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Magisterial Fundies

New Analysis Shows Universe Aligned With Earth's Equator- CMB Dipole *Cannot Be Attributed to Earth's Motion*!!!
07/10/2013 01:58 PM

The astonishing collapse of standard cosmology continues.

I use, with permission, the following text from the upcoming edition of "Galileo Was Wrong" by Robert Sungenis and Robert Bennett, to report the recent confirmation that the cosmological dipole can not be attributed to Earth's motion, but that this dipole is found in the radio sky at 5 sigma significance, the same as recently claimed for the discovery of the Higgs boson.


Attempted Explanations

In an attempt to lessen the severity of the Axis of Evil against the Copernican Principle, some try to separate the dipole from higher ℓ values (quadrupole, octuopole, etc.) and claim that the dipole is caused by “the peculiar velocity of the Earth relative to the co-moving cosmic rest frame as the planet moves at some 371 km/s towards the constellation Leo.”[1]
      
There are two glaring anomalies in this claim. First, as John Ralston points out, in such solutions they are “forgetting there is an unknown cosmological piece,” namely, “By an apparently random accident the dipole happens to lie in the plane of the ecliptic, and point along Virgo.  This is accepted with very little discussion, and nobody disbelieves the dipole.”[3] In other words, attributing the dipole to a movement of the Earth through the CMB is convenient enough, but it becomes a little too convenient when that movement is pointing to Virgo, which just happens to be in the same direction as the “Axis of Evil.” Even if it were true that the Earth is moving against the CMB (and not vice-versa, as in the geocentric system), still, this explanation misses the elephant in the room, i.e., that the entire universe, as represented by the CMB dipole, is aligned with the tiny Earth. One has to be blind or biased to miss this.

Second, we will notice from the graphs that the dipole axis is almost perpendicular to the quadrupole/octupole axis. Big Bang cosmology claims that the dipole axis is created by the sun-earth system moving through the CMB, which creates a Doppler blue shift. But how does Big Bang cosmology then explain the quadrupole/octupole axis, which is perpendicular to the dipole axis? It cannot be created by a movement of the sun-earth system through the CMB since, obviously, the sun-earth system cannot be going in one direction to create the dipole and, at the same time, going in an orthogonal direction to create the quadrupole and octupole. Something is definitely amiss here.

Third, a recent paper by Kothari, et al, shows that attributing the dipole to the presumed motion of the solar system through the CMB does not match the CMB data. They first report a paper by Singal (2011) showing an apparent solar velocity of 1600 km/sec, which is about four times higher than the previously accepted 369 km/sec, and which “suggests a potential violation of the cosmological principle” and thus “the Universe may be intrinsically anisotropic with the preferred axis approximately in the direction of the CMBR dipole.” With additional research, they conclude “the data is not consistent with the CMBR dipole. It clearly indicates the presence of an intrinsic dipole anisotropy which cannot be explained in terms of local motion,” which result is confirmed at a “4 – 5 sigma” level. This leads them to the conclusion that the “anisotropy we observe may have a physical origin.”[5] In other words, even if one were to adopt the heliocentric concept that the solar system is moving through a fixed CMB, the data shows it would be moving much too slowly to produce the dipole that is observed. The dipole energy, then, must originate from an inherent microwave polarity in the composition of the Universe and thus means the Universe is physically divided in two along the Earth’s equator.


    Dipole axis runs between Leo and Virgo


[1]  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_microwave_background_radiation. Another source has the Earth moving toward Virgo: “After the dipole anisotropy, which is due to the Doppler shift of the microwave background radiation due to our peculiar velocity relative to the co-moving cosmic rest frame, has been subtracted out. This feature is consistent with the Earth moving at some 627 km/s towards the constellation Virgo” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CMB_cold_spot). The discrepancy of using Virgo as opposed to Leo is that the two constellations are next to each other in the Zodiac, and the dipole axis is between them, although closer to Leo. The 371km/s is the net speed of the sun minus any galactic movement toward Leo.
[2] Image from Cal Tech lecture on the CMB at http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu /level5/Sept02/Kinney/Kinney3.html.
[3] John P. Ralston, “Question Isotropy,” Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Univ. of Kansas, Nov. 2010, pp. 4-5. Ralston adds: “All are again well-aligned with the axis of Virgo. A subsequent study in 2008 diluted by higher values of ℓ does not change this conclusion. And so if there is a local effect or bias producing the (many) alignments, it affects much of the actual power in the CMB, which then would not be ‘pristine’” and concluding with “our studies find there is nothing supporting isotropy of the CMB, and everything about the data contradicting it.”
[4] Graph taken from Kate Land’s seminar at: http://www.cita.utoronto. ca/TALKS/Land-Nov23.pdf
[5] “Dipole anisotropy in flux density and source count distribution in radio NVSS data,” R. Kothari, A. Naskar, P. Tiwari, S Nadkarni-Ghosh and P. Jain, July 8, 2013, Dept. of Physics, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, at arXiv:1307.1947v1. The concluding sentence of the paper states: “Finally, assuming the presence of an intrinsic dipole contribution in the source counts, we separate it out from the kinematic dipole. The resulting speed of the solar system, however, is still found to be higher than the CMBR expectation. Our results support the hypothesis that the Universe is intrinsically anisotropic with the anisotropy axis pointing towards Virgo” p. 10. Ralston may have made the same point when he says, “However the alignment of the quadrupole and octupole happens to be right along the dipole, and point along Virgo. Some use this as a reason to dismiss the quadrupole and octupole, while retaining the rest of the CMB as ‘pristine,’” but he made a mistake in saying that the quadrupole/octupole “point along Virgo” (since it is obvious that the quad- and octupole axis is perpendicular to the dipole axis).


The 7,000,000
06/30/2013 07:49 PM

OK, let's take stock.

The judicial and executive branches of the Former Republic of California have managed to arrive at an understanding of our constitution that renders the votes of 7,000,000 sovereign citizens null and void, just so long as the Governor and Secretary of State determine they don't wish to defend them, in the face of a show trial by a non-recusant judge with an undisclosed, direct, personal interest in the outcome of the case challenging that vote.

This is tyranny.

The Supreme Court of the United States has managed to arrive at an understanding of the law that renders those 7,000,000 voters disenfranchised, since they have no standing to defend their votes in the face of the above.

This is tyranny.

So where do we go from here?

In California, it is time to recognize that we can no longer rely upon, or expect, our basic constitutional rights to be respected by either the executive or judicial branches.

This has a silver lining.

We no longer need to, nor should we, pursue the disastrous strategy of assuming this is a fair fight, and that it will be settled according to the rule of law.

We must organize, very rapidly and very effectively, to take advantage of the benefits which accrue to being what we in fact now are in California.

