'Eutectoid' steel - As God intended?

[Quenchcrack]

Consider that iron is the most abundant metallic element on earth, that carbon is available on almost every habitable continent, that steel is THE most necessary material for civilization and you begin to see some Divine Intentions. If you have never studied the Periodic Chart of the Elements, get a basic Chemistry book and read it. The assemby of the various elements is so perfectly ordered it defies random chance for their creation.

[fitzo]

The part that I find most awesome is that it's all been this way for 15 billion years. That The Big Bang IS "Let there be light". The Order proceeded from the first instant. Way too much for man's small intellect to really grasp, IMO. We try, through science and religion, but fall far short of real understanding. How very wonderous it all is! How very cool that when you get to the most basic levels, two seemingly disparate paradigms tend to converge.

Who was it who said (paraphrase), "Not only is the Universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we CAN imagine!" ?

[fitzo]

I looked it up: Sir Arthur Eddington, 1882-1944, astrophysicist

[TexasJack]

Fitzo! You scare me when you say things I agree with!

How about another quote: "The most unpredictable thing about the universe is it's predictability." Albert Einstein

I've known a lot of scientists. I haven't known many (any?) that were atheists. The universe makes too much sense to be random.

[fitzo]

Jack, I think you and I have agreed on numerous topics, just with slightly different viewpoints and words. Similarity is usually much greater than difference, just not as obvious. We simply sometimes differ on the fine points, I hope.

Too many years ago, studying both chemistry and philosophy/religion in college, I was awed to find that, the deeper one delves into how the great physics minds thought, the more their "final analyses", so to speak, became more metaphysical as they struggled to grasp the nature of reality. Mathematics and theory and quantifiable understanding break down and we are returned to that inarticulate sense of Interconnectedness with the Source and the awareness of an immensity of Order far beyond our minds' ability to comprehend. We realize that science is no more than an imperfect attempt to describe that which already exists. All that we can do is articulate small bits of Reality in a way that scares us a little less and allows us to better utilize that which was there already, larger than Mind can grasp. (If that makes any sense!) Very heady stuff.

Perhaps you or someone else can help me with another quote, which I was unable to dig up through Google:
who was it that said something to the effect: "the more I look at the Universe the more it appears to be one great thought!"? Perhaps that was Albert E., too???? Memory fails me...

The Big Bang physics explanations that I've read mostly concentrate on those first few instants of the "event". What intrigues me more is those few instants that proceeded it, and the possibilities of Intent beyond my ability to ever grasp.....

[Quenchcrack]

Fitzo, more food for thought: we all know that all the matter in the Universe was compressed into the volume of a pinhead prior to the Big Bang....but so was all the space in the universe! Prior to the BB, there was N O T H I N G. Try to get your head around that....... Going to the other extreme, if you are at all interested in Modern Physics, there is a book called "The Elegant Universe" by a guy named Greene (sorry forgot the first name). Great book writted on the level of Scientific American on the effort to find a Unified Field Theory that connects all four basic forces (Gravity, magnetism, weak field and strong field atomic forces) in the universe. It ends with several chapters on String Theory that begen to go way over my head...but it was interesting!

[fitzo]

My point exactly, Quench! Where'd it come from? Not even a "blank canvas", but nothingness! Something we can't really grasp, not wired for it! The best my little mind will come up with is sort of an anaolgy of a gas bubble rising through a liquid in vacuum and bursting forth to fill the container, but without the container or vaccum. Something bursting through a membrane of dimension to create a new space and time. Argggh! :confused:

Sort of a question like "where do black holes go?" when/if they get too dense.

Thanks for the heads up on the book. It's been awhile since I did any reading on this stuff. I've been wanting to get Hawking's book, too. What a tragedy, this generation's best hope for the UFT, distracted too early by Lou Gehrig's disease.

Guess I'll buy myself a couple books for Christmas! Thanks, again. Very interesting discussion.