It often takes me a crazy urge to scream to the world the wonders and mysteries of the universe and also tell you what I understand from my presence on Earth, this little bean Sandy wandering amidst this vast universe. Not my fault, I was born with a heart of a missionary.
For me, talk about the Universe is therefore tell the story of the universe as perceived by humans over the millennia and it also tell the story of the man- same as it was perceived and perceives himself still in this universe.
Before addressing the immensity of heaven, so lets start there, if you wish.
(Figures 1,2,3, etc.. Refer to notes at end of text)
Chap. I. From primitive man to Galilee
Animism
When consciousness slowly emerged in the mind of primitive man, the This has therefore been able to take a comprehensive look at its environment. He then believed that all beings and all things were inhabited by a spirit, as well as himself, who provided her with the tree fruit, the animal he hunted, the fire that warmed him. He thanked the tree and fire for their generosity and apologized to the animal he slaughtered. Everything had a "soul." It was a world "animist" [1] .
All were therefore equal in this primitive world [2] . And he, the man was at the center of this wonderful world. All he had to look up to see the sun, moon and stars rotate above his head to understand that he was in the middle. Provided that he should give the penalty, he had everything at hand to feed in the territories full of game he lived. Its supermarket there, right outside the door. He had to still be a little careful because, in this regard, tigers and other predators saw things the same way and for these creatures, man himself was on the shelves.
awakening of consciousness
Mythology
But soon man began to wonder about earthquakes, volcanoes, tornadoes, floods and all these multiple disasters. Then he began to think that there must be somewhere spirits more powerful than his own and that of animals and things around him. So he invented gods. A multitude of gods which, of course, he lent his own feelings and conferred a hierarchy. Voltaire is, is not it, who said " God made man in His own image but man has made him " [3] . As these gods were very powerful and sometimes angry and, furthermore, they did not hesitate to intervene in the affairs of men, so we had to treat them with respect, offer them gifts. The man went up to build vast temples in their honor [4] . But to come into contact with them, he had great ambassadors. Then the man appointed high priests. It was, as we know, the mythological era. Talk to Ulysses, the hero of the legendary poet Homer. He will tell you the important roles played gods to bring him back to his kingdom of Ithaca with his beloved Penelope.
The Greek miracle
About six centuries AC, the Milesians had begun to search for natural explanations of the mysteries of the universe. Their explanations make us smile today by their simplistic [5] . But the fact remains that they were trying to find out the gods and nature itself explaining its mysteries. These natural philosophers ( Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes, etc.). have invented modern science, that is to say, the science based on observation, which can not return until several centuries later with great minds like Galileo.
The Milesians also tried " to know what the world is made, assuming that great all that exists derives in one way or another with a single primary substance. Thales imagine for example that the world is made of water ... evaporating water provides air, vital air that fills our lungs, the water creates the Foodland, since when she retires after rain, it remains the fertile silt, the water turns a barren land into a garden covered with flowers and honey " [6] . Each of these great minds Milesian attempt to find its way to this single primary substance.
philosophers who succeeded them, such as Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle and Co. were seeking to explain the principles intangible mysteries of the universe. For example, c hez Pythagoras, there, beyond the senses, another reality of a spiritual nature: it was the world of souls who are reincarnated. In Plato , was the world of ideas: a perfect supernatural world which our poor earthly was only a pale reflection. Thus these philosophers invented new approaches based on their thoughts (rather than on observation of the material as did the Milesians).
Much later, Descartes followed this path, turning to pure reason, rather than observation, to uncover the truth [7] .
We talk about the Greek miracle, referring to this period because it must be understood that this was a real cultural revolution: we were saying to people, praying to the gods and sacrifices were offered, these gods who allegedly controlled the forces of nature did not exist and it was in compliance with the Nature itself or in philosophical reflection need to look for an explanation of the mysteries of the universe. The Roman Empire
created his own mythology and also inherited the Greek culture, but with the fall of that empire and the barbarian invasions, the Greek culture migrated to Persia and was lost in the mists of time (for being rediscovered as several centuries later during the Renaissance).
must say that, in turn, the Babylonians had a good knowledge of the movement of the stars but using it only to draw oracles [8] , without calling into question the intervention of the gods in the celestial mechanics.
Monotheism
The good people thought was impervious to the great Greek philosophers and held much to his gods. But perhaps it is because of the discredit of the multiple gods of Greek and Roman mythology, or perhaps because of the new currents of thought introduced by Christianity, the West substituted one God in these multiple gods. Therefore, the Old and New Testament faith did everything. What is the search for answers left and right at the mysteries of the universe when everything was said in the Bible. The thought of the great Greek philosophers like Plato and Aristotle only served once more to provide support to the theological reasoning of St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas [9] .