We are a disenfranchised, disfavored minority, whose rights have been grotesquely trampled.

What benefits accrue to us now that we are a persecuted, discriminated-against class?

The most important one is that we can now use the quite significant political, economic, and financial resources at our disposal to make life very difficult for our persecutors.

The fact that this travesty involves the disenfranchisement of California voters, not only with respect to Prop 8, but with respect to every single voter-passed initiative which might not please our masters sufficiently, is the key issue by which we can organize a coalition to exact political retribution upon the perpetrators of this foul and lawless act of tyranny.

It is time to organize, first in order to provide for the security of our churches and parishes against the onslaught of targeted provocation and persecution certain to come, but also to build a coalition of citizens prepared to stand up and fight against the disenfranchisement of the People of California by these disgraceful tyrant-conspirators.

The broader picture depends upon leaders in other states learning from the odious and disgraceful perversion of justice which was carefully orchestrated and perpetrated by the enemies of the rule of law here in California.

This has already begun to manifest itself, as state constitutional amendments to preserve marriage are being rapidly organized in states (like Iowa) where- wonder of wonders- the elected officials are prepared to defend the votes of the people.

This was a difficult lesson to learn, but it has been learned.

Having learned it, the next phase of the fight is one much more palatable to those of us who understand what has just happened.

It is our turn, now, to make life very difficult indeed for the architects of this atrocity.

We need security for our parishes.

We need legal resources to defend parents against the homosexualist outrages certain to commence in California schools.

We need to understand that our opposition is now supremely overconfident, and will be unable to restrain its darker impulse to parade its new mastery of California before the eyes of the vanquished.

Every time they do, we need to give them a political bloody nose.

Let's get started.

This is a fight for our survival and our liberty.

Let's win it.

BREAKING NEWS!!! PROP 8 DEFENDERS FIGHT BACK AGAINST LAWLESS JUDICIAL TYRANNY!
06/29/2013 02:55 PM


From Andy Pugno:

"Today our Prop 8 Legal Defense Team filed an emergency petition to U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Ninth Circuit's premature move requiring same-sex "marriage" licenses in California. The petition, prepared overnight by our good friends at Alliance Defending Freedom, was submitted Saturday to Justice Anthony Kennedy, the associate justice who decides such motions pertaining to the Ninth Circuit.  On Wednesday, Justice Kennedy had agreed with our view that the voice of the voters must heard in a case like this challenging an initiative proposition.

When the Ninth Circuit originally put in place its stay to prevent same-sex marriage pending Supreme Court action, it stated clearly that “the stay shall continue until final disposition by the Supreme Court.” Under Supreme Court procedural rules, "final disposition" comes when the Supreme Court issues a "mandate" to the Ninth Circuit, at least 25 days after announcing its opinion in the case.  The 25-day waiting period is provided to allow parties like us to petition the Supreme Court for a re-hearing of the case.

Today's petition asks the Supreme Court to find that the Ninth Circuit had no jurisdiction to order same-sex marriages on Friday, since the case had not yet come back down from the nation's highest court.

Suspiciously, the Ninth Circuit's announcement late Friday ordering same-sex marriages came as a surprise, without any warning or notice to Proposition 8's official proponents. However, the same-sex couple plaintiffs in the case, their media teams, San Francisco City Hall, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the California Attorney General all happened to be in position to perform same-sex marriages just minutes after the Ninth Circuit's "unexpected" announcement.

Coincidence?

Our emergency petition also reminds the Supreme Court that just last year the Ninth Circuit itself, in stopping a lower court from unsealing illegal video tapes of the Prop 8 trial, said that the "integrity of our judicial system depends in no small part on the ability of litigants and members of the public to rely on a judge’s word."  That same principle, we argue today, applies equally to assurances given by Ninth Circuit judges as well.

People on both sides of this debate should at least agree that the courts must follow their own rules.  This kind of lawlessness just further weakens the public's confidence in the legitimacy of our legal system.  We hope the Supreme Court will step in and restore some order here.

In fidelity to the more than seven million Californians who voted for Proposition 8, and the tens of thousands of friends like you who have worked so hard to enact and protect it, we remain committed to pursuing every responsible option available to us to vindicate the People's interest in seeing Proposition 8 upheld and enforced."

Excellent work, gentlemen!

Now there is no doubt this stay will be reinstated, and next we need to find a town clerk anywhere in California willing to step in and re-file an appeal to interested party Vaughn Walker's immortal disgrace of a circus trial.






Lawless Tyranny Rules California
06/28/2013 05:26 PM

In order that we slaves might be better impressed with the rights and privileges of the preferred ruling class of homosexualists, the Ninth Circuit Court has followed up on the lawless judicial tyranny which deprived 7,000,000 California citizens of the right to defend their sovereign votes, with an outrage of cynical, piss-on-your-pants-and-tell-you-that-they're-yellow criminality which constitutes the cherry on top of this entire exercise in fascist tyranny.

In complete disregard of the directive of the Supreme Court to remand the case to the Federal District court in San Francisco, the Ninth Circuit has simply lifted the stay on the case in which they were explicitly reversed, thus ensuring that the preferred ruling class of homosexualists will be able to parade their destruction of the rule of law before the eyes of the vanquished tonight, as homosexual pseudo-marriages are performed in City Halls through the night.

This is the single most foul, detestable perversion of the rule of law in the history of the California Republic.

Sit and watch.

Let no detail of this outrage escape your notice and memory.

This is what it is when tyrants usurp the rule of law and replace it with the good pleasure of the new royalty.

May God protect the people of the State of California, who, whatever their faults, can never be accused- EVER- of having willingly acceded in the destruction of marriage, and the compulsory indoctrination of their innocent children in homosexualist perversion.


Your Vote Counts If We Like It
06/26/2013 09:01 AM


Godel was a prophet.
Two years of my life, thousands of my dollars, and I am told I have no standing.
Seven million Californians have no standing.
Your vote counts just so long as your masters like it.
Good bye America.
To the catacombs.


It is customary to congratulate the victors in a battle, and there is no question that the homosexualist movement has triumphed, fully, completely, conclusively.

Strictly as a matter of tactical brilliance, you certainly have my congratulations.

Since this homosexualist movement has now destroyed- by astonishing tactical brilliance- the remaining vestiges of freedom in these United States, you certainly have my profound contempt.

I thank God my children are fully grown and immune to the now-compulsory indoctrination in homosexualist perversion which will commence without restraint in California, and very soon in the rest of this disintegrating nation.

Otherwise, I should have had a very serious problem on my hands.

As do all the other parents with school age children in California now, and in the rest of this disintegrating nation very soon.

My prayers are with them, that God may protect them and give them courage to protect their children against the enforced indoctrination in homosexualist perversion which is now the "law" of the State of California, and very soon, the rest of these sad, lost, disintegrating United States.

