The Bible on ET

[Edited to note that I no longer use the Bible as a vehicle for understanding humanity's thoughts on extraterrestrial intelligence, and I reject the notion that I have the capacity as an outsider to Jewish tradition to say whether portions of Hebrew scripture may or may not reflect on extraterrestrial life. I also disagree with the embedded Calvinist and colonial themes in my post.]

“Put on the whole armor of God to enable you to stand up to the strategies of the Adversary. That is not to us the wrestling against blood and flesh, but against the ancient ones, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of the dark of this age, against the spiritual forces of wickedness among the ones from the stars.” - Ephesians 6:11-12, translated from the Greek 

For a similar translation see: 

http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2007/03/21/01414.html 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

Paul wrote the Epistle to the Ephesians to the church in Ephesus so that they might receive the “Spirit of wisdom and revelation” and that the eyes of their heart “may be enlightened” in order to know the hope of God's calling—that is, his great power that he gives to us and the inheritance of his glorious goods. The whole letter is addressing the strengthening of the Ephesian church that they might be well-equipped warriors for God. Paul walks the Ephesians through their previous struggle and reminds them of how they all—Jew and Gentile alike—came to be citizens of God's household. This in mind he informs them that he was tasked with enlightening them with God's big secret plan, hidden for ages, that the church will make known God's manifold wisdom to the ancient ones and the authorities among the ones from the stars. Paul says that because of this big plan for the church he prays for them that they have the power to grasp Christ's love that surpasses knowledge, so they may be filled with the fullness of God. Following his prayer, Paul urges them to live their whole life in focus of this plan. He reassures them again that Christ will help them and that he has given them gifts—as well as reminding them that Christ ascended so that he might finish his work throughout the universe. Paul then gives them suggestions on how to live in order to further this goal—emphasizing that they be enlightened and pursue the truth. He asks them to give thanks to God for everything. Before his conclusion Paul addresses the working of households, that no area of life will be left in the dark. He urges fathers to train and instruct their children in the ways of the Lord. Finally, Paul concludes with a passage beginning with the verses above—that we may gird ourselves as warriors for God so that we may take on the evil forces among the ones from the stars as we accomplish our mission of making known God's wisdom among them.

“If you have been driven to the furthest reaches of space, Yahweh Elohim will gather you and from there he will take you and Yahweh Elohim will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.” - Deuteronomy 30:4-5, translated from the Hebrew 

For a similar interpretation see: 

http://www.bajcvermont.org/torah/nitzavim.pdf 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

In Deuteronomy 29 the writer of Deuteronomy tells the people under God's covenant that the things that God has revealed to them are for later generations and those from distant lands—that if they follow his instruction his blessing will be upon them but if they abandon his covenant his curse will be on them and their land. In Deuteronomy 30 the writer says that when the blessings and curses have come on them and they are scattered among all beings, once they return to God and obey him with their heart and soul according to his command, he will restore their fortune and have compassion on them and gather them from all the beings where he scattered them. This is when the writer reaches the verses above telling them that even if they were driven to the furthest reaches of space, God would bring them back. He goes on to say that once they are back God will circumcise their hearts and the hearts of those they have witnessed to who have followed him, and that God will put all the curses on their enemies who hate and persecute them. It seems that God does not distinguish between beings on earth and beings in space. The followers of his covenant will be sent to all of them and any who follow will be blessed as well. The writer concludes Deuteronomy 30 with the ultimatum, the command that is set before them: to love God. If they follow they will be blessed wherever they go. If they turn away, they will be destroyed. The writer calls those in space and on earth as his witnesses that he has set before them life and death, blessings and curses, and has instructed them how to choose life.

“You, Yahweh alone, you made the cosmos, the abode of the worlds, and all the host of them, the earth and all that are on it, the seas and all that are in them, and you give them all life; and the host of the cosmos worships you.” - Nehemiah 9:6, translated from the Hebrew 

For a similar interpretation: 

http://www.helium.com/items/1595994-is-god-an-alien-or-are-the-sons-of-god-aliens 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

Nehemiah writes that on the twenty-fourth day of the seventh month in the newly reconstructed Jerusalem, the Israelites had gathered to fast and confess their sins and their ancestors' sins in front of their foreign audience. The Levites called out that everyone should stand and praise God. Their praise begins with the verse above and continues to say that God chose their ancestors and made a covenant with them. They say that God kept his promise. They say he spoke to their ancestors and revealed his good commands to them. They go on telling how disobedient their ancestors were yet how faithful God remained. They finish with “We are in distress.” The statement in the verse above says that God gives life to all the multitudes—the multitudes of space, earth, and the seas—all those in the cosmos who worship him. Clearly the Israelites are recalling in this praise the instruction given in the aforementioned Deuteronomy passage. The fact that they are recalling this in the presence of foreigners is significant. They seem to have realized the cosmic importance indicated in Deuteronomy and are making their best effort to achieve it in the moment. While the foreigners in their presence are hardly from the farthest reaches of earth (much less the farthest reaches of space) their allusion to the inhabitants of space indicates that they still realize the full extent of their ultimate goal.

