The Comprehensible Cosmos

The Comprehensible Cosmos PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stenger provides an in-depth presentation for those fascinated by how physicsexplains the universe and affects philosophy.

The Comprehensible Cosmos

The Comprehensible Cosmos PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stenger provides an in-depth presentation for those fascinated by how physicsexplains the universe and affects philosophy.

The Comprehensible Cosmos

The Comprehensible Cosmos PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161592079X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Get Book Here

Book Description
Stenger provides an in-depth presentation for those fascinated by how physicsexplains the universe and affects philosophy.

Cosmos

Cosmos PDF Author: Giles Sparrow
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781786489661
Category : Astronomy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
The biggest and best ever reproduction of the Space Age's most remarkable images The magnificent vault of stars emblazoning Earth's night skies are but an infinitesimal fraction of the hundreds of billions that inhabit our galaxy - and there are at least as many galaxies in the universe as there are stars in the Milky Way. Cosmos makes sense of this dizzying celestial panorama by exploring it one step at a time, illustrating the planets, moons, stars, nebulae, white dwarfs, black holes and other exotica that populate the heavens with some of science's most spectacular photographs. The book opens with an orbital survey of planet Earth, before venturing into the solar system heading for interstellar space and the heart of our galaxy. As the journey unfolds, the rhythms of stellar life emerge: we pass through dark clouds of dust and gas ablaze with newly smelted stars and we witness dying stars bloom and fade as planetary nebulae, or tear themselves apart as supernovae. Having crossed the Milky Way, we enter intergalactic space. Out here we watch the hidden lives of galaxies: we see them flock and cluster, forming massive conglomerations that span millions of light years, visibly warping space with their tremendous gravity. After covering an almost unimaginable 13.4 billion light years, we approach the edge of space and the dawn of time where our voyage must end, but not before we consider how the universe was born, and how it might die. A landmark in popular science publishing, Cosmos is a majestic, giant format, account of the ultimate journey - a 13.7-billion-light-year- (or 130-billion-trillion kilometre- ) voyage from our home planet to the edge of the universe and the beginning of time. Illustrated with 450 images of staggering beauty.

Mind and Cosmos

Mind and Cosmos PDF Author: Thomas Nagel
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199919755
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 141

Get Book Here

Book Description
The modern materialist approach to life has conspicuously failed to explain such central mind-related features of our world as consciousness, intentionality, meaning, and value. This failure to account for something so integral to nature as mind, argues philosopher Thomas Nagel, is a major problem, threatening to unravel the entire naturalistic world picture, extending to biology, evolutionary theory, and cosmology. Since minds are features of biological systems that have developed through evolution, the standard materialist version of evolutionary biology is fundamentally incomplete. And the cosmological history that led to the origin of life and the coming into existence of the conditions for evolution cannot be a merely materialist history, either. An adequate conception of nature would have to explain the appearance in the universe of materially irreducible conscious minds, as such. Nagel's skepticism is not based on religious belief or on a belief in any definite alternative. In Mind and Cosmos, he does suggest that if the materialist account is wrong, then principles of a different kind may also be at work in the history of nature, principles of the growth of order that are in their logical form teleological rather than mechanistic. In spite of the great achievements of the physical sciences, reductive materialism is a world view ripe for displacement. Nagel shows that to recognize its limits is the first step in looking for alternatives, or at least in being open to their possibility.

God and the Multiverse

God and the Multiverse PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161614971X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 450

Get Book Here

Book Description
Cosmologists have reasons to believe that the vast universe in which we live is just one of an endless number of other universes within a multiverse—a mind-boggling array that may extend indefinitely in space and endlessly in both the past and the future. Victor Stenger reviews the key developments in the history of science that led to the current consensus view of astrophysicists, taking pains to explain essential concepts and discoveries in accessible terminology. The author shows that science’s emerging understanding of the multiverse—consisting of trillions upon trillions of galaxies—is fully explicable in naturalistic terms with no need for supernatural forces to explain its origin or ongoing existence. How can conceptions of God, traditional or otherwise, be squared with this new worldview? The author shows how long-held beliefs will need to undergo major revision or otherwise face eventual extinction.