I met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
`My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away". ----

Ozymandias, Percy Bysse Shelley

On The Matter of The Snowden Indictment
06/22/2013 02:01 PM


"It is getting to the point where the mark of international distinction and service to humanity is no longer the Nobel Peace Prize, but an espionage indictment from the US Department of Justice." - Julian Assange

Disaster at the "Digital Areopagus"
06/22/2013 08:58 AM


UPDATE 6/16/13:

Brandon has received an email from a reader of this blog, calling his attention to the post below.

I wish to say that the site is doing much better lately, that the frequency of Memoryholing is declining noticeably (at least Memoryholing of me!) :-).

The Catholics are doing much better, precisely because the Catholics are beginning to do what Catholics are supposed to do; that is, probe and point out the fallacies of assumption which underlie the barking madness of the atheist "something from nothing" world view.

Brandon says my rhetoric below is over the top, and in retrospect he might be right, but at the time the rhetoric was the least over-the-top possible, in light of the Memoryholing.

So keep that in mind when reading the arguably over-the-top rhetoric below :-)

Brandon also suggests that I am in error on certain points of Catholic doctrine, which is a strange assertion coming from a fellow who asserts that Lumen Gentium 16 teaches that atheists need not cease being atheists, that salvation is available to them as atheists.

May I cordially reiterate that this is not only heresy, it also barking madness.

Brandon, I have no axe to grind against you or your site- I have enjoyed your writing for some time, and I think the site has a chance to become a very important one.

You are simply, drastically, and, I pray, inculpably wrong in your heretical assertion that salvation is available to atheists in their atheism.

Rick DeLano


Over at that new Brandon Vogt site, "Strange Notions", the Catholics are getting their butts kicked so embarrassingly that one really wonders whether this was the intention all along.

Now I am all for helping out Catholics whenever the attack-dog "New Atheists" show up in numbers, with the intention of demolishing the Faith.

But when the Catholics end up selectively employing the Memoryhole so as to vindicate the atheists, and silence the Catholics, all one can say is these guys are apparently trying to position themselves for next year's "Abandoning The Bastions" Awards.

Watch this dreadful train wreck as it slowly, inexorably proceeds toward its lawful end.

If the Catholics insist that Catholicism is about finding and enforcing that elusive common ground between the Faith and atheist falsehood, then they are wrong. They will be steamrolled by the atheists, this will be entirely right and just, and it will hasten the day (may it come soon!) when the Digital Areopagus is supplanted by the Digital Lepanto.

People do not want Catholicism Lite, Brandon.

The Faith is True, and can be defended as true against the ridiculous barking madness of the atheist, "something from nothing" world view.

But insisting that the ridiculous, barking madness of the atheist, "something from nothing" world view must not be subjected to refutation, is simply another chapter in the woeful "Abandoning The Bastions" strategy of "New Evangelization".

By their fruits you shall know them.


Another Day, Another Anti-Copernican Principle Blockbuster.........
05/20/2013 08:29 AM

This is getting ridiculous.

Another new paper, just posted today:

"Is there a violation of the Copernican principle in the radio sky"?

This one is highly interesting, since it is based not on any new observations from Planck, but instead on an entirely unrelated statistical analysis of one of the oldest and most widely used catalogues of radio sources.

The paper shows that the data has been staring us in the face for decades!

It was in the process of looking at the data in a new way that the astonishing result "falls out":

arXiv:1305.4134v1 [astro-ph.CO] 17 May 2013



"Here we report even larger anisotropies in the sky distributions of powerful extended quasars and some other sub-classes of radio galaxies in the 3CRR catalogue, one of the oldest and most intensively studies sample of strong radio sources5,6,7. The anisotropies lie about a plane passing through the two equinoxes and the north celestial pole (NCP). We can rule out at a 99.995% confidence level the hypothesis that these asymmetries are merely due to statistical fluctuations. Further, even the distribution of observed radio sizes of quasars and radio galaxies show large systematic differences between these two sky regions. The redshift distribution appear to be very similar in both regions of sky for all sources, which rules out any local effects to be the cause of these anomalies. Two pertinent questions then arise. First, why should there be such large anisotropies present in the sky distribution of some of the most distant discrete sources implying inhomogeneities in the universe at very large scales (covering a fraction of the universe)? What is intriguing even further is why such anisotropies should lie about a great circle decided purely by the orientation of earth’s rotation axis and/or the axis of its revolution around the sun? It looks as if these axes have a preferential placement in the larger scheme of things, implying an apparent breakdown of the Copernican principle or its more generalization, cosmological principle, upon which all modern cosmological theories are based upon.

"Copernican principle states that earth does not have any eminent or privileged position
in the universe and therefore an observer’s choice of origin and/or orientation of his/her coordinate system should have no bearing on the appearance of the distant universe. Its natural generalization is the cosmological principle that the universe on a sufficiently large scale should appear homogeneous and isotropic, with no preferred directions, to all observers. However to us on earth the universe does show heterogeneous structures up to the scale of superclusters of galaxies and somewhat beyond, but it is assumed that it will all appear homogeneous and isotropic when observed on still larger scales, perhaps beyond a couple of hundreds of megaparsecs. Radio galaxies and quasars, the most distant dis- crete objects (at distances of many gigaparsecs or further) seen in the universe should trace the distribution of matter in the universe at that large scale and should therefore appear isotropically distributed from any vantage point in the universe including that on earth. One of the earliest and best studied source of radio galaxies and quasars is the 3CRR (3rd Cambridge twice revised) catalogue5,6,7, which is radio complete in the sense that all ra- dio sources brighter than a certain sensitive limit are included and also it has complete optical identification content with detailed optical spectra to classify radio sources in to radio galaxies and quasars. The catalogue with the latest updates is downloadable from https://www.astrosci.ca/users/willottc/3crr/3crr.html. 

Darkness and Evil in Cosmology
05/18/2013 09:24 AM

Darkness.

It is now being called the "dark sector".

The "dark sector" comprises 99% or so of all the matter/energy in the Copernican universe.

The non-Copernican is entitled at this point to say:

"How conveeeeeeeeeeeenient!".

Imagine the consequences for a non-Copernican cosmological theory which based itself upon the premise:

"Ninety nine per cent of the mass and energy required for this universe do not exist in observed forms."

Now consider the reality of a Copernican cosmological consensus which does base itself upon the premise:

"Ninety nine per cent of the mass and energy required for this universe do not exist in observed forms."

The non-Copernican is entitled at this point to say:

"A cosmological theory which requires for its validity that the universe must consist 99% in unobserved forms of matter and energy is a false cosmological theory, and must be replaced."

