What we believe is at times exclusive of what we understand. We tend to believe what we were taught and what is accepted by majority of the society to be correct. Why do we so strongly believe in things we do not understand?
What we believe is at times exclusive of what we understand. We tend to believe what we were taught and what is accepted by majority of the society to be correct. Why do we so strongly believe in things we do not understand? Considerable number of Sri lankans strongly believe in astrology. They work according to astrologically set auspicious times. What is the base for these beliefs. According to my understanding there is no base at all. The planetary system is generally understood as rocks (or masses) (except gas giants of course)rotating around sun. Some try to find a scientific background when people question about the reason to believe. One such attempt is to explain the effect as an gravitational pull. People on earth are affected by the gravitational pull of these planets. So, M of Saturn is 5.6851x 1026, r is about 1.3 x 1012 and we get the effect as GMm/r2 to be 2.243.76x 10-22 N(man is 100kg). The distance between two people(100kg) to get the same gravitational force is 0.5 m(Hope my mathematics is right*). So lot of humans are affecting you than Saturn. And not only people, dogs, cats, cars and every non living object. Same situation is with Stars as well, because the r is in squired. It is a higher value just like the M. Another point is that that the rays from the planets and stars are affecting us. So, light bulbs and touches are different. Might my mobile phone change my future; it emits microwave alright. And the planets are just reflecting the sun’s rays they do not generate any themselves. In other words the rays we get from the planets is a segment of the rays we get from the sun. Any way most of these stars could be dead now, as it takes time for light to travel, may be thousands or even millions of years. So a star which died about a thousand years ago is affecting us. But light and gravity works in speed of light. May be they are having a special kind of gravitational force or rays other than the spectrum we know. These things are unproven just like i could say we originated from aliens. And i don’t see lot of people schedule their activities on alien invasions or worship aliens. Some people believe that there are other laws at work when designing homes buildings, other than the laws of physics(වාස්තුවිද්යාව,nothing to do with civil engineering). They set suitable locations, angles etc. based on unproven logic. One person i heard say that it is not good to have the staircase base at the center of the land(it’s a personal experience). The problem in that logic is: there is no center of the land; the earth is a sphere. And there is no land such that is mine. The ownership of land and physical objects including ourselves has no meaning. Its just in our mind. So center of land is in our mind and bad luck is in our mind as well. Is it necessary for us to prove every thing to know it is right? No it is not the idea. There are some things that have a higher probability of being correct such as world being round. Accepting that assumption will give a sensible explanation to so many other things( such as sunrise). And there are some things that does not fit in to this category. It is better to think that there are things that we do not understand but totally depending and scheduling life according to an unproven logic is something different. There is a chance for it to be correct, a chance equal for us to be of alien origin and so many other unproven beliefs. Any way it is comforting to believe that there is a higher power and we can save, improve our life by working accordingly. That comfort is what we seek by all beliefs.
*Assumptions: The distance can not be taken between Saturn and Earth because both are moving. The lowest value i took. The radius of Saturn not added. Even those added we are in the error range, from human to a train may be.
What we believe…….
ReplyDeleteby Kanishka
http://offtheplanets.blogspot.jp/2009/08/what-we-belive.html
What we believe is at times exclusive of what we understand. We tend to believe what we were taught and what is accepted by majority of the society to be correct. Why do we so strongly believe in things we do not understand? Considerable number of Sri lankans strongly believe in astrology. They work according to astrologically set auspicious times. What is the base for these beliefs. According to my understanding there is no base at all. The planetary system is generally understood as rocks (or masses) (except gas giants of course)rotating around sun. Some try to find a scientific background when people question about the reason to believe. One such attempt is to explain the effect as an gravitational pull. People on earth are affected by the gravitational pull of these planets.
ReplyDeleteSo, M of Saturn is 5.6851x 1026, r is about 1.3 x 1012 and we get the effect as GMm/r2 to be 2.243.76x 10-22 N(man is 100kg). The distance between two people(100kg) to get the same gravitational force is 0.5 m(Hope my mathematics is right*). So lot of humans are affecting you than Saturn. And not only people, dogs, cats, cars and every non living object. Same situation is with Stars as well, because the r is in squired. It is a higher value just like the M.
Another point is that that the rays from the planets and stars are affecting us. So, light bulbs and touches are different. Might my mobile phone change my future; it emits microwave alright. And the planets are just reflecting the sun’s rays they do not generate any themselves. In other words the rays we get from the planets is a segment of the rays we get from the sun. Any way most of these stars could be dead now, as it takes time for light to travel, may be thousands or even millions of years. So a star which died about a thousand years ago is affecting us. But light and gravity works in speed of light.
May be they are having a special kind of gravitational force or rays other than the spectrum we know. These things are unproven just like i could say we originated from aliens. And i don’t see lot of people schedule their activities on alien invasions or worship aliens.
Some people believe that there are other laws at work when designing homes buildings, other than the laws of physics(වාස්තුවිද්යාව,nothing to do with civil engineering). They set suitable locations, angles etc. based on unproven logic. One person i heard say that it is not good to have the staircase base at the center of the land(it’s a personal experience). The problem in that logic is: there is no center of the land; the earth is a sphere. And there is no land such that is mine. The ownership of land and physical objects including ourselves has no meaning. Its just in our mind. So center of land is in our mind and bad luck is in our mind as well. Is it necessary for us to prove every thing to know it is right? No it is not the idea. There are some things that have a higher probability of being correct such as world being round. Accepting that assumption will give a sensible explanation to so many other things( such as sunrise). And there are some things that does not fit in to this category.
It is better to think that there are things that we do not understand but totally depending and scheduling life according to an unproven logic is something different. There is a chance for it to be correct, a chance equal for us to be of alien origin and so many other unproven beliefs. Any way it is comforting to believe that there is a higher power and we can save, improve our life by working accordingly. That comfort is what we seek by all beliefs.
*Assumptions: The distance can not be taken between Saturn and Earth because both are moving. The lowest value i took. The radius of Saturn not added. Even those added we are in the error range, from human to a train may be.