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Bill Krause

March 3, 2012English Tao Class

Kuang Ming Saint Tao Temple

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SynopsisThis lecture will explain certain events that

happened in the past. These events may be considered random occurrences unrelated to each other, or are they!!? The mere existence of things have created a condition that may or may not affect the very fabric of space. This lecture will try to explain the coincidences that are facts and how they interrelate in the whole picture of the universe and our existence. Without going into detail here, I hope to give evidence through scientific research about these events that guided the direction that the universe has taken.

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Introduction This lecture proposes a theory that we, as a

species, could not exist without the help of a higher power. That “higher power” has many names. We choose to call it Tao. The following is a list of events that could

have shaped our existence from the very beginning of time. Consider: this lecture is not forwarding any

new concepts to the controversy between evolution and creationism theories. There are enough already to go around.

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Introduction Was the Big Bang just an accidental random

activity, or was there something to cause this event?Was the formation of the Sun 4.8 billion

years ago coincidental or was it planned? Is the position of the Earth in the “habitual

zone” just luck?Was the near-destruction of the Earth just

4.5 billion years ago just a crapshoot? The near-extinction of life on Earth five times

in the past something of a hit-or-miss event?

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Introduction Was the total extinction of the dinosaurs 65

million years ago a set-up for the creation and evolution of all life today? These questions and many more, I’m sure,

will be presented and, hopefully, explained to the listener’s gratification. Again, the data presented today is fact with

evidence to support it or until another theory comes along.

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The Big Bang The First Cause—The Big Bang occurred

approximately 13.8 billion years ago. This figure is based on observations of

special stars called Cepheid Variables. This works fine for nearby galaxies under approx. 500 million light years away. Observations of individual stars are required for accurate measurement. Another observation for greater distance is

called the Red Shift. The greater the Red Shift in a spectrum, the greater the distance.

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The Big Bang We now know how time and distance is

related, now we return to the first question; what is the Big Bang? The Big Bang is the eruption of the

singularity causing the formation of the universe. Definition time – What is a singularity? A

point in space-time at which gravitational forces cause matter to have infinite density and infinitesimal volume, and space and time to become infinitely distorted.

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The Big Bang <1µ second after the Big Bang – The

Unified Field Theory. All forces were, at this time, one then it separated into four forces. The formation of the universe from the very

beginning had an order to it. This order is the four forces,as mentioned above, in Nature: weak, strong, electromagnetic, and gravity. The order and expansion is governed by the weakest, but the most pervasive of these four forces—gravity.

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The Big Bang Another factor that has raised its head is a

thing called “Dark Energy”. Little is known about this elusive “stuff” other than that it is keeping the universe continually expanding, and at an ever increasing rate of expansion. Is gravity and Dark Energy the controlling

factors here, or is there a single entity that places emphasis on these factors? I submit to you that there are factors at work

here that are beyond our limited knowledge and experience.

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The Big Bang Scientists and astrophysics have generally

agreed that the Big Bang did happen, but the argument arises as to what started the Big Bang. There is no evidence to establish anything before this event. The problem still exists that someone or something had to push the start button. Something had to have organized this Big Bang. Perhaps we must rely on the philosophers rather than scientists to answer this question.

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The Early Solar System 4.6 billion years ago. A gaseous nebulosity

begins to rotate, condensing the gas. Gravity is hard at work forming the hydrogen gas into a ball until the spark of fusion begins and the gas ball forms into a star – our Sun. The remnants of gas left over from the Sun’s birth congeals into planets, both rocky and gas giants. Note that the gas used in our Sun’s

formation is the remnants of a supernova.

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The Early Solar System The supernova that created our Sun was

considered a second generation star. It blew up about 6 to 8 billion years ago distributing its expelled gases everywhere. Gravity had its hand in this also forming the gas into a rotating ball and turning on the light of fusion deep within the core of the new star—our Sun. This is the only way that heavier elements can be formed. All elements beyond iron are formed in the explosion of a supernova. Remember that we are all made from this “star stuff”.

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The Early Solar System As our Sun kick started itself, so too did the

planets orbiting the Sun. However, it was not just eight or nine, but literally thousands of planetoids crashing into each other, forming larger bodies, increasing their gravity until they swept the surrounding space of almost all debris leaving only four rocky planets and the rest as gas giants. The results of this “space vacuum” can still

be seen as the 63 moons orbiting Jupiter and the beautiful rings of Saturn.

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The Importance of Our Moon As the Earth took shape and stabilized,

about 4.5 billion years ago, an event occurred that was a near-tragedy for the young Earth. At this time Earth did not have a traveling companion. It was alone in space. However, a rogue planetoid named Theia struck the Earth, almost destroying it. The Earth survived, but Theia was completely obliterated. The debris orbited the Earth and through accretion, formed the Moon.

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The Importance of Our Moon The orbit of the Moon was very low – about

150,000 miles from the Earth’s surface. During this time, the Earth’s surface was very hot rock, almost molten, but as it cooled, gases were being developed and condensed in the atmosphere forming liquid water. Additionally, comets and other water-bearing space debris also deposited water on the Earth’s surface forming large bodies of water. Many things were happening at this time.