It is highly predictable that a cosmological theory which requires for its validity that the universe must consist 99% in unobserved forms of matter and energy will regularly encounter observations which are contrary to its assumptions.

It is even predictable that such observations might acquire a generic terminology; a categorization to set them over and against the "dark sector" fudge factors which are invented to explain them away.

It is even predictable that such troublesome anomalies might be termed "Evil".

Evil.

It is now being called the "Axis of Evil".

The "Axis of Evil" is a special direction in the universe.

It is observationally confirmed to exist.

This observational confirmation directly contradicts the foundational assumption of Copernican cosmology- the Copernican Principle itself.

This special direction is not merely "special"- it is pointing directly at the Earth.

This special direction is not merely related to the cosmic background.

It has been found to extend to distinct phenomena including:

1. Preferred axis of galaxy spin rotation handedness.
2. Polarization of quasar photons.
3. Preferred direction of so-called "dark flow"
4. Preferred direction of anisotropic cosmic expansion as interpreted by Type 1a Supernovae observations.

Perhaps what we call "dark" is merely a fiction, and what we call "Evil" is actually the universe giving us a hint- trying to assist us in coming to understand that Earth is indeed in a very, very special place in the cosmos.






So Guess What Else Is Pointing At the Earth?
05/18/2013 08:48 AM

As most of the readers of this blog know already, a strong and growing tendency exists in cosmology to examine critically, and possibly subject to crucial experimental test, the foundational assumption of the modern world itself- the "Copernican Principle".

One of the leading concepts in this development of cosmology is so-called "void cosmology".

Void cosmology is simply an intellectually acceptable term for what amounts to "weak" geocentrism.

It places the Earth near the center of a "void", an under-density of matter, and in so doing accomplishes two interesting things:

1. It dispenses with the Copernican Principle;

2. It dispenses with the need for dark energy.

Now.

We know that "dark energy" exists only because of observations of Type 1a Supernovae, which are interpreted to mean that the universe must be accelerating in its expansion.

Needless to say, if the universe is accelerating in its expansion, then something must exist which is able to counteract the attractive force of gravity.

That something is completely unobserved, and exists only as a term in an equation.

But it is often treated in the scientific pop press as an ontological reality, and it is bandied about as if it were a substance about which our science is prepared to tell us many important things.

The one truly important thing about this non-existent substance is that it is non-existent; that is to say, it does not exist except as a mathematical term.

The term must exist in order to save the otherwise unsalvageable mathematical expressions of Standard Model cosmology, but it has no other necessary existence.

If the Standard Model is wrong- say, for example, if its foundational assumption of a Copernican/cosmological Principle is wrong- then dark energy exists henceforth not even as a mathematical term, but instead merely as a fictitious fudge factor, an immortal example of how to bungle science by imposing upon observations a magical "fixer upper", so as to render them amenable to one's assumptions.

On May 17, a paper was published on the Cornell University preprint site which reports yet another Earth-oriented cosmological structure- this time the orientation of the very Type 1a Supernovae which have led to the invention of "dark energy".

Emphases added below:



May 17, 2013


http://arxiv.org/pdf/1305.2701.pdf

Excerpt:

Recently, the anisotropy of cosmic acceleration has at tracted great attention, which may be caused by the non- trivial cosmic topology or some residuals of observational errors. In this paper, by using the Union2 SNIa dataset at different regions in the whole sky, we investigated the dependence of cosmic acceleration on the directions in the Galactic coordinate system, where the deceleration parameter q0 has been used as the diagnostic to quantify the anisotropy level.
In the anisotropic q0-maps, we find the significant dipole effect with the amplitude A1 = 0.466, which deviates from zero at more than 2-σ level. This study also shows that the direction of the dipole trends to be perpendicular to CMB kinematic dipole. The best-fit dipole direction is (θ = 108.8◦, φ= 187.0◦), and the angle be- tween this direction and that of CMB kinematic dipole is 95.7◦. We find the perpendicular relation between these two dipoles is anomalous at the 1-in-10 level........
Recently, the new release of the Planck observations on the CMB temperature anisotropy confirmed the alignment of the CMB quadrupole and octupole. And this particular direction is nearly aligned with CMB kinematic dipole direction [59]. At the same time, the discontinuous distribution of power in the hemispheres on the sky was also been confirmed. All these show that we have the evidence for a break in isotropy. In order to solve these problems, a phenomenological dipole modulation may be needed [59, 60]. Since all these directional anomalies, as well as the alignment problems of the cosmic acceleration anisotropy discussed in this paper, the parity asymmetry of CMB power spectrum [47], the large-scale velocity flows [49] and the large scale alignment in the QSO optical polarization data [51] are connected with the CMB kinematic dipole and/or the ecliptic plane. We expect a single dipole modulation mechanism could solve all these puzzles.
Several works have suggested that this kind of modulation could be caused by the non-trivial topology of the Universe, such as the anisotropic global Bianchi VIIh geometry [61], the Randers-Finsler geometry [62], or the multi-stream inflation [63]. However, if they have the cosmological origin, it is very difficult to answer: Why the special direction is related to the current motion di- rection of the Earth, i.e. the CMB kinematic dipole. So, in our view, we would rather believe that these problems should be caused by some unsolved systematical errors in observations or data analysis."


But of course you would rather believe this.

I appreciate the precision of that sentence.

"We would *rather* believe..........."

It sets the stakes in proper perspective in this rapidly- expanding debate over the Copernican Principle.

More New Papers Examining the Copernican Principle
05/14/2013 12:34 PM


The remarkable proliferation of papers examining the Copernican Principle continues apace.

The problem- the fact that the Universe is not Copernican, and our FLRW solutions for General Relativity require that it be Copernican- is now making its way inexorably toward the "mainstream".

Here are a few recent additions from the arxiv.org site:

"Testing the Copernican Principle by constraining spatial homogeneity", posted September 18, 2012
includes this excerpt:



"The Copernican principle states that humans are not privileged observers of the universe and provides our philosophical basis for assuming that on the largest scales the universe is spatially homogeneous. While it is one of the foundational aspects of modern cosmology, this assumption remains untested outside of the standard paradigm. Though it may seem pedantic to test something so obvious, the standard paradigm itself is built on shaky foundations, relying on an unexplained, gravitationally repulsive, dark-energy component for observations to fit the model. The implications of this cannot be overstated. Assuming that the laws of physics do apply equally everywhere in the universe, the only non- copernican configuration possible is one in which we live in a place that originates from special initial conditions."



This post of May 1, 2013 tells us that "(f)or the first time, the standard FL background geometry may be showing its limits to interpret the cosmological data with the accuracy they require."

And, quite remarkably, this paper from the European Journal of Physics, accepted for publication on January 16, 2013, which includes this:


According to Newton’s laws, it is impossible for small Earth to keep the big Sun in its orbit: the gravitational pull is just too weak. This argument is very strong, and it seemed to settle the question for good.

