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"A Professor Proves God Exists with Science"

Started by Will, February 17, 2009, 07:12:09 PM

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Will

This is one of the funniest god of the gaps presentations I've ever seen. Please enjoy:
[youtube:37uccdrm]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zqnh7yH0DI[/youtube:37uccdrm]
My favorite line: "As long as you're using general relativity and quantum mechanics, you're forced to conclude that god exists."
Hahahah... massive physics fail.
I want bad people to look forward to and celebrate the day I die, because if they don't, I'm not living up to my potential.

MikeyV

QuoteTippler has a new book out...

Ahh...there it is. I knew there would be a financial reason he was pushing his hypothesis.

QuoteGod exists outside of space, time and matter

Meaning god is immeasurable and unprovable by General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics, since they describe the observable.

Snake oil salesman at his best, And the Rubes will eat it up.
Life in Lubbock, Texas taught me two things. One is that God loves
you and you're going to burn in hell. The other is that sex is the
most awful, dirty thing on the face of the earth and you should save
it for someone you love.
   
   -- Butch Hancock.

seasonsofmadness

QuoteHe says physics can justify, among other things, the birth of Jesus and the ressurection of the dead.

I thought those were supposed to be miricles (hence not conrolled by physics). Either way this is pure bullshit. I'd be interested to see what exactly his proof is, but apparently it uses concepts that we're all to stupid to understand... :|

AlP

I'm not going to spend any money on this book but I couldn't resist wasting a little time on some research to get an idea of what this "proof" is like. I found a book review:

http://www.doesgodexist.org/JanFeb96/Ph ... ality.html

It hardly seems fair to judge the book from a review but I got a sense of the claims he makes. The reviewer seems to take the book quite seriously. Here is a funny quote from the review.

QuoteThe primary feature of this book is Tipler's Omega Point theory. The Omega Point is the singularity in space-time that marks the end of the universe. Tipler and Barrow's eschatology predicts That the universe will not expand forever, but will eventually collapse back onto itself. If the collapse can be induced to occur non-uniformly, then the information content of the universe will be preserved and that information content includes the quantum phase-space of every atom that has existed since the Big Bang. This then infers that every intelligent being that has ever existed will have the potential to be reassembled, and hence resurrected. To accomplish this induced nonuniform collapse requires that a "human-like" intelligence must exist in all parts of the universe and that this "being" must have a working knowledge of the requirements of the Omega Point collapse. Tipler demonstrates that it will be impossible for human beings to occupy the entire universe but hypothesizes it will be possible to create a new life form based on miniature, possibly microscopic, self-replicating Turing machines. These "living computers" will carry with them all of the knowledge of the known universe, including the requirements for inducing the non-uniform collapse of the universe as they colonize each section, traveling at speeds that approach the speed of light. Given the existence of this universal intelligence, the rest of the Omega Point theory follows quite logically--well, almost. It seems that the physics required for the non-uniform collapse requires that the mass of the as yet undiscovered, Higgs boson must be within a certain range, 220 +-20 GeV, the mass of the top quark must be 185 +- 20GeV, and the ratio of the width for the Higgs boson decay into transversely polarized Z bosons and longitudinally polarized Z bosons must be 0.55. Thus, the Omega Point theory has real experimentally verifiable parameters. One section of Chapter 4 is dedicated to listing the testable predictions of the theory.

I'm going to be resurrected as a miniature self replicating turing machine traveling at speeds approaching the speed of light! Yay!
"I rebel -- therefore we exist." - Camus

nikkixsugar

My favorite part was when he told us his theory.....oh, wait....nevermind.

I like how there are all the symbols and than the one arrow that says "GOD EXISTS"
Hate to tell you, but.....

