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COSMOLOGY  

This 81st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that, with the proper tools, it is possible for healthy human beings to obtain accurate knowledge of the conscious states of handicapped humans or animals with different perceptual mechanisms.

This 82nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" demonstrates the objectivity of the sensation of pain as well as provides a commonsense view of the process of perception in terms of what does the perceiving and what is being perceived.

This 80th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" demonstrate that human perception of physical phenomena is, for all healthy, non-handicapped persons, fundamentally the same and provides accurate knowledge about the natures of said phenomena.

This 79th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" defends the proposition that consciousness, like all other aspects of reality, is objective, meaning that any individual, if he undertakes the required procedures, can understand what another's consciousness is like.

This 88th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that simply because some theory, such as relativity or quantum mechanics, has produced useful practical results, does not mean that the theory is correct or reflects the world as it actually is.

This 78th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains that the physicalist worldview affirms the possibility of creating life out of non-life, given a sufficient degree of systematic complexity. It also supports the improvement of life processes using the laws of physics.

This 83rd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that the so-called "unity" of consciousness is in fact a simultaneity, whereby conscious processes occur alongside one another and at the same time; in this way, human perception is analogous to a free-market economy.

This 84th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes Reginald Firehammer's allegation that those who believe that life, volition, and consciousness are physical are engaging in a sort of mysticism. There is nothing mystical about physicalism, properly understood.

There are grave problems with trusting on pure faith the pronouncements of scientific "experts." This 89th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" discusses the necessity of individual judgment on all scientific issues and ways in which rational cosmology can empower the layman.

This 90th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" uses the cosmological insight that no entity need necessarily come to an end to elaborate on the possibility of indefinite human progress. Not only is the universe not doomed; neither are humankind or any individual.

This 87th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" warns of the dangers of today's hyper-specialized and intolerant scientific orthodoxy, which prevents the progress of human knowledge and inhibits the emergence of new Renaissance Men.

This 86th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains that contemporary science, in large part, has ceased to be guided by the Enlightenment and instead has assumed the ideas of Auguste Comte, who rejected the necessity of philosophy in defining the contours of any discipline.

This 85th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" makes recommendations for a fundamental shift in the theories and concepts governing contemporary specific-observational sciences, arguing for the superiority of the 18th-century Enlightenment approach to science.

This 77th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains how the simultaneous perception by consciousness of a number of different events and entities as well as the subjective experience of life which each living organism has are consistent with a physicalist view.

Some opponents of the physicalist view of life claim that because the physical parts of the living organism change on a regular basis, it follows that life itself cannot be physical. This 76th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes such an objection.

This 67th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes the view that matter is infinitely divisible. It also shows that there can be no such operation as "division by zero" in either mathematics or the real world.

This 68th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" demonstrates that space is neither finite nor infinite, but it can be said to be indefinite. Like space, time is neither finite nor infinite, but rather indefinite in two directions (earlier and later).

It is often said that if any entity must have a finite age, then the universe must also have originated at some point in time. This is a mistaken view, as an analysis of what is meant by the term "universe" can show in this 66th essay of "A Rational Cosmology".

An axiom is a self-verifying statement. It cannot be proved deductively, because it is, in itself, the foundation upon which all further proofs are built. This second essay in "A Rational Cosmology" explains the axioms of existence, identity, and consciousness.

This 62nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes the idea that non-contact forces (and thus the field models which apply to them) can be explained by the presence of special types of "particles" which are responsible for the motion of entities in a force field.

"If nothing can be infinite, then everything will have to be destroyed someday." This statement is absolutely false, and this 64th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes it, demonstrating that it is indeed conceivable for anything, including humans, to exist forever.

This 69th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" describes Stanley Miller's 1953 experiment that enabled the synthesis of all twenty known amino acids from inorganic compounds, thus showing that life can indeed originate from non-life.