“In that day Yahweh will punish the high host above and the kings of the earth on the ground.” - Isaiah 24:21, translated from the Hebrew 

For a similar interpretation: 

http://www.geocentricity.com/ba1/no112/spacetravel.pdf 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

Isaiah, in chapter 24 of his book of prophecy, foretells a time when the earth will be laid waste and ruined. In the midst of his description of the earth's devastation, Isaiah indicates that not only will the earth be desolated, but the universe will also be desolated along with the earth. He then goes on about the earth's disobedience until he reaches the verse above in which he declares that God will not only punish the kings of the earth down here, but that he will also punish the multitude of dignitaries throughout the universe. He continues, saying they will be herded together and bound like prisoners. They will be shut up in prison and be punished after many days. It seems that there are rulers throughout the universe that are just as guilty as the rulers on earth. It says that only before the elders of Mount Zion (the promised home of God's followers) will God reign in glory.

“But in those days after the affliction, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its beam. And the stars of space will fall and the powers in the universe will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of man coming in clouds with much power and glory. And then he will dispatch his angels and assemble his elect out of the four winds from the farthest reaches of earth to the farthest reaches of space.” - Mark 13:24-27, translated from the Greek 

For a similar interpretation: 

http://www.religion.emory.edu/faculty/robbins/Pdfs/RhetMark13FinalPubPgs.pdf 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

In Mark 13 Jesus is describing the end times to his disciples. He tells them the signs of the end, and he tells them what will happen when the desolation occurs. Then in the verses above, Jesus indicates that after this time of affliction the sun and moon will be darkened and the burning ones of space will fall (this could be meteorites). Once these signs have occurred the powers in the universe will be uprooted much like they are in Isaiah. Jesus indicates that the Son of man will come at that point in power and glory (evocative of the Ephesians passage above). He will dispatch his messengers and gather his elect from all of the universe. Jesus finishes by saying that even those messengers that he will send do not know when this will happen, so his followers must be ready. He says that he will be going away and they do not know when he will come back to their house, so they must watch. In Matthew Jesus follows up this warning with a parable about a master who is going to other countries and will later return to his servants. In this context it seems that earth is one house/country that Jesus left, and that he will return only after visiting other countries (other worlds?). This viewpoint would seem to be consistent with the fact that he will send messengers throughout the universe to gather his elect.

“I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as the Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd. Because of this my Father loves me, that I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No one takes it from me, but I am laying it down myself. I have the authority to lay it down and take it again. This instruction I received by my Father.” - John 10:14-18, translated from the Greek 

For a similar interpretation: 

http://www.logoschristian.org/ufo.html 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

In further support of this is this passage containing Jesus' imagery of the good shepherd. He says that he has other sheep that are not of this sheep pen, and they he must bring them together also so that there may be one flock and one shepherd. 1 Peter 3 says that after Christ was made alive he went to the spirits in prison (this prison is elsewhere in the Bible stated to be among the stars) to distribute what is being done (literal translation of the word translated as proclaim). Jesus, of course, does not need to die again, but he goes to other worlds to distribute his sacrifice. Much like he showed Thomas his scars, Jesus can show the evidence of his death and resurrection to the whole universe so that they too might believe.

“The kings came and fought, then fought kings of Canaan in Taanach by the waters of Megiddo; they took no plunder of silver. From space the planets fought, from their courses they fought against Sisera. The river of Kishon swept them away, that ancient river, the river Kishon. March on, my soul; be strong. Then the horse hoofs thundered—galloping, the galloping of his mighty ones. 'Curse you planet Meroz,' the angel of Yahweh said, 'curse greatly its inhabitants, because they did not come to help Yahweh, to help Yahweh against the mighty.'” - Judges 5:19-23, translated from the Hebrew 

For a similar translation: 

http://www.meaningfullife.com/spiritual/nature/Life_on_other_Planets.php 

Note: I do not endorse the views held on this website.

