Light and Matter (Origins)

by David Turell , Thursday, May 29, 2014, 20:19 (3841 days ago) @ dhw
edited by unknown, Thursday, May 29, 2014, 20:25

dhw: This came as a shock to me, because until now I'd accepted the idea that energy produced matter. (That is not the same, of course, as saying that matter contains and produces energy.) David confirms that the idea of the universe springing from "pure" energy is "the current theory". Theories appear to change from day to day, and so I'm now questioning whether there is even such a thing as "pure" energy, and whether we can say matter and energy are "interchangeable", as the current theory maintains.-You still do not understand that pure energy particles (quanta in the story of the universe) coalesced into matter. And by special techniques we view those particles (strassler article). Matter is made up of energy particles. The energy we released in ordinary ways is not the same, burning wood or coal for example. That is chemical oxidation. You are confusing it with what GK and I are discussing, atomic energy.-Reread this blog to see the whole outline of our universe's history. Don't accept the idea that quantum fluctuations are 'nothing'.-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/guest-blog/2014/05/22/is-all-the-universe-from-nothing/-> 
> dhw: That's the background to this discussion, which eventually I hope to relate to panpsychism,-I have no idea what bug about panpsychism is on your mind, but until you see what we are presenting, it won't go anywhere in discussion. -> dhw: When I think of energy, I think of movement, heat, light etc., all of which are produced by what we call matter (solids, liquids, gases). In other words, energy springs from matter, not the other way round, and it's the reverse that is of fundamental importance to theories about the birth of our universe. -This is why you are confused.-> dhw: At best, we can argue that we do not know when or even if time had a beginning.-This is your view. Most folks accept the idea that time began with the origin of the universe. St. Thomas was the first