Reply To: Physics Nobel to Big Bangers

[Rezwan]

Thanks Warwick! A lot to think about.

Warwick wrote: — religion

Well if someone can see an inverted crucifix in a CND sign then they can probably imagine anything, let’s face it.
But I’d steer clear of stars. You may recall that Chernobyl means Wormwood, and the passage in Revelation that says something like “And there was a star on earth, and its name was Wormwood, and it poisoned 1/3 of the waters, and 1/3 of the creatures died” (I haven’t looked it up but it’s along those lines.) To an over-the-top religious person anything involving stars and nuclear power would be fertile territory.

As to Chernobyl, it’s doing much better these days. I saw this documentary called “Life After People” (the first one, not the series) and they use Chernobyl as an example of what happens when people don’t interfere in a place. Due to the accident, the place was vacated completely. It was a scene of devastation, trees burned and killed by radiation, animal carcasses – but it has rebounded. Now it has more of those deer than any other place. Check out the movie, it’s pretty amazing. Don’t think the religious folk can use Chernobyl as a bad thing. Chernobyl’s also the reason Gorbachev cites for bringing about major changes and ending the cold war. So the net impact was positive and transformative.

On the other hand, one could start looking at Revelations as an allegory to bring about fusion energy, that this is the big light we are waiting for and if we don’t pull together and do it, we have armageddon. The parable of the oil lamps is a case in point. People who manage their oil are assured heaven – because we don’t know the day or the hour (that we will figure out how fusion works).

As to wormwood – that thing falls from the sky. To keep track of avoided wormwood encounters, follow @AsteroidMisses