After Sisera and Jabin were killed, Deborah and Barak sing a song concerning the events. They call all kings and rulers to listen to their words. Their song says that God came down to earth and chose new leaders in Israel. New willing volunteers in Israel rose up to fight against the mighty kings. When the song comes to the verses above, the mighty rulers have come to fight. At this point God summons other planets to assist in fighting the mighty kings. He curses the planet Meroz because they did not come to help fight. Why would God summon other planets to assist in defeating these earth rulers? Sisera means “servant of Ra” and Sisera had previously defeated every country that he had fought against. He had superhuman powers: a voice that could shake solid walls and cause animals to fall dead. He had nine hundred iron chariots at his command. The king Jabin through men like Sisera held Israel in subjection for twenty years despite the fact that Israel had a fighting force of ten thousand. Jabin means “the wise,” and it is possible that, like Sisera, he was given superhuman powers (in this case wisdom) through occult means.

In summary, the seeming lack of mention of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe in the Bible is due mostly to the translation of certain passages in language that today has only poetic, symbolic, or spiritual meaning—but in another time had a more concrete meaning. This is demonstrated in the above passages translated directly from the original language with the assistance of interlinears, lexicons, and commentaries in order to best ascertain the meaning in the context of the passage. These are not the only passages in the Bible concerning ET, but they are the most easily ascertainable.

Copyright © 2011-2020 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

We Are Not Alone

Are we alone in the universe? Humanity has been asking this question for millenia. Our creation of thousands of gods, spirits, and intelligent creatures is fueled, in part, by our intense desire for cosmic company. As long as we have been asking this question, there have been a plethora of answers. This quest for company continues today—embodied predominantly in the study of extraterrestrial life. Today our big questions take the form: “Is ET out there? If so, is it intelligent?”

With our present telescopes comes the ability to peer deeper into space than we ever have before, and the findings in recent years have been immense. This has dramatically changed the potential for extraterrestrial life. In the observable universe there are about 100 billion to 1 trillion galaxies. Spiral galaxies like our own have about 100 billion to 1 trillion stars. Elliptical galaxies like Maffei 1 have about 1 trillion to 10 trillion stars. Since elliptical galaxies make up about a third of all galaxies, the number of stars in the universe is about 100 sextillion to 300 sextillion: “or three times as many as scientists previously calculated. That is a 3 followed by 23 zeros. Or 3 trillion times 100 billion” (Borenstein, “Number of Stars”).

What does all this mean for extraterrestrial life? There are 50 billion or more planets in our galaxy. “At least 500 million of those planets are in the not-too-hot, not-too-cold zone where life could exist” (Borenstein, “Cosmic census”). This means that one of every two stars has a planet and one of every 200 stars has a planet in the habitable zone (Borenstein, “Cosmic census”). If you do the math, that's around 50 sextillion planets in the universe, conservatively. Around 500 quintillion of those are habitable. That's 100 billion times 5 billion planets that could harbor life like us.

Professor Andrew Watson of the University of East Anglia estimates that the chances of life like us occurring is “less than 0.01 per cent over four billion years” (Science 2.0) The oldest known planet is around 13 billion years old (Savage, Neal, and Villard). This means that a very rough estimate of the number of Earth-like planets with life like us on it is 16.25 quintillion, or 16,250,000 in our galaxy. Now, when I say “life like us” I don't mean that they will look a lot like humans. I mean life that shares four similar formational attributes. However, even this estimate may be far too narrow: “if life originated independently, even within our own solar system, it might have nonterran characteristics and, thus, not be detectable by NASA’s in situ or remote-sensing missions designed explicitly to detect terran biomolecules or their products” (National Academies: Space Studies Board). In other words, life could be drastically different from us and could exist in greatly varied environments.

This is all well and good, say the skeptics, but what is the likelihood of us actually coming in contact with anything intelligent if there are such life forms out there? That question is answered by the Drake Equation. “The Drake equation was developed as a means of predicting the likelihood of detecting other intelligent civilizations in our galaxy” (Astrobiology Magazine). The Drake equation takes the rate of star formation per year, the rate of production of new planetary systems per year, the number of planets in the continuously habitable zone, the fraction of potentially habitable planets that actually give rise to life, the fraction of living systems that give rise to an intelligent species, the fraction of intelligent civilizations which give rise to a technology which we might detect, and the longevity of such a civilization and returns the number of communicative civilizations (Astrobiology Magazine). Frank Drake's current solution to his equation is 10,000 such civilizations (Ford).

