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Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:14PM (#5725545)
> I'd go so far as to say that most people believe explicitly that there is a privileged reference frame, and that it is an intelligent agent called God

????? Why do you assume God is a physical being inside the universe? (Do people really think that?) God created the universe - God is outside it. Like God is the computer and the universe is the program.

God isn't at rest/not at rest. The concept doesn't even apply.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by Cushman on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:36PM (#5725697)
In the United States it is the majority opinion (vocally, anyway) that God is a real thing with both interest and power to intervene in both historical and day-to-day events.

As to why? A lifetime of indoctrination and social pressure. The same reason anyone believes anything, I suppose.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @03:52PM (#5726386)
Really? The majority opinion is that God is a physical being that lives inside the universe?

I know there are some religions that believe that, but they are hardly the majority.

The concept of "reference frame" doesn't even exist for a non-physical being.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by Cushman on Friday May 17, 2013 @04:02PM (#5726435)
I can't rigorously defend something I don't think is true, but I stand behind my previous statement as it is.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @04:49PM (#5726623)
Your previous statement might be true - and also has nothing to do with a "universal reference frame".

A god that intervenes has nothing to do with whether or not the God is physical.

I suspect you are reading things into what people believe without actually understanding what they believe. i.e. that it's actually you that believes God has a reference frame, not that the majority of people in the US do.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by Cushman on Friday May 17, 2013 @07:33PM (#5727229)
Well, I'm not that interested in the theology of an interventionist God because it's not a very exciting fairy tale to me. But as I understand it God is omnipresent and omnipotent and either those things mean a physical presence that is everywhere at once or they mean nothing at all. That is precisely the thing proscribed by relativity.

I'm sure one could define God down into some kind of good-vibes field that could logically exist in our universe, and that's all good with me. But it's not what most Americans profess to believe. In any event, discard it if it offends you; it's completely irrelevant to the topic, which is super-cool physics.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Saturday May 18, 2013 @10:54PM (#5731571)
> mean a physical presence that is everywhere at once

Everywhere at once means "no privileged reference frame". (Kind of like how light, from the point of view of light itself is everywhere at once, and light also has a the special privileged reference frame of no reference frame at all.)

You were the one who claimed the most people believe in a privileged reference frame based on God. Not me. Now you are backpedaling from that claim - which is fine, because not only do most people not believe that, it doesn't even make any sense.

And I agree that this should conclude the religious digression of the main topic. Not that there is a whole lot more to talk about, unless you want to talk about (argue with?) my comment above on light.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by Cushman on Saturday May 25, 2013 @01:05PM (#5767842)
> Everywhere at once means "no privileged reference frame".

Probably you'll never read this now, but... Nope. Everywhere at once literally means a privileged reference frame. "Over there, now" is a concept with no logical meaning in our physical universe. Being in two places at once isn't physically impossible, it's just nothing.

And that imposes very serious constraints on God. If I am on the Earth and I pray for my husband on Mars, God on Mars can not hear my prayer until it is too late. You really think that's a statement most Americans agree with?

You're also off about light. Light is not "everywhere at once from its own perspective" as you seem to think. The fact that light cannot be everywhere at once is the same fact that dictates that light cannot have a point of view, that light experiences no time and has no perspective. (Mind you, if this is the comparison you would like to draw to God, I will happily assent.) Study up and be a bit more careful with your science, and you'll be able to throw much meatier punches theologically.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by danbruc on Friday May 17, 2013 @01:48PM (#5725771)
????? Why do you assume »God created the universe - God is outside it.« (Do people really think that?)
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @03:50PM (#5726376)
Because you can not create something and be inside it (i.e. be made of it) at the same time.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by danbruc on Friday May 17, 2013 @04:50PM (#5726631)
My point is more that believing God created the universe is not really an obvious thing to believe. Why not just believe that the nobody created the universe and it has been around forever? Or that the universe emerged out of »nothing«?

No? That can not possibly be true? How could something be around forever? And how could something so complex and beautiful as the universe with all the fancy stuff inside emerge out of »nothing«? No way.

But wait, it is no problem for God to be around forever? It is no problem to have an entity, powerful enough to create a whole universe, without explaining where it came from? Or should we just introduce a super-god that created God? Unfortunately this just shifts the problem to the next level and we are again back at square one.

Besides that you can obviously build a house and enter through the front door after you finished it.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @05:51PM (#5726863)
Wait. When did this morph into an argument of the existence of God? I thought we were talking about God being some sort of preferred relativistic reference frame.

> Besides that you can obviously build a house and enter through the front door after you finished it.

You did not enter the material house - you entered the empty space that was already there, which the material of the house surrounds. If you want to use the analogy you must actually change your physical body to be made of wood and nails.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by Cushman on Friday May 17, 2013 @07:39PM (#5727249)
> Wait. When did this morph into an argument of the existence of God?

You sort of brought it up yourself when you said "God created the universe." like it's a fact, didn't you? Maybe you could explain what that's supposed to mean here?

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by danbruc on Friday May 17, 2013 @06:29PM (#5727001)
Discussing God as a reference frame seems to naturally evoke the question if he exists. And I am definitely more comfortable discussing whether God exists or not than if he may be a (preferred) (inertial) reference frame; probably one of the strangest things I have ever thought about.

Yes, the analogy with building a house is not really strong but on the other hand the whole question if God - if he exists - exists inside or outside the universe (read spacetime) is difficult to say the least. What is outside of space? What is outside of time? Out of what is God made? And how does this affect his possibility to interact with the universe? Is he even able to interact?

Now that I got your point with being something and building the same thing, self-organizing systems come to mind - that's probably as close as you can get to being something and building the same thing. This does not address where the matter for the system come from so it is more self-shaping than self-building but ad hoc that's the best I can think of.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by thwarted on Saturday May 18, 2013 @12:49AM (#5727948)
Of course God can do so, he's God. He can do anything!1!
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by chc on Friday May 17, 2013 @02:20PM (#5725908)
Most people do not think it through that way. They probably don't think God is a physical being, and they probably don't have a very specific idea about his location, but they definitely think he is viewing the universe, wherever he is.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by nhaehnle on Saturday May 18, 2013 @03:12AM (#5728143)
Most people do not think it through that way.

I suspect that not thinking it through that way is a precondition for truly believing in God for most people. That is to say, most people who start out believing in God and who attempt to think this through would give up their belief in God on the way - or, instinctively realizing that and being made uncomfortable by the thought, they would automatically shy away from the whole logic of it.

After all, explaining the world is not really what belief in God seems to be about. It seems to be more about some kind of warm fuzzy feeling that people get from it.

Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by ars on Friday May 17, 2013 @03:53PM (#5726390)
Fine, but if he's viewing the universe he is not inside the universe - i.e. he doesn't have a reference frame.
Re:The theory of relativity in words of four letters or less by chc on Friday May 17, 2013 @04:41PM (#5726602)
This is your assertion, not theirs.