Sorry but you are not allowed to view spoiler contents.

maestroanth

QuoteThe primary feature of this book is Tipler's Omega Point theory. The Omega Point is the singularity in space-time that marks the end of the universe. Tipler and Barrow's eschatology predicts That the universe will not expand forever, but will eventually collapse back onto itself. If the collapse can be induced to occur non-uniformly, then the information content of the universe will be preserved and that information content includes the quantum phase-space of every atom that has existed since the Big Bang. This then infers that every intelligent being that has ever existed will have the potential to be reassembled, and hence resurrected. To accomplish this induced nonuniform collapse requires that a "human-like" intelligence must exist in all parts of the universe and that this "being" must have a working knowledge of the requirements of the Omega Point collapse. Tipler demonstrates that it will be impossible for human beings to occupy the entire universe but hypothesizes it will be possible to create a new life form based on miniature, possibly microscopic, self-replicating Turing machines. These "living computers" will carry with them all of the knowledge of the known universe, including the requirements for inducing the non-uniform collapse of the universe as they colonize each section, traveling at speeds that approach the speed of light. Given the existence of this universal intelligence, the rest of the Omega Point theory follows quite logically--well, almost. It seems that the physics required for the non-uniform collapse requires that the mass of the as yet undiscovered, Higgs boson must be within a certain range, 220 +-20 GeV, the mass of the top quark must be 185 +- 20GeV, and the ratio of the width for the Higgs boson decay into transversely polarized Z bosons and longitudinally polarized Z bosons must be 0.55. Thus, the Omega Point theory has real experimentally verifiable parameters. One section of Chapter 4 is dedicated to listing the testable predictions of the theory.

I'm going to be resurrected as a miniature self replicating turing machine traveling at speeds approaching the speed of light! Yay![/quote]

Well, I think you miss the point.  He tries to use mathematics, but like my earlier post; the big bang and it's full theory is that time is circular.  Like a lung (exhales then contracts).  What's funny music is too (lol).  However, these laws are always bound for our exact physical world; so in an atheist view life your the best you can (b/c you'll just repeat it again, lol).

All Best.

maestroanth

My hard-core study was in my youth back then I would've been able to give a better examply of circular time.

maestroanth

My hard-core study was in my youth back then I would've been able to give a better examply of circular time.

jrredford

Quote from: "Will"This is one of the funniest god of the gaps presentations I've ever seen. Please enjoy:
[youtube:1slhwldt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zqnh7yH0DI[/youtube:1slhwldt]
My favorite line: "As long as you're using general relativity and quantum mechanics, you're forced to conclude that god exists."
Hahahah... massive physics fail.

Prof. Frank J. Tipler is quite correct in the statement of his which you quote: God has been proven to exist based upon the most reserved view of the known laws of physics. For much more on that, see Tipler's below paper, which among other things demonstrates that the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) require that the universe end in the Omega Point (the final cosmological singularity and state of infinite informational capacity identified as being God):

F. J. Tipler, "The structure of the world from pure numbers," Reports on Progress in Physics, Vol. 68, No. 4 (April 2005), pp. 897-964. http://math.tulane.edu/~tipler/theoryofeverything.pdf Also released as "Feynman-Weinberg Quantum Gravity and the Extended Standard Model as a Theory of Everything," arXiv:0704.3276, April 24, 2007. http://arxiv.org/abs/0704.3276

Out of 50 articles, Prof. Tipler's above paper was selected as one of 12 for the "Highlights of 2005" accolade as "the very best articles published in Reports on Progress in Physics in 2005 [Vol. 68]. Articles were selected by the Editorial Board for their outstanding reviews of the field. They all received the highest praise from our international referees and a high number of downloads from the journal Website." (See Richard Palmer, Publisher, "Highlights of 2005," Reports on Progress in Physics. http://www.iop.org/EJ/journal/-page=ext ... /0034-4885 )

Reports on Progress in Physics is the leading journal of the Institute of Physics, Britain's main professional body for physicists. Further, Reports on Progress in Physics has a higher impact factor (according to Journal Citation Reports) than Physical Review Letters, which is the most prestigious American physics journal (one, incidently, which Prof. Tipler has been published in more than once). A journal's impact factor reflects the importance the science community places in that journal in the sense of actually citing its papers in their own papers. (And just to point out, Tipler's 2005 Reports on Progress in Physics paper could not have been published in Physical Review Letters since said paper is nearly book-length, and hence not a "letter" as defined by the latter journal.)