The final issue with extraterrestrial intelligence is if there are really that many civilizations out there that we could have come in contact with, why haven't we come in contact with them yet? This question is known as the Fermi Paradox. The problem with the Fermi Paradox is that it assumes that extraterrestrials haven't already attempted to contact us. There are a number of sufficient explanations for why they may already have been (or are) in our solar system and we simply cannot observe them yet. Freitas says, “The current observational status of the Solar System is insufficient to support the assumption that ETI are not here. Most advanced civilisations also would be either invisible or unrecognisable using current human observational methods, so millions of advanced societies may exist and still not be directly detectable by us. Thus the Fermi Paradox cannot logically be raised as an objection to the existence of ETI until these major observational deficiencies have been corrected.”

Ultimately, there is still a lot that we don't know about space, life, and intelligence, but what we do know so far is overwhelming support for the existence of extraterrestrial life. Not only are they out there, but some of them may be intelligent, some may be contactable, some may have already attempted to contact us, and some...we may yet be on the verge of discovering.

Bibliography:
http://www.rfreitas.com/Astro/ResolvingFermi1983.htm
http://www.astrobio.net/index.php?option=com_retrospection&task=detail&id=610
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/01/number-of-stars-in-universe_n_790563.html http://www.webcitation.org/5wg3VVKg4
http://www.science20.com/news_releases/the_mathematical_probability_of_life_on_other_earth_like_planets
http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2003/jul/HQ_03234_Oldest_Planet.html
http://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=11919
http://www.setileague.org/general/drake.htm

Copyright © 2011 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Not All Who Wander...

My good friend Kevin recently started a blog. His first post is a little more eloquent than mine. Now I'm wishing I had put a little more effort into my first post. Maybe I would be a little more frequent on my blog if I had. Anyway, this was just an excuse to post something new.

Not All Who Wander...
http://tckevin.wordpress.com/

"Not All Who Wander" is the property of Kevin Jackson. All else is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2011 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Turning a Place into a Home

In December last year I got engaged, and in January my roommate got married and moved out. Since then I have had my apartment all to myself, which at the start of the semester wasn't much of an improvement. I'll be honest: I had papers all over the floor, practically no furniture, junk that I had nowhere to put--at least I normally managed to keep most of my dishes washed. This was not the end of the disarray that my apartment was in. It really wasn't much of a home--it wasn't really even much of a place. I really didn't have much to do with it (having no furniture) or much time to arrange it.

The funny thing is that it is really the closest thing my fiancée and I have to a home. For me it wasn't much more than a place to do work and sleep. For her it wasn't even that--just a place to visit me. Both of our parents lived abroad, and so we never really had much of a stationary place. Don't get me wrong; she and I both love the experience and insight we gained from living abroad, but any home that we had in the past was no longer our own. Her parents are now living in Georgia in the U.S. Mine are still abroad. The house in Georgia isn't her home: she doesn't even have a room there. Where she's living now is not her home--she's staying with another family until we get married. The room she's staying in is not hers, and she'll have to leave it in May.

So we found ourselves with this cluttered, unfurnished apartment that was the closest thing we really had to home. We still loved it. We were desperate for a home. I would ask her, "When are you coming home?" She would ask her co-workers, "Can you take me home?" We both meant the apartment. It just came naturally because it is really the closest thing we have to one.

However, it bothered me that the place we called home was not much more than a dump. Finally, within the last week, we've been able to bring in a couch and shelving. We've cleaned up and sorted out our stuff, and made the place look really neat. We still don't have a dining table, a desk, and some other things, but we suddenly had this great relief that the place was starting to look a lot more like a home.

I thought over this for a while, sure that it must be something besides just organized stuff that made it more home-like. Finally, I realized that I was right--it wasn't just putting in some furniture and cleaning things up that made it better. What is transforming it is that now it is a shared place of rest that we can invite other people into. It's not just having a couch; it's having a place for people to fellowship. It's not just having a shelf for TV and decorations; it's having a capacity to entertain. It's not just having our stuff together; it's having our interests together, mixed in a unique way that makes it our house. It's not just having things tidy; it's having a place to present to guests as a comfortable common area.

As we continue to get more furniture and unpack more of our stuff, it will gradually become even more home-like. Once we are married, it will be final. The sharing will be complete, and rest will be at hand. We will no longer have just a place; we will have a home. The best part is that it's not just this apartment; it will be wherever we move, wherever we take our combined culture and establish a place of rest.