But in the end of 19th century, the famous physicist and philosopher Ernst Mach (1839-1916) came with the principle which states the equivalence of non-inertial frames. Using the famous “Newton’s bucket” argument, Mach argues that all so-called pseudo- forces (forces which result from accelerated motion of the reference frame) are in fact real forces originating form the accelerated motion of distant masses in the Universe, as observed by the observer in the non-inertial frame. Some go even further, stating that “every single physical property and behavioral aspect of isolated systems is determined by the whole Universe” [3]. According to Mach’s principle, the Earth could be considered as the “pivot point” of the Universe: the fact that the Universe is orbiting around the Earth will create the exact same forces that we usually ascribe to the motion of the Earth.

Mach’s principle played a major role in the development of the Einstein’s General Theory of Relavity [4], as well as other developments in gravitation theory, and has inspired some interesting experiments [5]. This principle still serves as a guideline for some physicists who attempt to reformulate (“Machianize”) Newtonian dynamics [6, 7], or try to construct new theories of mechanics [8]. Some arguments and critiques against Mach’s principle have also been raised [9]. Since the time of it’s original appearance [10, 11, 12], Mach’s principle has been reformulated in numbers of different ways [13, 14]. For the purpose of this paper, we will only focus on the one of the consequences of Mach’s principle: that the inertial forces can be seen as resulting from real interactions with distant matter in the Universe, as was for example shown by A. Zylbersztajn [15].

The only question remains: are these forces by themselves enough to explain all translational motions that we observe from Earth, and can they reproduce the Tycho Brahe’s model? The discussion in this paper will show that the answer to this question is positive. 

Interesting times!

Much more to come, here at Magisterial Fundies, and also in "The Principle".

Apologies for Delay In Comment Moderation
05/10/2013 08:06 AM

Hi all:

Some kind of a glitch has resulted in a number of comments being tied up until suddenly showing up this morning.

They should all be up now, except for one.

I address the author of the one:

Lionel, I am informed that you took private correspondence and posted it publicly. I do not participate in this.

My post on the question can be found here:

http://magisterialfundies.blogspot.com/2012/08/a-question-concerning-salvation.html

If you want to interact with my post, you can do so there.

Metaphysics and Cosmology
05/04/2013 07:47 AM

In the process of filming and editing "The Principle", I have tried to present the two great world views which Christendom and the post-Enlightenment world have presented us, concerning cosmology and cosmogony.

The first is the world view of antiquity, of Plato and Aristotle, and, also, of Genesis.

The second is the world view of consensus cosmology, the "Big Bang" in its present form (so-called "lambda cold dark matter" or "LCDM").

The first places Earth at a very special position in the cosmos- indeed, according to Genesis, Earth is the first object created, and the cosmos is "stretched out" from Earth.

The second places Earth in an insignificant position, as in Carl Sagan's famous quote:

Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.

For a very long time, the scientific model of reality has gone from strength to strength, from triumph to triumph, on the basis of reported confirmations of the so-called "Copernican/cosmological Principle".

But a deeper investigation of these triumphs reveals a very interesting- even disturbing!- fact.

The Copernican Principle is a philosophical/metaphysical, not a scientific concept.

Please, click on the supplied definition link above, and soak in the implications:

In later years with Freud, man lost his Godlike mind; with Darwin his exalted place among the creatures of the Earth; with Copernicus man had lost his privileged position in the Universe.
The lesson learned by future scientists is that if a theory requires a special origin or viewpoint, then it is not plausible

These are not scientific assertions. Not a one of them.

These are metaphysical assertions.

Man "lost his Godlike mind"?

No.

Man's mind did not change in any way at all.

Our metaphysical view concerning that mind changed.

Man lost his exalted place among the creatures of the Earth?

No.

Man's place among the creatures of the Earth did not change in any way at all.

Our metaphysical view concerning that place changed.

Man lost his privileged position in the cosmos?

Well.

Therein lies a tale, and a very powerful and important one.

Of course whatever position we had in the universe before Copernicus, is exactly the same position we had in the universe after Copernicus.

The question is: is it a privileged position?

According to the remarkable observations obtained by our most recent, large-scale surveys of the universe, it apparently is.

But there is one final assertion above, which represents the truly disturbing aspects of the Copernican metaphysical world view, as it has come to be expressed in consensus, Big Bang, LCDM cosmology:

"The lesson learned by future scientists is that if a theory requires a special origin or viewpoint, then it is not plausible."

Now stop and think about that one for a moment, if you please.

What we have here is a metaphysical assumption about reality, imposing itself upon all attempts to explain scientific observations.

The metaphysical assumption is:

"We're nothing special".

The imposition consists in the frank and brutal warning to all the young scientists who might be wondering about this question:

"if a theory requires a special origin or viewpoint, then it is not plausible."

In other words, we are told that any theory which might be able to account for observations, but which would result in a violation of the Copernican Principle, will be dismissed, a priori, as "not plausible".

So.

Are we better oriented toward truth, by the assumption that we are special, privileged observers of this magnificent universe?

Or are we better oriented toward truth, by the assumption that we're insignificant in comparison to this magnificent universe?

"The Principle" is the most important movie you will see this year.

Look for it in theaters this autumn.



Two False Philosophical Assumptions Which Lie At The Heart of Cosmology
05/01/2013 04:18 AM

False Assumption Number One:

The Copernican/cosmological Principle:

The Copernican Principle states that we are not privileged observers/Earth is in no special location.

This is false; it has been scientifically falsified.

The Earth is aligned with the largest scale structure in the universe: the cosmic microwave background itself.

This is no longer a supposition, or a possibility.

It is a scientific fact.

The Copernican Principle lies at the very heart of modern cosmology- all of modern cosmology is based on this assumption, which has been observationally falsified.

The cosmological principle is a generalization of the Copernican Principle, and states that there are no privileged observers/no special locations.

Another way of saying this is that there is no up, down, left, or right in the cosmos.

Another way of saying this is that the universe must be isotropic (must look about the same in all directions) and homogeneous (must look about the same in all directions no matter where you are looking from).

This is false; it has been observationally falsified.

There exists a preferred direction in space; the so-called "Axis of Evil".

A coordinate system can be constructed based on this Axis, which yields an up, a down, a left, a right.

But wait........

There's more!

The special direction in space is not just any direction......

It is a special direction which is aligned with the ecliptic and equinoxes of Earth.

Lawrence Krauss wrote, back in 2006:


“But when you look at CMB map, you also see that the structure that is observed, is in fact, in a weird way, correlated with the plane of the earth around the sun. Is this Copernicus coming back to haunt us? That's crazy. We're looking out at the whole universe. There's no way there should be a correlation of structure with our motion of the earth around the sun — the plane of the earth around the sun — the ecliptic. That would say we are truly the center of the universe.”