Stanley Miller's 1953 experiment demonstrated the possibility of spontaneous synthesis of amino acids from inorganic compounds. A logically consistent evolutionary origin for life itself has been posited, which this 70th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains.

This 74th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" demonstrates that the purely physical nature of life, consciousness, and volition is entirely consistent with what we observe about human organisms; this essay also refutes some arguments to the contrary.

This 75th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" gives responses to Reginald Firehammer's claims that life is not physical and demonstrates how it is possible for life to follow the laws of physics. It also describes the conditional nature of physical laws.

The traditional Cartesian dualist argument asserts that the mind itself is not physical, although it is capable of perceiving the physical world. This 73rd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" endeavors to refute this view and its contemporary incarnations.

Qualities a system possesses that its constituents, in severance from one another, would not, are called emergent properties in biology. This 72nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" discusses the highest emergent properties possible: life, consciousness, and volition.

This 71st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues for the possibility of extremely complex physical systems capable of sustaining themselves and directing their own actions. The human organism is one such system and can be entirely physical with no problems involved.

This 91st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" contrasts the rational definition of matter as the constituent quality of entities with the prevailing scientific definition of matter as whatever has mass, where mass is defined as "an object's resistance to changes" in its motion.

Many post-Classical physicists define matter as "something that has mass and exists as a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma." This 92nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows why this definition is flawed, as it implies a philosophical reversal of essentials.

This 112th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that the relationship of light is not made manifest through the travel of anything, because no matter is transferred from one entity to another during the process of illumination.

The fact that illumination takes time to initiate often misleads many to believe that, during this time, light must necessarily travel from the source to the target. This 113th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows how light can be transmitted without traveling.

This 111th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes a commonplace fallacy: the idea that all relationships of process must involve some transfer of matter from one entity to another. This fallacy has led many scientists to invent numerous fictitious and unnecessary particles.

This 110th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains, without reference to the view of light as a wave, light's polarization by reflection off of nonmetallic surfaces; it then gives a logically and empirically consistent definition of the polarization phenomenon itself.

This 108th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that the prevailing contemporary definition of the phenomenon of light polarization presupposes the view of light as a wave, rather than verifying such a view. There needs to be an alternate description of polarization.

This 109th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows how the polarization of light observed in Polaroid filters can be explained without referring to the wave model of light; such a phenomenon can be understood by viewing light as a relationship between source and target.

This 114th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains the conditions under which a human observer can see light and how an understanding of these conditions is consistent with the view of light as a direct relationship between its source and its target.

The false view that light can "travel" has led to the fallacy that a source can transmit light and be destroyed while light still reaches the target. This 115th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes this view and shows that we can only see presently existing light sources.

This article describes how the Confirmational Bias is influencing modern Cosmology and Astrophysics.

Physical cosmology is a branch off of astronomy and is the study of the large scale structure of our universe. Physical cosmology is indeed concerned with the fundamental questions of the formation of our universe and its evolution

Two research teams will split the $500,000 2007 Gruber Cosmology Prize for their simultaneous discoveries that the universe's expansion is accelerating because of the mysterious force called dark energy.

This 117th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that in a universe with more than one entity and the presence of some observer, it is possible to define motion in absolute terms by holding a reference point mentally fixed.

This 116th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" addresses the possibility of differing definitions of the term "universe". Such differences in definition, it will be seen, do not change the fact that the universe can be neither created nor destroyed.

This 107th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains that laser light is seen as a concentrated beam because trillions of air molecules in close proximity are rapidly illuminated. This is entirely consistent with the view of light as a relationship between source and target.

This 106th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" provides an empirically accurate, logically consistent explanation for how a laser device functions without referring to the erroneous ideas of "particles" or "waves" of light.

This 97th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes the prevailing view among today's physicists that spin rather than matter is the defining characteristic of a particle. Indeed, the primary attribute of any entity, including particles, is matter, measured by mass.

This 98th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" affirms the possibility of quantifying such relationships as light. Furthermore, it discusses the impossibility of pointing at pure relationships such as light, outside of the entities that exhibit such relationships.