Copyright © 2011 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

The Light of the World

"Who is more foolish, the child afraid of the dark or the man afraid of the light?" - Maurice Freehill

"Better to light a candle than to curse the darkness." - Chinese Proverb

"There are two kinds of light - the glow that illumines, and the glare that obscures." - James Thurber

Sometimes I think it's great to look at the wisdom of humans before I dive into a spiritual topic. As wrong as we can be sometimes, there is still some great stuff that has been said.

Today at Park Hill Baptist Church in both our college fellowship and our main sermon we looked deep into LIGHT - and it's importance in our lives. We looked at 1 John 1:

"This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all." - 1 John 1:5

"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin." - 1 John 1:7

We also looked at Matthew 25:

The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. ⁸The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. - Matthew 25: 4-10

We got to talking about what this light really meant. If God is light and light leads us into fellowship, then light is our sharing of the goodness of God, that is sharing the fact that Christ was here in the flesh and is our hope. Even more, though, it is following in the footsteps of that fleshly Christ who showed us that it is was possible to live in the flesh and live in the light. So what is it then? It is living like Christ did, which means sharing living like Christ did. We need to shine our lights. We need to be open, honest, and exposed to the world; and what is exposed should be the goodness and love of Christ himself. Our oil should be plenty because we draw from the Holy Spirit. If we run low, it is of our own foolishness. Our wicks should be trimmed. The charred part that build up from our old lives needs to be cut off. Only the pure burning part should remain. The charred part will come so we need to be ready to trim. We're not denying our imperfections, but we're cleaning them away as they are made visible by the light. Pray that we can be accountable in this.

In His salvation,

The Voyager

"Park Hill Baptist Church", in reference to the church in Arkadelphia, AR, is the property of Park Hill Baptist Church, Arkadelphia. All else except the quoted content is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2010 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Rethinking Things

[Edited to add bracketed comments below]

I realize that I have not always been very dedicated or consistent with this blog, and I apologize for that and for my lack of humility and better judgment. The whole reason I initially set out to write this was to Chronicle my Voyages of faith. I have been very lax--no, I have completely failed to do that. I want to tell you what the Voyager is doing now, starting with the events that led me to rethink why I post here.

[Lack of humility--very much so. That said, the blog was supposed be about life and not just faith, and I think I was going through a time of peer pressure from church to be more "churchy".]

Prayer is one of the most essential, driving elements of my life. Along with the reading of the word of God, prayer is what keeps me devoted and focused. For this reason and the sake of my future journey--which I will explain more at a later time--I asked God, before I even came to college, to give me a strong group of guys here to pray with consistently.

[I honestly can't say I even understood what really meaningful prayer was at the time. That is, I knew all the details that evangelicalism taught me thoroughly, but I no longer find that concept meaningful. Prayer as a meditation on the communion of life through the vehicle of the mind could be helpful, but I would not place it as an essential element of life. I no longer agree with the theology that uses the term word of God to refer to the texts known collectively as the Bible. Reading the Bible, on the other hand, was incredibly instrumental to my deconstruction, and Bible fluency continues to be useful for helping others of Christian heritage navigate unfundamentalist belief. I also wish to say that I reject the inherent patriarchal and binarist notions inherent in me supposedly requiring a group of guys specifically.]

My whole first semester I kept on begging him to raise up the group that I was not seeing. Toward the end of my second semester I began to doubt that I was going to see such a group in my first year as I had originally thought. God had not forgotten me. Not long after spring break God rose up a group of guys and revealed them to me--all ready to pray. We kept in touch over the summer and now that we are back together we meet to pray every day. At first we thought it impossible, perhaps even unnecessary, but the more we prayed together, the more we realized it was necessary and we did have the time. So every day now at 10 pm we pray--we pour out our emotions, our requests, our frustrations, and our praises to God with each other.

And now God has led us to raise up a similar group among our friends--among the girls that have expressed interest in our prayer group. This is the first thing that brought me here: our body has begun to grow and it is properly planting a new body as it should. Tonight is the meeting in which we will bring together these girls. Pray that it will be holy and fruitful. Pray that as these girls meet to pray with us and as these two groups pray together, that more groups of guys and girls will be planted.

[More patriarchy and binarism...sigh]

Not long after the idea of this new plant came to me and my brother-in-Christ (that I will here call the Asker), a wasp flew up from by the benches, as we walked away, and stung me on the palm of my hand. So today my entire hand and wrist are swollen so that even typing these words to you now is a stretch. This is the second thing that brought me here: seeking something to pass the time as I let my hand heal.

