Hi Guys

In certain cultures objects were viable as sacrifice as well, specifically those thought to have been imbued with a soul or spirit. In many areas of Europe swords specifically fit that description. Usually it tended to be objects in whose crafting a great deal of craftsmanship was required or whose material value was high such as food, money, or precious metals.

 

Fusen - are you genuinely interested in taking up religion and are therefore curious or will you try to find faults for the sake of finding faults if I make a suggestion?

 

Chucking stuff in a bog as an offering is as old as the hills around here:

BOG OFFERINGS

When land was drained for modern farming, a number of bog burial grounds were found. Bog offerings are archaeologically recorded as early as Neolithic times and into the pre-Viking period. These votive offerings or sacrifices included weapons and even warships as well as human bodies, animals, and assorted artifacts. It is postulated, based on the variety and type of offerings, that they were of a ceremonial nature, part of a fertility ritual or a ritual to ensure success in battle. The earliest bog offerings in the Neolithic period consisted primarily of stone and flint weapons. In the Bronze Age, there were more elaborate sacrifices. Collections of personal items and household objects, such as cauldrons, were recovered as well. Weapons—swords in particular—have also been found. Very often the blades of these swords have been bent back or otherwise damaged, and some argue that this was done to represent a ritual "killing" of an enemy. Animals, particularly horses, were also slaughtered as part of the ritual.

- http://www.encyclopedia.com/article-1G2-3400400170/pre-roman-iron-age.html

 

Man, you sound stoopid

But, there are theories other than the big bang. Check this out, it's written by a wizard: http://www.specularium.org/index.php/hypersphere-cosmology

Pretty neat, huh?

How about:

"There is nothing new to be discovered in physics now. All that remains is more and more precise measurement" - Lord Kelvin, 1900

Or:

"The more important fundamental laws and facts of physical science have all been discovered, and these are now so firmly established that the possibility of their ever being supplanted in consequence of new discoveries is exceedingly remote.... Our future discoveries must be looked for in the sixth place of decimals."
- Albert. A. Michelson, speech at the dedication of Ryerson Physics Lab, U. of Chicago 1894

There's a suprising amount of scientists who, at various times, reckon they know it all: http://amasci.com/weird/end.html

Stoopid scientists

Anyway, just thought I'd stop by and chuck a curve-ball your way

 

Have you any scientists from this century who think they know it all?

Your examples are a hundred and fifteen years old!!

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non-standard_cosmology

big bang alternatives

"It was not until advances in*observational cosmology*in the late 1960s that the Big Bang would eventually become the dominant theory, and today there are few active researchers who dispute it."

 

lol. great quote. wonder if lord kelvin was around to read about relativity. ha!

 

So?

Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica is three times as old, and still relevant to science today. Kelvin was every bit as much a scientist as anyone today.

The point is that we are always more ignorant than we think we are. That is consistent throughout history.

But the current model for the big bang doesn't fit our observations. That's why they have to invent more mass and energy than we can observe in the universe to fudge it. There is more imaginary stuff in it than observed data. From an outsider with a passing interest, it looks like it is largely propped up by financial and cultural inertia, and a lack of a better theory.

I see no reason why future humans won't look back on us and laugh at our primitive view of the universe, just as generations of humans have done previously.

 

Thank you.

 

It's a good job everyones view is completely equal isn't it, silly scientists wasting their lives on facts. You should email them at new scientists and get the word out you know better.
Let us know how it all works out!

 

"Oh wow, thats new evidence...I had better revise my worldview" - science is happy to say that..

When was the last time religion did?

 

absolutely, we are.

i understand what you're getting at but don't agree, especially on the financial and cultural note. sure, someday there will be a better theory. sometimes a theory makes a prediction that observational science just has not caught up with. black holes are one example. i think a current example is dark matter. the big bang theory is generally accepted because of the observational evidence, some of it we have not been able to measure for some time. doesn't mean any one is "fudging" anything.

absolutely. that's the great thing about science and the scientific method. i'd take that any day over "whatever this book says is infallible, for all time". i mean seriously, we've got the majority of the worlds' population trying to tell the rest of us how to live, based on some bronze age tribal "wisdom". how messed up is that?

 

Don't thank me. Just because I think some people place unwarranted faith in unproven scientific theories, it does not mean that I am against the scientific method. Quite the opposite.

Fundamental religions, such as evangelical Christianity and fundamentalist Islam, are holding us back as a species.

Believing you know the truth of creation or the nature of God is the height of arrogance. Believing a book of religious stories over observable data is ignorance.

I think there are arguments for a few in Buddhism, Zen, Sufism and other experiential meditative practices with an occult/esoteric bent.

But we don't know, do we?

It might turn out to be on the right track, or we might have another Copernican Revolution equivalent and find out that our present theories are laughable fudges.

I don't think that cultural influences should be underestimated. Not only do scientists' careers hang in the balance of their research topics, but the present generation was brought up to believe in the big bang theory. It takes especially brave and selfless people to break with convention and innovate in the climate of a market-driven society such as ours. As much as I am a socialist at heart, I do think that there was a benefit to the landed gentry of the past having their own wealth to fund their research.

In the rush to belittle religious people, sometimes people defend science with blind faith.

Saying we know anything for sure is a step too far for me. Don't replace one faith with another. Become comfortable with ambiguity, doubt, and simultaneous contradictory theories. I feel that is the cultural revolution needed to bring society into step with the scientific method. We're still a long way off that.

 

amen to that.

 

To think that we don't have far to advance is incredibly depressing to me. I hope that one day there is a Bones to get angry at our primitive ways!

 

No,blood was preferred. Quite often human.Especially by the double-crossing All-Father. Feared but not especially liked due to his fickle nature.

(That's why I've joked before about the new old paganism as being "Pagan Lite". You guys aren't using the "traditional" fuel).

The big weaponry dumps were a gift after a battle,pledged before the armies clashed.

 

I think I welcomed the new guy on another thread.....

anything but..... Master Wrong