This 96th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" presents several observations that can help us understand why light cannot have mass or volume. These observations are ubiquitously accessible and can help refute the erroneous view of light as a particle.

This 95th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that the theory that light is a particle contradicts several critical ubiquitous observations. All particles must have mass, volume, length, width, and height, but light has none of these qualities.

This 93rd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that the definition of matter as the constituent quality of entities is superior to the post-Classical physicists' definition of matter as whatever has mass and exists as a solid, liquid, gas, or plasma.

This 94th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that experimental data cannot prove the theory that light is a particle simply by observing behavior in light that resembles the behavior of particles. The experimental evidence is simply too narrow to make such a conclusion.

This 99th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" discusses the dangers of conflating a model for a natural phenomenon with the phenomenon itself. Many scientists commit the fallacy of reification by asserting that a useful model for a phenomenon is equal to that phenomenon.

This 100th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" expands on the refutation of the wave view of light by pointing out the irreconcilable contradictions in this view as well as the reasons why non-experimental philosophers can discard such a view by using logical reasoning.

Radio transmissions are relationships, similar in kind to light in that they are direct relationships at a distance between source and target entities. This 104th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that radio signals are not waves just as light is not a wave.

A laser device -- named after an abbreviation for "light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation" -- is a specific type of light source. This 105th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains some of the structural details of the laser device.

This 103rd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that while electrical and magnetic forces are relationships between the light source and some target entities, they are not equivalent to light itself. Light has the effect of illumination, not acceleration.

Experimental data suggests that "electromagnetic oscillations" accompany the transmission of light in all instances. But this 102nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that they are not a property of light itself, but a different relationship exhibited by the light source.

This 101st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that that light itself cannot exhibit the "electromagnetic oscillations" attributed to it by post-Classical physics, for light has neither the characteristics of magnets nor of electricity.

This 61st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that it is impossible for a single entity to act on absolutely everything else that exists, and this fact can be accounted for by including certain caveats to the use of field expressions.

It is commonly asserted by some contemporary scientists that singularities and black holes exist which have an infinite density. But, as this 65th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows, such a view is self-contradictory and cannot possibly be true.

This 22nd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that time is an absolute quality and refutes the notion of relative time. The degree to which an entity exhibits time, its age, does not vary in accordance with the quantitative fluctuations of any of its other qualities.

Although Einstein's Theory of Relativity contains numerous valid observations and predictions, this 23rd essay of "A Rational Cosmology" argues that the conceptual core of this theory, the idea of "relative time," is flawed and unnecessary.

A time scale relates entities' magnitudes of temporal separation and can in this manner relate all entities that ever existed using one dimension. This 21st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" describes the necessary linearity and uniformity of time scales.

This 20th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" identifies time as a dimension of entities, though not a spatial dimension. Unlike the spatial dimensions, which can either increase or decrease in magnitude, time must always increase uniformly for all entities.

The three spatial dimensions suffice can describe entities that are, in their entirety, absolutely and eternally static; but we observe that many entities change. This 18th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains what change is and why time is necessary to account for it.

This 19th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" identifies time as a ubiquitous quality of entities, whose measurements for a particular entity must always increase and never decrease. Time is not a "thing," nor is it ever possible to undo past occurrences.

Aging and senescence are two distinct phenomena that happen to correlate in human beings, some of whose internal functions deteriorate over time. But the two are not one and the same, and this 24th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" dispels the frequent conflation between them.

This 25th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that it is impossible for time to have either a beginning or an end. This is because time is not an entity, but rather a ubiquitous quality of entities. Since there can never be no entities, time will always exist.

This 28th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes the claim made by some that time and time scales are necessarily dependent on the motion of some entities, be they clocks or celestial objects. While a time scale can correspond to physical events, it does not depend on them.

