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Post by Tetchy on Oct 20, 2007 17:19:45 GMT
I've just returned (Well this morning after a flight delay of 24 hours being stuck by a pool in Cancun) from my honeymoon and while not bronzing my (Ahem) Spartan physique and bumping uglies with the new missus I read my second Dan Brown novel Angels and Demons. I don't think Mr Brown is a particularly good writer, more in the line of short sharp pulp fiction but at least his subject matter gets you interested and thinking. For those of you unaware of the novel it involves a plot by a fabled secret society known as the Illuminati trying to destroy catholicism by blowing up the vatican on the day a new Pope is elected by using a new technology recently discovered in a laboratory in Switzerland called anti-matter, which they have stolen. It expands on an apparent centuries old conflict between religious beliefs and scientific fact and provability. The book is okay and I managed to get through it in a couple of days and the film is being pre produced as I write this but what got me thinking was the anti-matter in question was created as a by product when scientists recreated a miniature big bang when trying to reproduce the moment the universe was created thus proving/disproving the existence of God. I did a quick search this afternoon and the complex mentioned in the book CERN exists and is in the process of experimenting with particle physics and I thought it was only a matter of time before science can prove the big bang theory is how we came into existence and not some mythical supreme being waving his hands around. If you haven't read it then I recommend you do. Or wait for the film. But it will get you thinking. T  |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2007 17:41:49 GMT
I have read that book, I think I have seen the huge thing they are going to use to try to recreate the big bang. From what little I have read about it people are concerned that they will create mini black holes that will suck us all into nothingness - but the scientists say they would be so minute it wouldn't happen....
I am sure however, if they do manage to prove the big bang theory you will have your religious nut cases who will dismiss it.
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 20, 2007 17:53:48 GMT
Whole heartedly agree Hayley. Doesn't matter if it is proven beyond all shadow of a doubt, there will always be some people dismissing it and persisting with their beliefs. I don't necisarrilly think thats a bad thing though. A little debate is healthy for mind and soul. T  |
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Post by exile on Oct 20, 2007 17:56:03 GMT
I've read it and would recommend it too.  It's very interesting. It makes me wonder what else is being experimented that we don't know about and probably never will. |
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Post by Deleted on Oct 20, 2007 18:11:28 GMT
Yes, debate is good but "it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring"
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Post by hellyp on Oct 20, 2007 20:44:32 GMT
Read it and enjoyed it.
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Post by bujin on Oct 20, 2007 21:45:56 GMT
Better story than the Da Vinci Code, although just as far fetched!  The fact that the "discoveries" in the book had eluded the finest minds in the world didn't stop Dr. Langdon solving them in less than 24 hours... But still a gripping read, nonetheless. |
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 21, 2007 1:02:32 GMT
Yes, debate is good but "it is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring"What is the universe as it really is? A huge expanse still misunderstood in origin, expanse, growth, limits. 90% of the universe is still unknown and is described as dark matter by astrologers. Much the same as religion may be described. A leap of faith required to fill the blanks. It seems to me that the 2 are side by side in the conventional sprint for the finish line but as I see it neither will finish first. Science has its facts. Religion has its beliefs. It's a relay race to the line with the baton being passed from hand to hand, debate to debate, controversy to controversy. In the end should we wish one would win? Because ultimately that would lead to the destruction of the other and that in turn would lead to humankind having nothing to argue for, nothing to fight over, nothing to debate. It would mean an end to war over religion though, but not an end to strife nor man's greed and need over others. Indeed the freedom from a God and the threat of an eternal hell may free some dictators from their usual regime of human torture to new levels knowing they will never be punished in the afterlife. Is that Utopia? Yours in a drunken flourish T  |
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Post by bobdezon on Oct 21, 2007 1:13:06 GMT
Ah I havent read the book but I am familiar with the CERN Large Hadron Collider (LHC) basically its a bigass accelerator tube that fires particles into each other at silly speeds and analyses the ejecta for anti matter, and when I say BIG........  PS Tetchy, cancun is badass. Tell me did you go to daddy rocks? or tuluum/chitzen itza/ xel ha? |
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 21, 2007 1:17:47 GMT
Went to Chichen Itza (which was cool but got soaked to the skin) and Coco Bongo's which was the best show I seen in ages despite the tequilla fog.
Would deffo go back again.
T
;D
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Post by bobdezon on Oct 21, 2007 1:40:36 GMT
lol coco bongos, yeah I loved cancun, did you see any of the "roof people"?
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 21, 2007 1:44:40 GMT
Sorry too busy looking at the Bar People LOL T  |
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Post by bobdezon on Oct 21, 2007 2:04:11 GMT
Wet T-Shirt goin down? There was that and more last time I was there, proper den of iniquity It was. I was standing on a table hollerin my ass off and fending off a a mexican midget wearing a sombreo with a bandolier of shot glasses over his shoulders.
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 21, 2007 2:34:25 GMT
Never noticed the wet T-Shirt (damn being married) but couldn't miss the whistling midget badoleroed mistachioed scam merchant wanting $5 for a shot of watered down tequilla. T |
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Post by bobdezon on Oct 21, 2007 2:43:32 GMT
Ha you seen him then? score lol |
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 25, 2007 14:06:42 GMT
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Post by exile on Oct 25, 2007 14:26:57 GMT
I couldn't be bothered to watch the DaVinci Code film. So I can't imagine I'll watch this film.
The books were good because of the cliffhangers at the end of every chapter, the film misses that.
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Post by Tetchy on Oct 25, 2007 15:11:51 GMT
I enjoyed Angels and Demons over The Da Vinci Code. You're right exile the cliffhangers in the books are what made them page turners and that was definetly lacking in the Da Vinci film but I 'm hopeful that will be corrected for Angels and Demons. T  |
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