When we look at a building we have a general idea of what to expect if we were to enter it. We may expect to find certain rooms and facilities such as bathrooms, bedrooms, toilets, kitchen etc etc, and where they may be located, and what they also may contain. This can be called the structure of the building. One of the most profound questions confronting humans is what is the structure of the universe in which we live? What does it consist of and how are the pieces arranged? What is the position of the earth and life at the scale of the universe? This article provides an overview of the structure of the universe based on current observation and scientific evidence, and compares that with the views expressed or implied in religious texts. Readers are encouraged to provide their feedback in the comments section.
Our earth is spherical like a ball, however it is flatter towards the top (poles) and a little bulged out towards the center. Mathematicians call such a shape an oblate spheroid. We humans walk on the surface of this ball like how ants would over the surface of a football. An observer in space will see people in say Australia walking on the earth upside down compared to people in Europe. But due to the fact that the earth is much larger than any human we are unable to perceive this effect and actually most of us are completely ignorant about it. Our earth along with seven other plants and one planetoid orbit around a star. From earth that star is approximately 150 million kilometers away. In English we call this star the sun. The Romans called in Helios, the Greeks called it Sol, from which we get the world solar. The sun and its planets as well as other objects such as comets and asteroids that also orbit it, are collectively called the solar system. If we were to travel away from our solar system we will eventually encounter other stars some with their own solar systems. So far 474 solar systems have been found among the stars in our neighborhood. The majority of stars in our neighborhood however exist as binary star systems, that is two stars orbiting each other and no planets. If we were to live in a solar system which had a binary system we would essentially see two suns in the sky and not one. What I described as our neighborhood is group of stars existing together is what we call a galaxy. Our galaxy is called the Milky Way Galaxy, it was given that name by the ancient Greeks. The Milky Way is shaped like a flat disk with an average thickness of 1,000 light years and diameter of 100,000 light years. This means if we were to travel from one end of the Milky Way to the other moving at the speed of light it would take us 100,000 years of traveling, encountering one star after the other at various distances, likewise 1,000 years to travel from top to bottom. So far it has been estimated that the Milky Way contains over 200 billion stars. Due to the same gravity that causes our earth to orbit around the sun, our sun plus all the stars in the galaxy are also orbiting the center of the galaxy. For our sun the time for one orbit is 250 million years. This means that since our sun was formed it has orbited the galactic center just 20 times. The reason for this orbit of our sun about the galactic center is due to the presence of a black hole at the center of the galaxy. A black hole is an object of infinite density and excessively high gravitational pull. In fact the gravitational pull is so high that within a certain distance known as the event horizon, not even light can escape from a black hole.
Now let us continue our journey by traveling out of our galaxy. We will soon encounter emptiness called a void, but after 2.5 million years traveling at the speed of light we shall encounter a neighboring galaxy called Andromeda. This galaxy is similar in structure and size to our own galaxy. In fact latest calculations suggest Andromeda and Milky Way are gravitationally bound to each other in other words they orbit one another. This hypothesis is still being verified as we speak. Dr Todd Lauer of Princeton is one of the team leaders on this project. It turns out our Milky Way has a total of 32 immediate neighboring galaxies, some of their names are; Canis Major dwarf, Large Magellanic cloud, Triangulum Galaxy, Sagittarius Dwarf Galaxy, Fornax Dwarf Galaxy, Leo 1, Tucana Dwarf, and others. This group of galaxies is called the Local Group of Galaxies.
Now let us continue beyond our Local Group. After 100 million years we will encounter other local groups that we call clusters, some of their names are Eridanus cluster, Virgo Cluster, Canes Group, Leo 3 Cluster, and many others. As of this date scientists do not know if these clusters are orbiting each other or not. The next generation of cosmologists hopefully some Ghanaians among them will figure this out for us.
We shall continue our journey now for another 1 billion years. If we look back now we will see our Local Group as part of what we call a supercluster, and we shall see several neighboring superclusters, some of their names are Capriconus supercluster, Corona-Borealis supercluster, Bootes supercluster, Centaurus supercluster, Coma supercluster, and many others. Our supercluster is called the Virgo supercluster. We shall also observe large voids separating superclusters. The voids appear to be devoid of any galaxies, some of their names are Bootes Void, Sculptor Void, and others.
Our journey continues for another 14 billion years. It is only at this time that we can look back and can see the overall structure of the cosmos on the grand scale. Literally supercluster after supercluster linked together in strands called filaments separated by huge voids, stretching out billions and billions of light years, something like the structure of a sponge. Some of these filaments have been named: the Great Wall discovered by Dr Margaret Geller of Harvard in 1989, the Sloan Great Wall discovered by Dr Richard Gott of Princeton in 2003, and many others. And this is the limit of human observation so far, the known universe but not the end of the universe by any means. So far we have encountered over 125 billion galaxies. And so it goes. It has been postulated that the universe is curved back onto itself but so far this has not been proven so we simply don?t know. Again, the next generation of cosmologists hopefully some Ghanaians among them will provide answers for future generations. An immense, and glorious universe on an unimaginable scale for all to behold. And note that this structure is continuously expanding, rising like dough with yeast, due to the expansion of the universe that started at the big bang.