Krauss recently stated, before the Planck release, that he thought the alignments were wrong.

Instead, Planck has confirmed that they are right.

One must conclude, logically, that Krauss therefore now believes that we are the center of the universe.

But one ought not assume logic in such a case.

Krauss has also authored a book, the title of which is an immortal bungle; a botch job that belongs among history's greatest fundamental self-contradictions:

"A Universe From Nothing"

But logic requires us to admit that nothing can come from nothing.

If something comes from nothing, then the nothing is not nothing, but something.

A five year old can prove this conclusively.

But some of our leading cosmologists cannot.

Please keep these points in mind the next time you find yourself tempted to assume that the scientific elites are prepared to tell us "how things really are".


The "Inflationary Unlikeliness Problem": Has Planck Already Sunk Concordance Cosmology?
04/18/2013 06:13 PM

In a remarkable paper published April 12 on the Cornell University preprint site,  the implications of the Planck observations for our standard cosmology are addressed in (relatively!) "plain English" by a team including one of the creators of inflation theory, Paul Steinhardt of Princeton University.

Is this what it sounds like when the fat lady starts singing............?


"....the favored models are anything but simple. Not only do they greatly exacerbate known problems of initial conditions and the multiverse, but, combined with earlier results from WMAP, ACT and other observations [7], they also create a new problem that we call the inflationary “unlikeliness problem.” Namely, the only way to obtain the Planck results is from potentials that are exponentially unlikely according to the logic of the inflationary paradigm itself.  


"In sum, by favoring only plateau-like models, the Planck2013 data creates a serious new challenge for the inflationary paradigm: the universally accepted assumption about initial conditions no longer leads to inflation; instead, inflation can only begin to smooth the universe if the universe is unexpectedly smooth to begin with!
 PS: We are informed early on that one particular problem is not even considered in all of this:


"(In this Letter, we will not discuss the marginal deviations from isotropy on large scales reported by the Planck collaboration [2]."



Those "marginal deviations from isotropy" include the Axis of Evil.....the marginal little deviation from isotropy that happens to be pointing directly at us.

Interesting times!

Much more to come in "The Principle".



A Tale of Two Anomalies
04/17/2013 10:06 AM

Anomaly One: CMB AXIS

Physically observed over 9 years, 2001- 2010.

Constitutes direct challenge to fundamental assumption of modern cosmology.

Ascribed to galactic foreground contamination, scanning beam anomaly, dust foreground contamination, discrepancies in data extraction algorithms 2003-2013

Physically observed again 2013, by different mission, different scanning apparatus, different orbit, different data extraction algorithms.

Dismissed as "3 sigma" anomaly, a "statistical glitch" in media coverage.

Anomaly Two: Dark Matter

Physically observed in three particle detections, 2013.

Constitutes supporting claim for missing component in standard cosmology.

Described as "3 sigma" detection- strong evidence in favor of detection in media coverage (one guy has  decided the evidence is actually 10 sigma!).


Consilience in action.

Anomaly One is a challenge to the foundational assumption of all our standard cosmology.

Anomaly Two is a potential big supporting piece of the puzzle for all our standard cosmology.

Some anomalies are more equal than others.

In the meantime, Popper reminds us:


  1. "It is easy to obtain confirmations, or verifications, for nearly every theory — if we look for confirmations.
  2. Confirmations should count only if they are the result of risky predictions; that is to say, if, unenlightened by the theory in question, we should have expected an event which was incompatible with the theory — an event which would have refuted the theory.
  3. Every "good" scientific theory is a prohibition: it forbids certain things to happen. The more a theory forbids, the better it is.
  4. A theory which is not refutable by any conceivable event is non-scientific. Irrefutability is not a virtue of a theory (as people often think) but a vice.
  5. Every genuine test of a theory is an attempt to falsify it, or to refute it. Testability is falsifiability; but there are degrees of testability: some theories are more testable, more exposed to refutation, than others; they take, as it were, greater risks.
  6. Confirming evidence should not count except when it is the result of a genuine test of the theory; and this means that it can be presented as a serious but unsuccessful attempt to falsify the theory. (I now speak in such cases of "corroborating evidence.")
  7. Some genuinely testable theories, when found to be false, are still upheld by their admirers — for example by introducing ad hoc some auxiliary assumption, or by reinterpreting the theory ad hoc in such a way that it escapes refutation. Such a procedure is always possible, but it rescues the theory from refutation only at the price of destroying, or at least lowering, its scientific status. (I later described such a rescuing operation as a "conventionalist twist" or a "conventionalist stratagem.")
One can sum up all this by saying that the criterion of the scientific status of a theory is its falsifiability, or refutability, or testability."

                                            ****************************

The universe is now observationally shown to be non-isotropic on its largest observable scales. 

This violates the cosmological principle.

The universe's largest scale observed anisotropy- the CMB "Axis of Evil"- is aligned with our ecliptic and equinoxes.

This violates the Copernican Principle.

There is no "three sigma" to this whatsoever.

The Axis is real.

It exists.

Whether it can be dismissed as a "three sigma" anomaly is completely irrelevant, and is a question that deals with statistical probabilities from within the assumptions of consensus cosmology's model- a model which failed to predict the Axis in the first place, and instead positively counter-predicted it.

The "probability" of the Axis is a question which assumes we know how probable the universe is.

We don't.

Our sample size, when it comes to universes, is exactly one.

The Axis is a hugely important discovery, since it refutes the foundational assumption upon which our modern scientific world view has rested for centuries.

The dismissal of the Axis provides an even more important insight into an hypothesis I have developed elsewhere on this blog:

Consilience lies at the heart of the post-scientific method.

Falsification lies at the heart of the scientific method.

We are now witnessing the steady progress of the post scientific method.


Tip O' The Hat To Ethan Seigel On The Great Non-Discovery Of Dark Matter
04/09/2013 12:20 PM

File under "Credit Where Credit Is Due"

Ethan has been an up-front adversary on the question of the Copernican Principle and geocentrism generally on his blog- it is very nice to see him pulling the covers on a recent shameful claim of the "detection of evidence for dark matter", which was nothing of the kind.

Relevant excerpt:

To reiterate, based on what AMS has presented, there is nothing to suggest that they have detected any evidence whatsoever for particle dark matter. The press release (and the earlier press conference) — reported upon by many that I will not link to — suggest otherwise, and that is misleading. In fact, calling it misleading is generous, because I personally believe it is deceitful, and it’s a deceit that I even anticipated a few weeks ago!

What The Heck Is Going On With the Planck Team????
04/02/2013 01:18 PM

Utterly amazing.