But my blog was not the first thing I thought of when going to the Internet to pass the time. After stumbling aimlessly around different sites, I went to YouTube and was reminded of the ministry of some older brothers and sisters in a foreign country. This was the last straw that broke the camel's back--that is, my pride. I at last remembered my initial purpose for this blog and immediately dashed here (typed in the URL) to tell you all this. Now I hope that from here on I can continue to tell you about my prayer group, my ministry, and what God has done that has made him great.

If you are reading this now, know that I am praying for you. Grace and peace to you in the Lord Jesus Christ who sees your pain and listlessness, as he has mine.

In His salvation,
The Voyager

Copyright © 2009-2020 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Ironing Out the Space-Time Continuum

(Edited to note that this post made as a very naive college sophomore probably misses the mark on the science. At the very least, time is not modeled as exactly the same kind of dimension as space, the details are a bit obscure and involve higher mathematics that I honestly can't say I fully grasp myself.)

When physics turned around and labeled time as a dimension, it caught many of us off guard. It makes sense; we had just never conceived of it in that way before. Despite this concept having been around for a while now, popular science and the general public still has a little trouble getting the idea right. We have questions like "How can time stop? It would then have to stop for a certain length of time, injecting time back into the equation." These kinds of questions present a fundamental misunderstanding of exactly what it means for time to be a dimension.

In order to help everyone wrap their heads around this, I am going to draw parallels to dimensions we are familiar with: space. Time is a dimension just like space. We do not say that space moves, neither does time move. Space is the realm in which mass-energy moves. The difference between two positions in space is called distance. In time we call this same difference in position duration. Distance does not move. Mass-energy can, however, move a certain distance. In the same way, duration does not move--mass-energy can move a certain duration.

Using this reasoning, we should easily see that time does not truly stop. Time was never moving in the first place. Objects move through time just like they move through space. If an object, say a photon, were to achieve the velocity c (commonly known as the speed of light in a vacuum), then that object would cease to move through time relative to the plane of reference that observes its velocity as c. Time does not stop, but objects can stop moving through time. Other apparent paradoxes can be explained in as similar manner.

For further study:
General and special relativity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_relativity
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_relativity
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_relativity
The Velocity chttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_light
Vectors
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euclidean_vector
http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vector

Copyright © 2009-2020 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Computer Geek? I think so...

Oh my gosh! I just retook the computer geek quiz and....man, remember how last time I was 70? (http://voyager-chronicles.blogspot.com/2008/01/just-for-fun.html) Well, this time...



The images and "computer geek quiz" are the property of Darrell C. Sydlo. All else is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2009 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

The Great Nerd Test 2.0

Yes, I have taken the Nerd Test 2.0 yet again. I don't know why I have to do it because I know well enough what I am, but taking quizzes online is just so fun. So since my scores have risen again, here they are:



The images and "Nerd Test" are the property of Darrell C. Sydlo. All else is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2009 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.

Open Melody

I've started taking a look at a new open source publishing platform (i.e. blogging platform) called Melody (http://openmelody.org/). The reason, I think, that Melody is most exciting (besides being another open source blogform like WordPress) is that Melody wants to be completely open: not just in source, but in community effort. In the words of Byrne Reese, one of the creators of Melody, "A core value of the Open Melody Software Group is transparency, or a promise to develop and discuss the product out in the open so that everyone has an equal chance to participate, audit our process, influence our roadmap and share in the excitement of building a product together." Melody is currently in the alpha release stage, and I may decide that I want to download it and try to run a server on my desktop just to test it. Regardless, I look forward to its full release, and I hope that the Open Melody team looks into getting a domain for running the first blog server using Melody at that time.

UPDATE: The Open Melody team will be running a blog server on their site. In a message to me on Twitter: "We plan on running Melody on openmelody.org as soon as it's stable. I'd say once it hits beta, we'll unleash it on the site." I'm excited! :)

CORRECTION: We had a confusion of terminology about "blog server." Open Melody will not be running a hosted environment on their own site. Hopefully someone will catch on though. Thanks, Dan!

"Open Melody" and "Melody" are the property of the Open Melody Software Group. "WordPress" is the trademark of the WordPress Foundation. "Twitter" is the property of Twitter, Inc. All else except for the quoted content is the original content of Josie Stewart.
Copyright © 2009 Josie Stewart. All rights reserved.