At this juncture we shall stop and pause and digest all this information we have now learned and prepare ourselves to apply it. Let us ponder some of the consequences. If we have seen over over 125 billion galaxies so far and each contains say 100 billion stars we can imagine how many stars may be out there and how many solar systems may be out there or how many advanced civilizations are out there? Is it therefore defensible for us humans here on earth to say we are special? Apparently we are insignificant in an insignificant corner of the cosmos. Given that we are dealing in million of light years, even if we were to detect some habitable planets or other life forms elsewhere imagine the millions if not billions of years needed to travel to get there to meet them. By the same reason if it takes light millions of years to reach those parts of the cosmos then if an advanced civilization saw us then they would be seeing now as we were millions of years ago. In other words they would be seeing our Homo Erectus ancestors because millions of years ago anatomically modern humans had not yet evolved. Given this context, to suggest that humans and earth are some special project or have some special purpose is simply absurd.
So where is god in all this? Where is he? Where are Jesus and the angels? Which of these galaxies or superclusters do they live in? Or are they hiding in the voids to avoid being detected by our telescopes? Where is heaven, where is hell? And how do we get there? How come not a shred of evidence to detect any suggestion of his presence in this vastness? How much more travel does he need us to do to reach his apartment? But let?s see what the bible says on cosmology and the structure of the universe and see if matches what we have learned today.
.Genesis 1: 007 :And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Comment: Firmament is like a glass dome covering a plate, like covering a plate of say rice and beans with another see-through glass bowl to protect the food. The earth is a solid spherical terrestrial land mass covered by a gaseous atmosphere. There is no firmament covering it. So we know for a fact this quotation is false.
Genesis 1: 016 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. 017 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Comment: So assuming this firmament is true and exists then the lights which includes sun, moon, and the stars were then attached to the firmament. This would mean that all these objects were almost the same distance from the earth surface. Is that true? Absolutely false. None of them is set in any firmament. As we have learned today the stars are up to 100,000 light years away, and the galaxies up to 13 billion light years away, the sun is 150 million kilometers, and the moon 384,000 kilometers. The quotation is totally false, even if we assume a firmament exists.
1 Samuel 2:8: This is Hannah praying for favor from Yahweh to give her a male child 008 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them.
Comment: Of course as have we seen there are no pillars holding up the earth. The earth sits where it is due to gravitational interaction with the sun. Nothing more nothing less. The comment is false.
Job Chapter 9: 005 Which removeth the mountains, and they know not: which overturneth them in his anger. 006 Which shaketh the earth out of her place, and the pillars thereof tremble. 007 Which commandeth the sun, and it riseth not; and sealeth up the stars. 008 Which alone spreadeth out the heavens, and treadeth upon the waves of the sea. 009 Which maketh Arcturus, Orion, and Pleiades, and the chambers of the south. Comment: Job clearly had some knowledge of astronomy because he correctly describes the star Arcturus, the constellation Orion and the star cluster Pleiades. However he repeats a previous falsehood that the earth sits on pillars. This is incorrect.
Job 38:4 : 004 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding. Comment: The earth has no foundation. It does not sit on anything. This is false.
Isaiah 11;12: 012 And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. Comment: We learned today the earth is an oblate spheroid. Like a slightly compressed ball. Therefore it cannot have corners. Corners occur of objects that have straight or flat side like a box .
Revelation 7:1: 001 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
Comment: Very false. Why is falsehood repeated in a divine document? Does repeating a falsehood make it true? So when Christians quote such scriptures how do they feel knowing that the narrative is false and not describing anything that exists in our objective reality?
Job 38:13: 013 That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?
Comment: I will ask again how does a spherical object have an end? Does a football have an end? How about an orange? Or Job is thinking the earth is a flat object therefore has an end? How come his divine inspiration is making him say false statements?
Jeremiah 16:19: 019 O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.
Comment: Clearly false Daniel 4:11-12: 010 Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold, a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. 011 The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth: Comment: No sir there is no end to no earth. Your vision is therefore invalid, sadly people in the 21st century believe this nonsense. Psalm 104:5: 005 Who laid the foundations of the earth, that it should not be removed for ever. Comment: More falsehood.
Isaiah 40:21 ? 22: 021 Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 022 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in:
Comment: Isaiah paa, what was he smoking? Two lies in two verses, why? The sitting on a foundation, then next sentence the earth is set up like a tent with the people are like grasshoppers on a plate (flat earth) and someone (Yahweh) looking inside the tent (firmament) to see what is happening down town.
So from our brief lecture on the structure of the universe we can review statements regarding the cosmos and assess them based on authoritative knowledge and not blind faith and ignorance. We have seen that the biblical picture of the structure of the universe is limited to earth, and is very flawed and outright false. Why is this the case? How can a creator not know how to properly describe his own creation? Did he forget? Do gods also suffer from forgetfulness at times? Did he need some coffee that morning? Or is he simply like a school kid taking a test, knowing the material but not being able to express it properly? So we can conclude that since this god does not know what the universe is then he certainly did not create it. And today we actually have evidence that no gods were even necessary for the birth of the universe, it was born out of a natural process involving the expansion of space-time itself, what we now call the big bang.
kwaku ba ?August 2010
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