It appears there is a war going on behind the scenes of the Planck Team itself, on just what the observations actually are.

From the abstract of Planck Paper I: "Overview"

"Planck finds no evidence for non-Gaussian statistics of the CMB anisotropies"

From Planck paper XXIII: "Isotropy and statistics"


"We detect pronounced signatures for both non- Gaussianities and anisotropies........a highly significant detection of both non-Gaussianities and anisotropies in the Planck data, consistent with those obtained previously with WMAP data .......the asymmetry was found to be highly significant for the whole range l=2−600."


                                 ****************


Now I am just a simple country boy, but even I can see that these two statements are directly contradictory.

Interesting times!

Much more to come in "The Principle".

Yet Another Blessing of the Traditional Latin Mass
03/30/2013 05:37 PM

It is almost..........heartbreaking to watch the desperation.

Papa Francesco is so deeply committed to somehow reaching out and reversing the catastrophe which has devastated the vineyard since the Council.

There is to be no obstacle from "the past" allowed to stand in the way; surely, if we simply demolish more of the "timeworn" traditions of the Faith, if we simply get rid of every thing that might offend those who are, of course, offended- by what? By the Catholic Church, Her Dogmas, Her Liturgies!- then perhaps we can overcome this disaster.

Perhaps if we simply continue razing the bastions, things will turn around.

At Holy Thursday Mass I was blessed by God to assist at the Mandatum, where twelve men had their feet washed by our beloved priest, as has been done always and everywhere, since Our Lord Himself did so first, on the night before He was crucified, on the night when He gave us the Holy Eucharist.

Poor Peter, completely in the dark...........

"Jesus answered, and said to him: What I do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter."

Find a Traditional Mass, a good and holy Traditional priest, and get ready.

Rough waters ahead.

Almost Perfect?
03/23/2013 09:46 PM


If you want to know how history is being distorted in front of our very eyes this very week, simply notice the headline for the Planck satellite release from ESA:

“An Almost Perfect Universe”.

Kobe Bryant made an almost perfect three point shot at the buzzer last night too.

The Lakers lost.

The real headline should have been:

“Planck Confirms: Copernican Principle Falsified, Cosmology In Crisis”.

Why the former, rather than the latter?

Science used to consist in a method, a method dedicated to the experimental test, *with the intention of possibly falsifying*, what we think we know.

Albert Einstein was educated in this way:

“No amount of experimentation can ever prove me right. A single experiment can prove me wrong.”

Science now consists in a method dedicated to propping up a “consilience” among various “independent lines of investigation”.

In such a method, anomalies are buried under claims of “almost perfect”.

Unfortunately, “overwhelming consilience” is the quite predictable outcome of *any* research program dedicated to the preservation of, rather than the experimental test with the intention to potentially falsify, a given model.

The simple truth is that the foundational assumption of the modern scientific world view was observationally falsified in the release of the Planck satellite CMB data in Paris on March 21, 2013.

It will take a while to trickle down, but there it is.

Copernican Principle, 1532-2013, RIP- Why Cosmology Is About to Get Interesting
03/23/2013 10:57 AM


Planck has reported.
The Axis of Evil is real.
The Copernican Principle (which is the irreducible, foundational assumption of modern cosmology) has been observationally falsified.
The universe's largest visible structure is aligned in completely inexplicable ways with supposedly insignificant Earth.
This is now established, scientific, observational fact.
"The Principle" is now the one movie that you really must see this year, since it is only every few centuries or so that the foundational assumption governing our entire worldview comes crashing down.

The ESA press release includes (suitably buried under paragraphs of reassurances that almost everything fits)..........

“The fact that Planck has made such a significant detection of these anomalies erases any doubts about their reality; it can no longer be said that they are artefacts of the measurements. They are real and we have to look for a credible explanation,” says Paolo Natoli of the University of Ferrara, Italy.
“Imagine investigating the foundations of a house and finding that parts of them are weak. You might not know whether the weaknesses will eventually topple the house, but you’d probably start looking for ways to reinforce it pretty quickly all the same,” adds François Bouchet of the Institut d’Astrophysique de Paris.
All you powers shake.
Can't you feel the way they tremble?

UPDATE 3/22:

Following quotes from Planck Results paper XXIII "Isotropy and statistics"




There are 7 distinct anomalies reported in addition to the mutual alignment of quadrupole and octupole: 

"the low variance (Sect. 5.2), hemispherical asymmetry (Sect. 5.3), phase correlations (Sect. 5.4), dipolar power modulation (Sect. 5.5), generalized power modulation (Sect. 5.6), parity asymmetry (Sect. 5.7) and the Cold Spot (Sect. 5.8). Each of these anomalies may represent different violations of the fundamental properties of isotropy and/or Gaussianity of the CMB data which are assumed in the estimation of the CMB power".


There is a distinct angular power asymmetry between the north and south hemispheres, with a "remarkable" lack of power in the direction of the north ecliptic pole:

the observed properties of the Planck data are consistent with a remarkable lack of power in a direction towards the north ecliptic pole, consistent with the simpler one-point statistics presented in Sect. 5.2."

There is "a highly significant detection of both non-Gaussianities and anisotropies":

"We detect pronounced signatures for both non- Gaussianities and anisotropies........a highly significant detection of both non-Gaussianities and anisotropies in the Planck data, consistent with those obtained previously with WMAP data .......the asymmetry was found to be highly significant for the whole range l=2−600."


 There is an odd parity preference in the data, which indicates the low quadrupole power is not an isolated anomaly:

"Therefore, the odd parity preference cannot simply be attributed to the low quadrupole power. It is plausible the low quadrupole power is not an isolated anomaly, but that it shares an origin with the odd parity preference"


 There is evidence of anisotropy on large angular scales "which could have profound implications for cosmology":

"In particular, there is evidence for a violation of statistical isotropy at least on large angular scales in the context of the Planck fiducial sky model........In addition, there is evidence from such fits that the low-l spectrum of the Planck data departs from the fiducial spectrum in both amplitude and slope. These results could have profound implications for cosmology. "

The CMB is "manifestly non-Gaussian and anisotropic", but the anomalies are not related to galactic foregrounds or contamination: 

"The microwave sky is manifestly non-Gaussian and anisotropic, with known contributions from Galactic astrophys- ical foregrounds, lensing of CMB anistropies by the intervening matter distribution, and the ISW. However, the excellent per- formances of the component separation algorithms used here in rejecting diffuse foregrounds argues strongly against known Galactic emission as the source of the anomalies."

Mary's Bones Part V: How Did Those 24,000 Carbon Year Bones Get Inside Those 80,000,000 Radiometric Year Rocks?
03/03/2013 03:09 PM

In Mary's Bones Parts 1, II, III, and IV, we have followed the amazing story of dinosaur bones, purportedly 60-80,000,000 years old (based on the radiometric dating of the strata in which the bones were found), which present the extreme anomaly of soft tissues, hemes, and collagen.