This 29th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains that while units on a time scale can be chosen to be of any length, they must be directly proportional to units on every other time scale. It also discusses the arbitrary nature of selecting a "zero point" on a time scale.

This 60th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explores the logical absurdities evident in viewing force fields as entities in their own right, rather than simply models or abstractions.

Motion is the change in the three spatial dimensions facilitated by change in the one temporal dimension. This 30th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" describes the necessity of defining an entity's motion solely in terms of that entity and not other entities.

This 26th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that entities have always existed and will always exist -- though entities that exist at one time need not be the same entities existing at another time. This is because entities are required to originate other entities.

The Euclidean plane allows study of an even vaster interplay of qualities than does the line. 3-dimensional constructs are capable of describing all of an entity's spatial qualities, though still not the whole entity. This 17th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains.

Lines, or one-dimensional constructs in the Euclidean model, are eminently useful for studying real entities. To measure an entity's dimensions in any other manner but linearly is absurd and standardless. This 16th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" discusses the uses of lines.

This seventh essay of "A Rational Cosmology" exposes critical logical flaws within the basic propositions of Big Bang theory. Mr. Stolyarov notes underlying errors in the very notion of a "singularity," as well as why such a singularity could never have created anything.

This eighth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" demonstrates the logical impossibility of the universe ever being destroyed as well as of all entities combining to form a homogeneous "singularity." This is a refutation of currently fashionable "Big Crunch" theory.

This sixth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains why the universe could not have been created, either by a God or by a Big Bang. If the universe is "everything that exists," then anything that created the universe must be outside of existence and thus not exist.

The term "universe" does not denote a thing, quality, or relationship. Rather, it is the sum of all entities that exist. It is not a "whole" in the sense that a person is a "whole." This fifth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explores what the universe is and is not.

This third essay of "A Rational Cosmology" makes the distinction between ontology and cosmology; it further argues for cosmology's place as a branch of philosophy rather than a branch of physics. The distinction between entities and qualities is also introduced.

Cosmology is not a branch of physics, as many believe, but rather a field of philosophy. In this fourth essay of his series, "A Rational Cosmology," Mr. Stolyarov presents the essential distinction between physics and cosmology.

Man does not yet know of any homogeneous entity that really exists, but rational cosmology can inform us what qualifications must be met by an entity that could be termed homogeneous. This ninth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" gives such qualifications.

Recent empiricist-positivist speculations have concerned whether or not the universe has a particular geometric shape. This tenth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that the question is absurd, as the universe is not an entity, and only entities can have shapes.

This 14th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" considers qualities which are universal to all entities: volume, length, width, and height. It explains what these qualities are and why every entity that exists must exhibit these four, along with the quality of matter.

A coordinate system is a mental model which enables human beings to relate the positions of real entities to one another. This 15th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explains the uses of such concepts as points but emphasizes that points are not things in themselves.

The ubiquitous qualities of entities are possessed by every thing that exists. Matter, the constituent quality of entities, is simply, that, which entities are made of. This thirteenth essay of "A Rational Cosmology" describes the nature of matter.

"Space-as-relationship" is synonymous with "distance" and "separation." It is not a thing; rather, it relies on the existence of two or more distinct entities, or a single entity capable of motion. This 12th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explores this concept.

There is no such thing as "space," because what is commonly referred to as "space" is not a thing; "it" is either an absence of things or a relationship between things. This eleventh essay of "A Rational Cosmology" explores what "space" actually means.

This 31st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" addresses how it might be possible to define the locations of departure and arrival for a given moving object as well as to determine which entities are moving when entities change their relative positions.

This 27th essay of "A Rational Cosmology" shows that, even were all the entities in the universe to enter a period of absolute stasis, they would continue to accumulate the quality, time, uniformly, and their relation via a time scale would remain inescapably necessary.

This 51st essay of "A Rational Cosmology" refutes Einstein's belief that nothing can "travel" faster than light. The universe cannot have "built-in limitations" on the behaviors of entities, except as ordained by the particular natures of the entities involved.