In medieval thinking about the universe is stagnating and it goes back even to say that the earth is flat because the Scriptures suggest that it would have four corners and would be found on the high mountains which are can see all the kingdoms of the Earth. This is the center of the universe (geocentric) and all the stars revolve around it. The stars, meanwhile, are entrenched in their respective positions, as Aristotle thought 300 years before Christ. Man is the beloved child of God. He is atop a scale planted in the center of the universe where God has perched. And now everything is clear: this is how the universe works. Down the twisted minds who seek explanations outside of the Scriptures.
(Man of Pentacle)
The man thought himself the center of the universe
The first kick in the scale was given nearly two thousand years later by a Polish monk: Nicolas Copernicus. He timidly advanced the hypothesis that it was the Sun was the center of the universe (heliocentric) and that the Earth revolved around the sun and not vice versa. It was at the time of the Holy Inquisition and woe betide anyone who dared contradict the Holy Scriptures, he might end his days at the stake. Now it says in the Bible (book of Exodus and Book of Joshua) that the approach of night, Joshua stopped the sun to completely annihilate its enemies Amorite before dark. If so Joshua stopped the sun there is so much compelling evidence that the Sun was stirring, not Earth. Copernicus, however, had the prudence not to publish his writings and before his death. And, moreover, he presented his views as purely theoretical and do not necessarily reflect reality.
But shortly after the seventeenth th century, Galileo took the Copernican theory but by trumpeting to the wind. It must be said that Galileo had laid hands on a telescope, he had cobbled together to make it more efficient and was discovered by scanning Jupiter, moons traveling around this planet. What he did say that the stars of heaven do not all necessarily revolved around the Earth. We know the fate that awaited Galileo: he had to retract in court of the Inquisition and was sentenced to home for the rest of his days. His contemporary, Giordano Bruno, who supported the views of Copernicus and even went so far as to claim that there is no star in the middle of the universe, was less fortunate: he was made to cook at the stake [10] .
However, the scientific world, especially with big names such as Kepler and Newton, not long to stand behind the theory of the heliocentric theory of Copernicus and Galileo. The kick Copernicus had little shaken scale that man had built for, as we have seen, Copernicus had the wisdom to present his views as purely theoretical and of dying immediately after publication. But the kick of Galileo was much more vigorous and was followed by several more shots so that the foot of the ladder and tore the man down a notch. Even the Church, after much hesitation, finally rehabilitate Galileo October 31, 1992 by the voice of John Paul II. [11] must say that at that time, the scale was already badly wrecked.
The breakthrough of Copernicus and Galileo was only a preamble on the path of knowledge of the universe. Wait a bit to see the dramatic consequences of this initial breakthrough, particularly the discoveries of the twentieth century e flanked big kick in the scale than man had built in the Middle Ages. In subsequent chapters, the man goes from one surprise in the discovery of his universe and, ultimately, in his discovery of himself.
I hope you will taste to follow me in this exciting and exhilarating adventure.
Story to follow ...
The fable of the little man
was a small man
Who felt great
A ledger said
The navel of the world
It was nothing less
it emerged from the thigh
From his God Jupiter
And this directly
And it was in the middle
In the vast universe
Who rolled around his head
And he was the master
So in order to show
His ancestry celestial
He built a scale
To climb to heaven
He stayed perched there for some time
Until one day a nobody
To gauge the perch
Y flanked kick
Who did waver
Then other moves s 'added
Until one day the little man
found himself on the floor Butt
Big John as before
[1] From Latin anima, meaning soul. Of course, our man did not know he was "animist" because he did not know Latin.
[2] Karl Marx would have made a splash in this ultra-communist world, which, again, did not know he was a Communist . Not surprising because the man had not yet learned to make the hammer and sickle.
[3] That also, primitive man did not know because he had not read Voltaire. Certainly our ancestors had a culture very limited.
[4] This practice continues even today as we know. In Montreal, for example, al'Oratoire St. Joseph erected under the leadership of the recently canonized Saint Brother Andre.
[5] Thus Anaximander imagined huge wheels filled with fire and rotating around the earth, the stars are holes in the ducts of these wheels which left and see the fire inside.
[6] Pierre Yves Morvan " God is a lefty who plays dice?" Ed L'Harmattan 2002
[7] Curiously, the great Einstein also opt for this method in making his great discoveries solely by mental rantings and not comment.
[8] They had, moreover, as we know, illustrious successors as Nostradamus and Jojo Savard.
[9] This was very avant-garde in his theories about the universe: a precursor of the helicopters, he thought that the planets were moved by the beating of wings of angels.
[10] Unfortunately for him, we had not yet invented the ultra modern gas chambers. As seen, the "cooked" were still in vogue at the time of the Holy Inquisition. They were perhaps not the festive side of those of today but they still drew large crowds.
[11] Here we see how quickly the church can act with only three little centuries and oops, here we come!
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