Over at the Talk Rational blog, an extensive debate was engaged on just what the scientific method requires, when Red Dots such as these present themselves to our attention, as precious opportunities to experimentally test (and potentially falsify) that which we think we know.

After several hundred posts where, we were assured, such dino bone anomalies:

1. Don't exist,
2. Even if they do, constitute no challenge to the theory of evolution,
3. Cannot be carbon dated since they are too old,
4. Can be carbon dated to detect modern contamination,
5. Cannot be carbon dated since they will all be contaminated,
6. Can be prepared so as to remove modern contaminants,
7. Cannot be prepared so as to remove modern contaminants............

We finally, at the tail end of the thread, are presented with, at long last, an indication that not all evolutionary scientists have completely departed the realm of science after all.

In this post we are linked to a study which dates- by C14 test- dinosaur bones from Cretaceous (supposedly 65-80 mya) strata.

The bones C14 date to approximately 24,000 carbon years, consistent with dozens of similar C14 tests on other Cretaceous dino bones throughout the world.

On the one hand we can congratulate the team for dating the bones.

On the other we must now ask our Darwinist friends to explain to us how bones that date to 24,000 carbon years got inside rocks that date to 65-80,000,000 radiometric years.

Ain't science fun?

Repost: Consilience- Welcome To The Post Scientific World
02/27/2013 01:07 PM

I repost this in order to take advantage of recent increased traffic on the blog.

It is one of the things I have discovered that will be most relevant in the examination of both the Copernican Principle, and the closely related principle of evolution via mutation and selection.

Our first film, "The Principle", deals with the former.

Our second, with the latter.


You believe that the Universe (the better informed among you believe that our Hubble bubble) originated in a Big Bang about 13.7 billion years ago.
You believe that the Earth is about 4 billion years old; that life has evolved from one or more primordial ancestors (most of you believe in abiogenesis as well, but are at pains to insist that you are not required to say so, since you cannot demonstrate this belief experimentally- but as we shall see, most of you think you have even better grounds upon which to believe it anyway).
You believe that random mutation and natural selection are completely adequate means by which to explain the observed biodiversity of our world.
The vast majority of you believe that man’s appearance is also explainable by these means. 
A (much smaller and understandably shrinking) subset of you believe that God must have intervened in the process at the point where man first appears.
The better informed among you are aware that none of these assertions has been demonstrated experimentally (that is, not one of these assertions is scientific, as that word has been understood by Einstein, by Popper, by every great discoverer of scientific principle in history.......until the advent of this post-scientific world).
But even (especially!) the better informed among you believe these things, and you believe them so strongly that you scorn any suggestion that experimental demonstration of these beliefs might reasonably be demanded.
You believe that you have something better than experimental demonstration, which confirms you in these beliefs.
That “something better” is consilience.
Consilience is the only persuasive argument that the post-scientific worldview (the worldview of inflation, of dark matter and dark energy, of the multiverse, of String Theory, of “Deep Time” neo-Darwinism) has ever advanced.
It has persuaded you, and it has persuaded (may God help us), even Princes of the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church now proposes consilience as relevant- in some vague but apparently real way- even for Catholics:
“.......new knowledge has led to the recognition of the theory of evolution as more than a hypothesis.  It is indeed remarkable that this theory has been progressively accepted by researchers, following a series of discoveries in various fields of knowledge.  The convergence, neither sought nor fabricated, of the results of work that was conducted independently is in itself a significant argument in favor of the theory.”--
Pope John Paul II, Address to Pontifical Academy of Sciences, 1996
Here it is proposed that the note of scientific truth is found, not in experimental test with the intention of falsifying assumed knowledge, but in the “convergence, neither sought nor fabricated” among independent branches of research.
Consilience is also a key to understanding the Nouvelle Theologie: instead of the Traditional Catholic proclamation “outside the Church there is no salvation”, we are presented with a dialogue among mutual seekers of Truth, all of whom “tend to converge” upon some objective Truth which lies, perhaps, somewhere further down the road of the “convergence” (consilience).
In the scientific world, something was established by experiment, and always subjected to crucial experiment, ceaselessly, *with the intention of falsifying what we might think we know*.
In the post scientific world, experiment exists merely to resolve difficulties in the path of the consilience, of that which we *already have determined that we know*.
In the Traditional Church, salvation was something possessed by the Catholic Church in its fullness, and all dialogue was intended to assist the pagan, the Jew, the heretic, the schismatic, in coming to understand and accept this.
In the modern Church, salvation is, also, something dispensed in unknowable ways by God, to those who seek that consilience, that Truth, which lies somewhere, perhaps, down the road of the dialogue, closer to the convergence of the consilience among the truth-seekers.
Truth is objective, in Traditional Catholic teaching.
Scientific truth is the result of ceaseless experimental challenge, in the scientific world.
Truth is relative, evolving, and the mutual object of truth seekers more or less aligned with the consilience toward which they are “converging”, in the Nouvelle Theologie.
Scientific truth is the result of consilience between lines of investigation, in the post scientific world.
Welcome to the post scientific world.

"The Principle" Update
02/25/2013 02:32 PM

Those of you who have supported us with your prayers, please redouble them, as we are on the verge of almost incomprehensibly big things :-)

Those of you who have harbored bitter and vicious notions of impeding or discrediting "The Principle"- well, very few of you seem to pray so I really don;t know what to suggest to you other than that you buckle your seatbelts.

Next couple of weeks should settle it.

A Tale of Two Masses
02/24/2013 11:44 PM

At 9:00 am, in a little parish church in a working class neighborhood, the pews are packed, chairs set up in the back of the church likewise.

At the front of the church, classes of confirmandi; boys to one side, girls to the other. I am surprised at how many- probably 60-70 teenagers in all.

The Latin Mass (Low Mass) is offered reverently, the homily is a reflection on the Gospel reading of the Transfiguration.

The prayers after Low Mass are recited by the whole congregation, and at least half the church remains behind afterward, to pray.

At 5:30 pm, in a parish church built in the form of an hyperbola in one of the richest neighborhoods in Los Angeles, the pews are three quarters empty.

The band, consisting in guitar, electric bass, drums, and piano, rehearses right up to the moment that the priest enters.

The Novus Ordo Mass is offered reverently, the homily is a reflection on the "resignation" of the Pope (he is just too old, and has found out that he wasn't really in charge after all- he is referred to repeatedly as "Ratzinger").

The priest reads a letter "from a friend" describing the kind of Pope he hopes will be elected (one who "wears pants" instead of "ridiculous regalia").

The Church is empty within two minutes of the end of Mass.