For millennia our ancestors saw the same sky and struggled to make sense of it. What was the key to understanding him? (Shutterstock)

“What is the universe eating?” “It’s a sci-fi thriller,” explains Paul Davis, author of the book and a cosmologist. To capture the big picture, we must take a journey from the edge of time itself, passing from our own time to the infinite future. The purpose of cosmology is to study the origin, evolution, and destiny of the universe. Cosmology is small and intertwined with the vastness of space – a human endeavor of shocking courage, immersed in fields of study that have been confined to religion and philosophy for millennia. By revealing the secrets of nature, some may feel that the bright light of science is leading to the enchantment of the unknown. But I always believe that as we go deeper we will find more beauty and wonder in nature. The magical nature is the nature that manifests itself with its great grace and charm. Good to know. “

Papadopoulos Publications is publishing the book this week and “K” is pre-publishing two traits.

Pre-publication

The vast arches of the galaxy, the innumerable twinkling stars, and the constant and unchanging glow of the planets – make it impossible to look up at the night sky. Broadness and sophistication overwhelm you. For millennia our ancestors saw the same sky and struggled to make sense of it. What was the key to understanding him? How was the world created? What was the position of human beings in the general picture of things? For many ancient societies, understanding the heavens was not a philosophical or spiritual challenge; It was also a practical necessity. I recently met with my friends for a short day trip to the Pentecostal Islands in the Coral Sea. This area is full of treacherous rocks, so accurate navigation is essential. Of course the first option is the GPS method, but I was relieved when they were told that they knew how to navigate with the help of the stars in case of electronic malfunction. This has been going on for thousands of years. Knowledge of the motions of the heavens was crucial to human well-being: not only for navigation, but also for migration, crops, and time measurement. The passion of our distant ancestors for the wheels of the sun, moon, and planets is evident from the megalithic structures they built, so some of them coincide with astronomical events – events full of religious significance and rich rituals. Heaven was considered to be the land of supernatural beings. In some cultures, the sun, moon, and planets were worshiped as deities. But the mastery of the motions of astronomical bodies led the sky to a very different picture: instead of being an “amusement park” of the gods, it was like a mechanism, a complex system of moving parts. Once the image above was installed, accurate measurements were needed to specify the method of organizing and controlling the system. Mathematics and geometry emerged as critical skills. Along with priests and emperors, astronomers gained power and prestige in society. Subtle measurements and analyzes revealed the order and consistency of numbers and shapes, gradually in celestial activity. Many theoretical models have been developed over the centuries. Claudius Ptolemy, a second-century Greek astronomer, proposed the theory behind his name, based on a summary of all his earlier ideas. Ptolemaic cosmology talked about the complex system of internal spheres orbiting the Earth at different speeds.

The mechanical models of the universe were in the right direction, but the theological dimension never completely disappeared. There has always been a thorny issue regarding its origin. How did this great cosmic structure first come into being? Was there a moving reason for moving this complex system? A supernatural creator who brought order out of anarchy? A God who created the universe out of nothing? In those early models no attempt was made to link the motion of astronomical objects to the motion of physical objects on Earth. The moving sky and earth remained separate areas. This view persisted into the Middle Ages, until the 17th century. Then, all of a sudden, mankind’s understanding of the universe changed. A small group of visionary “natural philosophers” realized that the key to the universe was not in divine interventions or in the geometry of cosmic architecture. On the contrary, it is in the laws of nature that it transcends the material world and possesses an abstract realm that is invisible to the senses but beyond the reach of human reason. Not only do ancient philosophers’ favorite numbers and shapes manifest themselves in specific physical objects and systems, but they also form a mosaic of subtle forms encrypted in a kind of cosmic code intertwined with the laws of nature. It was a shocking conceptual change that marked the transition from a simple description of the world to its description. In 1632, Galileo Galilei poetically expressed a leap of understanding with this transformation: “The great book of nature is written in the language of mathematics”, without which “we are just wandering in the dark labyrinth”. Galileo says that the key to the universe is in mathematical decryption, and three centuries later the astronomer Sir James Jeans repeated this declaration: “The universe seems to have been designed by a great mathematician!” Galileo himself began to unlock the hidden mathematical order of nature, but it took another generation, especially Isaac Newton and Gottfried Leibniz, to put things in order. What they did was not an ambitious and fully organized cultural endeavor like today’s scientific research. The few founders we now call science were members of a sect, almost a secret society, they were unorthodoxly religious, full of strife and selfishness, and are still steeped in the mysterious traditions of antiquity.

Big questions

In this book I have focused on the big questions of existence, which appear through the lens of science, which is my perspective. But we must say that it is not pleasant for most scientists to delve into philosophical questions, some of which seem to be extremist to theology. If you challenge scientists to say whether the universe has any message or purpose, most will either say no, or (like the philosopher) Ayers, dismiss the question itself as meaningless. Steven Weinberg, an eminent scientist who dared to deal with this problem, wrote: “The more I understand the universe, the more meaningless it seems.” Weinberg was widely criticized for recognizing and valuing the universe for its “purpose”. Formal reasoning rightly describes a universe with the special qualities of “mere existence” and “existence” for no reason as “irrational”. But if there is no rational stable shape beneath the surface phenomena of nature, if things are to “exist,” if the universe is irrational, then the success of the scientific struggle is utterly mysterious. The methods we have used so far will continue to work, and we cannot fight with the hope that we will find meaningful new systems and processes – because how is it based on irrationality? I quoted these thoughts in an article in the New York Times a few years ago. The author subtitled “Belief in Science”. This has led to angry reactions from some of my colleagues, who oppose anything that blurs the boundaries between science and religion, although their aspirations are general and the word “faith” has many meanings. One of the most honorable answers came from the famous cosmologist and author Sean Carroll, who unanimously commented on the authenticity of the laws of nature: “There is a chain of explanations for what happens in the universe. Will gladly accept. ” All scientists who choose to work on profound universe questions are asked to choose: either they will accept the universe as Carol – the inexplicable invisible fact – continue the practical work of science, or they will accept it. The struggle of science is based on a deep layer of rational order. If the latter is true, then the interesting question is whether science will ever progress to fully understand this deep layer. This is one of the biggest questions we will discuss in this book.