A Fortunate Universe

A Fortunate Universe PDF Author: Geraint F. Lewis
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1316715221
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 395

Get Book Here

Book Description
Over the last forty years, scientists have uncovered evidence that if the Universe had been forged with even slightly different properties, life as we know it - and life as we can imagine it - would be impossible. Join us on a journey through how we understand the Universe, from its most basic particles and forces, to planets, stars and galaxies, and back through cosmic history to the birth of the cosmos. Conflicting notions about our place in the Universe are defined, defended and critiqued from scientific, philosophical and religious viewpoints. The authors' engaging and witty style addresses what fine-tuning might mean for the future of physics and the search for the ultimate laws of nature. Tackling difficult questions and providing thought-provoking answers, this volumes challenges us to consider our place in the cosmos, regardless of our initial convictions.

God: The Failed Hypothesis

God: The Failed Hypothesis PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 161592003X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 310

Get Book Here

Book Description
Throughout history, arguments for and against the existence of God have been largely confined to philosophy and theology, while science has sat on the sidelines. Despite the fact that science has revolutionized every aspect of human life and greatly clarified our understanding of the world, somehow the notion has arisen that it has nothing to say about the possibility of a supreme being, which much of humanity worships as the source of all reality. This book contends that, if God exists, some evidence for this existence should be detectable by scientific means, especially considering the central role that God is alleged to play in the operation of the universe and the lives of humans. Treating the traditional God concept, as conventionally presented in the Judeo-Christian and Islamic traditions, like any other scientific hypothesis, physicist Stenger examines all of the claims made for God's existence. He considers the latest Intelligent Design arguments as evidence of God's influence in biology. He looks at human behavior for evidence of immaterial souls and the possible effects of prayer. He discusses the findings of physics and astronomy in weighing the suggestions that the universe is the work of a creator and that humans are God's special creation. After evaluating all the scientific evidence, Stenger concludes that beyond a reasonable doubt the universe and life appear exactly as we might expect if there were no God. This paperback edition of the New York Times bestselling hardcover edition contains a new foreword by Christopher Hitchens and a postscript by the author in which he responds to reviewers' criticisms of the original edition.

The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning

The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616144440
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 326

Get Book Here

Book Description
A number of authors have noted that if some physical parameters were slightly changed, the universe could no longer support life, as we know it. This implies that life depends sensitively on the physics of our universe. Does this "fine-tuning" of the universe suggest that a creator god intentionally calibrated the initial conditions of the universe such that life on earth and the evolution of humanity would eventually emerge? In his in-depth and highly accessible discussion of this fascinating and controversial topic, the author looks at the evidence and comes to the opposite conclusion. He finds that the observations of science and our naked senses not only show no evidence for God, they provide evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that God does not exist.

The Living Cosmos

The Living Cosmos PDF Author: Chris Impey
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139499815
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
Considering the development of life on Earth, the existence of life in extreme environments and the potential for life elsewhere in the Universe, this book gives a fascinating insight into our place in the Universe. Chris Impey leads the reader through the history, from the Copernican revolution to the emergence of the field of astrobiology – the study of life in the cosmos. He examines how life on Earth began, exploring its incredible variety and the extreme environments in which it can survive. Finally, Impey turns his attention to our Solar System and the planets beyond, discussing whether there may be life elsewhere in the Universe. Written in non-technical language, this book is ideal for anyone wanting to know more about astrobiology and how it is changing our views of life and the Universe. An accompanying website available at www.cambridge.org/9780521173841 features podcasts, articles and news stories on astrobiology.

Timeless Reality

Timeless Reality PDF Author: Victor J. Stenger
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615922288
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
A professor of physics and astronomy studies a theory that time is reversible, and explains how physicists have generally been reluctant to accept the reversibility of time because of the implied causal paradoxes. Illustrations.