See also the below resource for further information on the Omega Point Theory:

Theophysics: God Is the Ultimate Physicist http://geocities.com/theophysics/

Tipler is Professor of Mathematics and Physics (joint appointment) at Tulane University. His Ph.D. is in the field of global general relativity (the same rarefied field that Profs. Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking developed), and he is also an expert in particle physics and computer science. His Omega Point Theory has been published in a number of prestigious peer-reviewed physics and science journals in addition to Reports on Progress in Physics, such as Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (one of the world's leading astrophysics journals), Physics Letters B, the International Journal of Theoretical Physics, etc.

Prof. John A. Wheeler (the father of most relativity research in the U.S.) wrote that "Frank Tipler is widely known for important concepts and theorems in general relativity and gravitation physics" on pg. viii in the "Foreword" to The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (1986) by cosmologist Prof. John D. Barrow and Tipler, which was the first book wherein Tipler's Omega Point Theory was described. On pg. ix of said book, Prof. Wheeler wrote that Chapter 10 of the book, which concerns the Omega Point Theory, "rivals in thought-provoking power any of the [other chapters]."

The leading quantum physicist in the world, Prof. David Deutsch (inventor of the quantum computer, being the first person to mathematically describe the workings of such a device, and winner of the Institute of Physics' 1998 Paul Dirac Medal and Prize for his work), endorses the physics of the Omega Point Theory in his book The Fabric of Reality (1997). For that, see:

David Deutsch, extracts from Chapter 14: "The Ends of the Universe" of The Fabric of Reality: The Science of Parallel Universes--and Its Implications (London: Allen Lane The Penguin Press, 1997), ISBN: 0713990619; with additional comments by Frank J. Tipler. http://geocities.com/theophysics/deutsc ... verse.html

The only way to avoid the Omega Point cosmology is to resort to physical theories which have no experimental support and which violate the known laws of physics, such as with Prof. Stephen Hawking's paper on the black hole information issue which is dependent on the conjectured string theory-based anti-de Sitter space/conformal field theory correspondence (AdS/CFT correspondence). See S. W. Hawking, "Information loss in black holes," Physical Review D, Vol. 72, No. 8, 084013 (October 2005); also at arXiv:hep-th/0507171, July 18, 2005. http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0507171

That is, Prof. Hawking's paper is based upon empirically unconfirmed physics which violate the known laws of physics. It's an impressive testament to the Omega Point Theory's correctness, as Hawking implicitly confirms that the known laws of physics require the universe to collapse in finite time. Hawking realizes that the black hole information issue must be resolved without violating unitarity, yet he's forced to abandon the known laws of physics in order to avoid unitarity violation without the universe collapsing.

Some have suggested that the universe's current acceleration of its expansion obviates the universe collapsing (and therefore obviates the Omega Point). But as Profs. Lawrence M. Krauss and Michael S. Turner point out in "Geometry and Destiny" (General Relativity and Gravitation, Vol. 31, No. 10 [October 1999], pp. 1453-1459; also at arXiv:astro-ph/9904020, April 1, 1999 http://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/9904020 ), there is no set of cosmological observations which can tell us whether the universe will expand forever or eventually collapse.

There's a very good reason for that, because that is dependant on the actions of intelligent life. The known laws of physics provide the mechanism for the universe's collapse. As required by the Standard Model, the net baryon number was created in the early universe by baryogenesis via electroweak quantum tunneling. This necessarily forces the Higgs field to be in a vacuum state that is not its absolute vacuum, which is the cause of the positive cosmological constant. But if the baryons in the universe were to be annihilated by the inverse of baryogenesis, again via electroweak quantum tunneling (which is allowed in the Standard Model, as B - L is conserved), then this would force the Higgs field toward its absolute vacuum, cancelling the positive cosmological constant and thereby forcing the universe to collapse. Moreover, this process would provide the ideal form of energy resource and rocket propulsion during the colonization phase of the universe.

