleaners who discover evidence overlooked by the police. The COSMOS connection may suggest that, like the husband, I am an amateur detective who pursues clues missed by scientists and other experts.
While a student at Cal State Long Beach, where I graduated in June 1973, I worked part-time as the production manager of a small New Age publication, COSMOS. At the time, I believed most of the content to be rubbish. A few years later, I was more in tune with Carl Sagan's TV series, COSMOS, which offered a rational explanation of creation and the universe. Two decades later, I would merge these New Age and scientific perspectives into a balanced view of the cosmos.
In September 2008, I purchased Issue 19 of COSMOS, an Australian science magazine, at a bookstore in Vacaville, California. As this was the January 2008 issue, apparently the publication arrived on a slow boat from Sydney.
Besides adding a third component to my intersection with the cosmos, the magazine coincided with material on my website (now gone) Tonya Harding Shot JFK. Both the magazine and the site had stories on nuclear fusion. The COSMOS article "The Real Sherlock Holmes" included the same quote "when you have eliminated all which is impossible" that introduces one of my essays. COSMOS included a "Weird Science" column title on page 13. My website also had a Weird Science heading.
I attribute these coincidences to common thoughts that travel the world through a collective consciousness. Since cosmos is a synonym for universe, perhaps my trek from COSMOS to COSMOS to COSMOS is evidence that parallel or multiple universes do exist and people are traveling among them. If you think these are crazy ideas, then you must concede another meaningful coincidence: The COSMOS article on page 58 asked "Do you have to be nuts to be a genius?" The answer: No, but it could help.
I sent an e-mail to a COSMOS editor commenting on the coincidences. In the October/November 2008 issue, my e-mail appeared as a letter to the editor. However, my correspondence was rewritten to falsely state that my fusion article and the reference to Sherlock Holmes were published in the old Long Beach-based COSMOS, not on my website. Apparently, the new COSMOS did not want to give any publicity to my blog.
A dream I had in March 2009 suggested I would continue to have problems with the media filtering my message. In the dream, Nexus magazine, an Australian New Age publication, accepts my fusion reactor article. I receive the magazine with the article soon after. The headline and first two paragraphs state I was inspired by some other author favored by the magazine. I am furious.
The dream seemed to suggest I cannot rely on other people to promote my ideas; they have their own agendas to push. I must be in charge.
In October 2015, I watched an episode of the Australian TV series Mr. and Mrs. Murder, in which the husband is reading a copy of COSMOS while sitting in bed next to his wife. The couple portray crime scene cleaners who discover evidence overlooked by the police. The COSMOS connection may suggest that, like the husband, I am an amateur detective who pursues clues missed by scientists and other experts.
Ancient Egypt may save future Earth
If humanity survives its own follies and the many geological and climatic changes on Earth in the eons ahead, it still faces extinction when the sun turns into a red giant in approximately 5.4 billion years. The growing sun will engulf the current orbits of Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth.
Even before it becomes a red giant, the brightness of the sun will have nearly doubled, and Earth will be hotter than Venus is today. The conventional wisdom is that humans by this time may have colonized planets on distant stars.
However, there may be hope for maintaining life on Earth. The expansion of the sun might be contained by creating a very small black hole within a close orbit of the sun, which would "suck up" the sun's excess energy. Hopefully, an advanced humanity would have the knowledge and resources to complete such a project.
The spaceship carrying the mechanics to approach the sun and create the mini black hole would be named Khepri after the Egyptian scarab god who rolls the sun across the sky just as the beetle rolls the ball of dung. The little black hole would be the little black bug that "pushes" the sun.
If humanity survives its own follies and the many geological and climatic changes on Earth in the eons ahead, it still faces extinction when the sun turns into a red giant in approximately 5.4 billion years. The growing sun will engulf the current orbits of Mercury, Venus and possibly Earth.
Even before it becomes a red giant, the brightness of the sun will have nearly doubled, and Earth will be hotter than Venus is today. The conventional wisdom is that humans by this time may have colonized planets on distant stars.
However, there may be hope for maintaining life on Earth. The expansion of the sun might be contained by creating a very small black hole within a close orbit of the sun, which would "suck up" the sun's excess energy. Hopefully, an advanced humanity would have the knowledge and resources to complete such a project.
The spaceship carrying the mechanics to approach the sun and create the mini black hole would be named Khepri after the Egyptian scarab god who rolls the sun across the sky just as the beetle rolls the ball of dung. The little black hole would be the little black bug that "pushes" the sun.
Images Hubble Space Telescope image of Messier 77 spiral galaxy, public domain; Pioneer 10 plaque, NASA, public domain