Book Review: The Hunt for Vulcan: . . . And How Albert Einstein Destroyed a Planet, Discovered Relativity, and Deciphered the Universe

by Viviane in

i recently read this book and found it to be excellent.

it's the story of how we never stop knowing, how science works (even when it doesn't), how gracefully math can describe the world we live in and more.

the story begins with how sir isaac newton, author of pricipia mathematica and holder of the lucasian chair at cambridge, developed math to describe the gravity and the motion of the planets with no need god holding them in place.

Oubliette

Hi Viv, looks like a good read. Thanks for the recommendation.

Since you liked that, you might enjoy:

God's Equation: Einstein, Relativity, and the Expanding Universe

Are we on the verge of solving the riddle of creation using Einstein's "greatest blunder"?

In a work that is at once lucid, exhilarating and profound, renowned mathematician Dr. Amir Aczel, critically acclaimed author of Fermat's Last Theorem, takes us into the heart of science's greatest mystery.

In January 1998, astronomers found evidence that the cosmos is expanding at an ever-increasing rate. The way we perceive the universe was changed forever. The most compelling theory cosmologists could find to explain this phenomenon was Einstein's cosmological constant, a theory he conceived--and rejected---over eighty years ago.

Drawing on newly discovered letters of Einstein--many translated here for the first time--years of research, and interviews with prominent mathematicians, cosmologists, physicists, and astronomers, Aczel takes us on a fascinating journey into "the strange geometry of space-time," and into the mind of a genius. Here the unthinkable becomes real: an infinite, ever-expanding, ever-accelerating universe whose only absolute is the speed of light.

Awesome in scope, thrilling in detail, God's Equation is storytelling at its finest.

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Promoting Hate & Shunning of their own people, how does Watchtower do it?

by clarity in

short clip from pbs presentation the brain.. fascinating studies of the brain & its function.

watch as people become mind controlled to hate & kill their own people ....people they loved.

propaganda from watchtower literature, convention battering accomplishes the same thing as seen on this clip.

Oubliette

David Eagleman is an interesting guy. I recently read his book Incognito. He has some unusual ideas about personal identity, freewill and what we should do with criminals that cannot be rehabilitated.

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Are You Easily Offended? 😠

by minimus in

jw
friends

i'm sick and tired of everyone claiming to be "offended".

if you are not politically correct, you will need to apologize for some perceived slight.. when i was an elder, i purposely avoided as much as i could, anybody that got easily offended.

.

Oubliette

I used to be, but it's really counterproductive.

Ironically, I am convinced that WT/JW theology and culture encourage people to be easily offended.

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Shunning is psychologically terrorizing

by poopie in

jw
friends

its barbaric.

Oubliette

Marvin: It's sad irony that the same organization that admits there "is no more potent killer than isolation" then goes on to use isolation on its membership.

I don't think it's ironic; I think it is very deliberate. The WT leadership absolutely knows what a powerful tool of manipulation ostracism and shunning is.

They wield it as a weapon.

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