Prof. Tipler's above 2005 Reports on Progress in Physics paper also demonstrates that the correct quantum gravity theory has existed since 1962, first discovered by Richard Feynman in that year, and independently discovered by Steven Weinberg and Bryce DeWitt, among others. But because these physicists were looking for equations with a finite number of terms (i.e., derivatives no higher than second order), they abandoned this qualitatively unique quantum gravity theory since in order for it to be consistent it requires an arbitrarily higher number of terms. Further, they didn't realize that this proper theory of quantum gravity is consistent only with a certain set of boundary conditions imposed (which includes the initial Big Bang, and the final Omega Point, cosmological singularities). The equations for this theory of quantum gravity are term-by-term finite, but the same mechanism that forces each term in the series to be finite also forces the entire series to be infinite (i.e., infinities that would otherwise occur in spacetime, consequently destabilizing it, are transferred to the cosmological singularities, thereby preventing the universe from immediately collapsing into nonexistence). As Tipler notes in his 2007 book The Physics of Christianity (pp. 49 and 279), "It is a fundamental mathematical fact that this [infinite series] is the best that we can do. ... This is somewhat analogous to Liouville's theorem in complex analysis, which says that all analytic functions other than constants have singularities either a finite distance from the origin of coordinates or at infinity."

When combined with the Standard Model, the result is the Theory of Everything (TOE) correctly describing and unifying all the forces in physics.
James Redford, author of "Jesus Is an Anarchist," Social Science Research Network (SSRN), February 13, 2009 (originally published December 19, 2001) http://ssrn.com/abstract=1337761
http://www.geocities.com/jrredford/anarchist-jesus.html

"

Will

Quote from: "jrredford"Prof. Frank J. Tipler is quite correct in the statement of his which you quote. God has been proven to exist based upon the most reserved view of the known laws of physics. For much more on that, see Prof. Frank J. Tipler's below paper, which among other things demonstrates that the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) require that the universe end in the Omega Point (the final cosmological singularity and state of infinite informational capacity identified as being God):
The Omega Point is a purely theoretical state. The god worshiped by most on Earth operates outside of the laws of physics, which suggests infinite complexity. Infinite complexity would require infinite time to develop. As infinite time will never occur, no such point can be reached.

Why is it a layman on an internet forum can debunk this within seconds and someone with a Ph.D. in physics from MIT can't? It's simple: apologism is by it's very nature intellectually dishonest. Professor Tipler is biased and that bias is coloring his conclusions.
I want bad people to look forward to and celebrate the day I die, because if they don't, I'm not living up to my potential.

jrredford

Quote from: "Will"
Quote from: "jrredford"Prof. Frank J. Tipler is quite correct in the statement of his which you quote. God has been proven to exist based upon the most reserved view of the known laws of physics. For much more on that, see Prof. Frank J. Tipler's below paper, which among other things demonstrates that the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics) require that the universe end in the Omega Point (the final cosmological singularity and state of infinite informational capacity identified as being God):

The Omega Point is a purely theoretical state. The god worshiped by most on Earth operates outside of the laws of physics, which suggests infinite complexity. Infinite complexity would require infinite time to develop. As infinite time will never occur, no such point can be reached.

The Omega Point is theoretical in the same sense that 2+2 = 4 is theoretical: i.e., it's a conclusion which apodictically follows from the premises; in the case of the Omega Point, the premises are the known laws of physics (i.e., the Second Law of Thermodynamics, general relativity, quantum mechanics, and the Standard Model of particle physics). The only way to avoid the conclusion that the Omega Point exists is to reject the known laws of physics, and hence reject empirical science: as these physical laws have been confirmed by every experiment to date. That is, there exists no rational reason for thinking that the Omega Point Theory is incorrect, and indeed, one must engage in extreme irrationality in order to argue against the Omega Point Theory.

Traditional Christian theology has maintained that God does not violate physical law. But as you indicate, God is transcendent to the laws of physics, as physical values are at infinity at the cosmological singularity, and hence it is not possible for any form of physics to apply to the actual singularity since one cannot perform the arithmetical operations of addition or subtraction on infinity.

In general relativity, singularities are unavoidable with realistic energy conditions: for the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorems proving that the universe began in the Big Bang singularity, see S. W. Hawking and R. Penrose, "The Singularities of Gravitational Collapse and Cosmology," Proceedings of the Royal Society of London; Series A, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Vol. 314, No. 1519 (January 27, 1970), pp. 529-548. http://www.jstor.org/pss/2416467

So it's been known for some time that physical law proves the existence of something to which no form of physics can be applied, i.e., something which is transcendent to any form of physics. As Prof. Stephen Hawking wrote in his book The Illustrated A Brief History of Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1996) on p. 179, "In real time, the universe has a beginning and an end at singularities that form a boundary to spacetime and at which the laws of science break down."

Regarding your comment that "Infinite complexity would require infinite time to develop," that's true in experiential time (within spacetime), i.e., computer processor cycle time--but due to the universe collapsing to a single point of zero volume within a finite proper time, infinite entropy (i.e., informational complexity) is reached within a finite proper time; also due to this, an infinite number of particle traversals across the entire distance of the universe will occur within a finite proper time: since the distance required in order for a particle to make a complete traversal across the universe will be getting shorter and shorter, the time required in order to make such a traversal will also be getting shorter and shorter. In other words, at the same time that hard drive space is diverging to infinite memory, so also processor speed will be diverging to infinitely fast, with both becoming infinite at the end of a finite proper time. In experiential time the end will never be reached--one will always just be embarking upon an infinite journey, with infinitely more to do, learn, discover, create and experience than has ever come before--since due to processor speed diverging to infinitely fast, an infinite number of thoughts will occur within proper time.

QuoteWhy is it a layman on an internet forum can debunk this within seconds and someone with a Ph.D. in physics from MIT can't? It's simple: apologism is by it's very nature intellectually dishonest. Professor Tipler is biased and that bias is coloring his conclusions.

Rather, your present post demonstrates why you're not among the professional physicists who referee a number of the world's leading physics journals in which Prof. Frank J. Tipler has published his Omega Point Theory, such as Reports on Progress in Physics (the leading journal of the Institute of Physics, Britain's main professional body for physicists, with a higher impact factor than Physical Review Letters, which is the most prestigious American physics journal), and Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (one of the world's leading astrophysics journals).[1]

Not only does your present post demonstrate that you're biased, but therein you also make fallacious comments on matters you know nothing about.

Prof. Tipler didn't reach the conclusion that God exists out of religious motivations. Tipler had been an atheist since the age of 16, yet only circa 1998 did he again become a theist due to advancements in the Omega Point Theory which occured after the publication of his 1994 book The Physics of Immortality (and Tipler even mentions in said book [pg. 305] that he is still an atheist because he didn't at the time have confirmation for the Omega Point Theory).

Tipler's first paper on the Omega Point Theory was in 1986 (Frank J. Tipler, "Cosmological Limits on Computation," International Journal of Theoretical Physics, Vol. 25, No. 6 [June 1986], pp. 617-661). What motivated Tipler's investigation as to how long life could go on was not religion (indeed, Tipler didn't even set out to find God), but Prof. Freeman J. Dyson's paper "Time without end: Physics and biology in an open universe" (Reviews of Modern Physics, Vol. 51, Issue 3 [July 1979], pp. 447-460 http://www.aleph.se/Trans/Global/Omega/dyson.txt ).

Further, in a section entitled "Why I Am Not a Christian" in The Physics of Immortality (pg. 310), Tipler wrote, "However, I emphasize again that I do not think Jesus really rose from the dead. I think his body rotted in some grave." This book was written before Tipler realized what the resurrection mechanism is that Jesus could have used without violating any known laws of physics (and without existing on an emulated level of implementation--in that case the resurrection mechanism would be trivially easy to perform for the society running the emulation).

----------

Note:

1. While there is a lot that gets published in physics journals that is anti-reality and non-physical (such as string theory, which violates the known laws of physics and has no experimental support whatsoever), the reason such things are allowed to pass the peer-review process is because the paradigm of assumptions which such papers are speaking to has been declared, and within their declared paradigm none of the referees could find anything wrong with said papers. That is, the paradigm itself may have nothing to do with reality, but the peer-reviewers could find nothing wrong with such papers within the operating assumptions of that paradigm. Whereas, e.g., the operating paradigm of Prof. Tipler's 2005 Reports on Progress in Physics paper is the known laws of physics, i.e., our actual physical reality which has been repeatedly confirmed by every experiment conducted to date. So the professional physicists charged with refereeing this paper could find nothing wrong with it within its operating paradigm, i.e., the known laws of physics.
James Redford, author of "Jesus Is an Anarchist," Social Science Research Network (SSRN), February 13, 2009 (originally published December 19, 2001) http://ssrn.com/abstract=1337761
http://www.geocities.com/jrredford/anarchist-jesus.html

"

SSY

jredford, are you in any way associated, affiliated, connected or indebted to Mr Tippler?
Quote from: "Godschild"SSY: You are fairly smart and to think I thought you were a few fries short of a happy meal.
Quote from: "Godschild"explain to them how and why you decided to be athiest and take the consequences that come along with it
Quote from: "Aedus"Unlike atheists, I'm not an angry prick

jrredford

Quote from: "SSY"jredford, are you in any way associated, affiliated, connected or indebted to Mr Tippler?

Hi, SSY. The answer to your question is no.
James Redford, author of "Jesus Is an Anarchist," Social Science Research Network (SSRN), February 13, 2009 (originally published December 19, 2001) http://ssrn.com/abstract=1337761
http://www.geocities.com/jrredford/anarchist-jesus.html

"

Will

Quote from: "jrredford"Regarding your comment that "Infinite complexity would require infinite time to develop," that's true in experiential time (within spacetime), i.e., computer processor cycle time--but due to the universe collapsing to a single point of zero volume within a finite proper time, infinite entropy (i.e., informational complexity) is reached within a finite proper time; also due to this, an infinite number of particle traversals across the entire distance of the universe will occur within a finite proper time: since the distance required in order for a particle to make a complete traversal across the universe will be getting shorter and shorter, the time required in order to make such a traversal will also be getting shorter and shorter. In other words, at the same time that hard drive space is diverging to infinite memory, so also processor speed will be diverging to infinitely fast, with both becoming infinite at the end of a finite proper time. In experiential time the end will never be reached--one will always just be embarking upon an infinite journey, with infinitely more to do, learn, discover, create and experience than has ever come before--since due to processor speed diverging to infinitely fast, an infinite number of thoughts will occur within proper time.
You don't understand infinity. Infinite entropy cannot occur in a finite amount of time or space by it's very definition. You seem to be confusing "a great number" with "infinity". Unless we are a part of a universe has infinite size and infinite particles, which would be impossible assuming the big bang, you're quote is wrong that an infinite number of particle traversals can occur. Even if the number of particles is 1 x 10 to the quintillionth power, it's still not infinity because infinity can never be reached.

Tipler, in his grand theory to prove god, assumes that human built robots will take over the galaxy (something no one outside of science fiction could say with any sort of confidence today), he then assumes that they will not only have the power to control parts of the big crunch (btw, based on what we know today, the big crunch won't happen), but the robots will somehow devote themselves to "love"? Omega is poorly conceived science fiction at best.
I want bad people to look forward to and celebrate the day I die, because if they don't, I'm not living up to my potential.

Recusant

Quote from: "jrredford"Prof. Frank J. Tipler is quite correct...

I freely admit I'm not a physicist, but here is what I've gotten so far:  The Omega Point theory seems to require that life evolve into computers/machines with infinite computational capacity and nearly infinite capability to manipulate large (galaxy-sized, or even larger?) conglomerations of matter/energy.  Our current understanding of some things Hawking has said about black holes which seem to contradict quantum unitarity are, I take it, the reason this theory has been put forward.

Thank you very much, jrredford, for your efforts to elucidate Tipler's theory here.  This really is fascinating stuff, and I'm not being sarcastic when I say that.

An aside:  I want to thank you, Will, as well, for not using the execrable term "sci fi," which still peeves me slightly, whenever I see it.  I feel that it demeans the literature to call it "sci fi."  The "SciFi Channel" has made it increasingly popular and accepted, but many long-time readers of the genre (I guess I'm showing my age here) despise it, preferring either "SF" or the full words.  Fans (though I am not really a part of the world of science fiction fandom, I do follow it to some extent, through online fanzines) tend to use "skiffy," a purposeful mispronunciation of "sci fi," as a derisive term for movies and shows that are actually space opera, rather than true science fiction.  :beer:
"Religion is fundamentally opposed to everything I hold in veneration — courage, clear thinking, honesty, fairness, and above all, love of the truth."
— H. L. Mencken