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The Importance of Our Moon Remember the Moon? Well it seems that the

Earth’s orbiting speed was very fast along with its rotation. At this early time, the Earth’s rotation was a shade under 20 hours. Also the Moon is slowly leaving its orbit around the Earth. Today the Earth’s rotation speed is just a hair under 24 hours. Why the slowdown, simply put – water. The orbit of the Moon has slowed down the Earth’s rotation from friction called the tides. As the oceans are attracted to the Moon, so the oceans slow down the rotational speed of the Earth.

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The Importance of Our Moon So you say, “Who cares?” Well the

movement of the tides exposes land to sunlight and the elements of the atmosphere. This exposure could have triggered certain chemical compounds to form complex proteins – the building blocks of amino acids which when placed together could have formed complex molecules – the DNA molecule for example from which life sprang from as we know it today.

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The Mature Solar System Today we see the Solar System as a majestic,

beautiful, peaceful area of space where we live and prosper. However, this is far from the truth. Our peace is protected by our bodyguard –Jupiter. Jupiter and the other gas giants act as defensive linebackers in the game of space football. As an example of these defensive players, in July 1994, Jupiter was struck by 21 objects formed from the breakup of the Shoemaker Levy9 comet. The largest object striking Jupiter generated over 6000 megatons of energy!

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The Mature Solar System If this object was not intercepted and

tackled by Jupiter, I would not be here giving this lecture now. The Earth may not have survived this impact as witnessed 65 million years ago during the reign of the dinosaurs. As a note, the Earth has gone through 5

major extinctions with the last one mentioned above. The extinction of the dinosaurs opened the doors for mammalian life to survive and flourish.

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The Mature Solar System Have you ever considered the position of

the Earth relative to the Sun and to the other planets? Why do we have liquid water on the surface and the other planets do not? The Earth’s orbit is in the position called the Goldilocks position. Just like the fairy tale, Goldilocks ate the bear’s porridge. She found one too hot, another too cold, but the one was just right. That is the orbit of the Earth—just right, not too hot and not too cold for water to be liquid.

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The Mature Solar System 65 million years ago there was a meteorite that

struck the Earth in the Yucatan peninsula. The evidence was found in 1978 when an oil company took soundings for a new oil field. They found the crater to be about 112 miles in diameter and about 12 miles deep. The estimated size of the meteorite was about the size of Mount Everest (about 1 trillion tons). Just think when the meteorite first made contact with the Earth, the other end was still at 35,000 feet above the surface and still traveling at 4500 miles an hour!

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The Mature Solar System The resulting shock wave and fire storm

consumed most of the earth’s vegetation and animal life, namely the dinosaurs. Additional evidence was discovered by a scientist named Luis Alvarez. He noted a boundary layer at the 65 million year level in a geologic formation. This layer would be called the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K-T) boundary layer. This layer is rich in a rare earth element called iridium. It is, however, commonly found in meteorites, thus giving us a clue about what caused the demise of the dinosaur.

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The Mature Solar System Because of this extinction 65 million years

ago, it gave mammalian life a chance to flourish. Consider this scenario; if the gigantic meteorite did not impact the Earth 65 million ears ago, we humans may not exist today. We would be just a footnote in the history books of the dinosaur!

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The Mature Solar System Ponder this thought; We have been

discussing the events in our little part of the universe, but what about other solar systems out there? To date astronomers have cataloged over

420 planets orbiting stars other than our Sun. Some are too close to their star to have any chance of bearing living organisms. Others are too large, crushing anything with its gravity.

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The Mature Solar System However, there are a few planets that are in

the Goldilocks position – just the right place. These have the potential for life and possibly intelligence. These planets are what piques the interest of planetary scientists the world over.

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The Mature Solar System So far we have looked at the earliest time

of creation, we have observed the formation of our own star, the Sun, and the planets. We also addressed the formation of our Moon and how it has benefited our existence. We have acknowledged that there were five great extinctions and discussed the last of them. We considered the far reaches of the observable universe and found other planets that may hold intelligent life. So the question is this…

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The Mature Solar System So What?!!! What does this have to do with

us and Tao. Well, everything!!! Something had to kick-start the Big Bang, it

just did not start on its own. The existence of the four forces in Nature just did not happen at random. Something had a plan for this. Did the supernova blow its top by coincidence or was there a reason for this? Did the accretion of that “star stuff” forming our Solar System was just plain dumb luck?

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The Mature Solar System Was the impact of Theia with the very

young Earth nothing but a crapshoot? How about the position of the Earth relative to the Sun, just happenstance? The extinction of the dinosaur was nothing but a mere encounter with a large rock? The possibilities of extraterrestrial life is just coincidental? What do you think given the evidence today? Is it all random as some scientists state or is it something else…

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The Mature Solar System Or is there a “Force” that is ever

controlling all matter, allowing certain things to happen while preventing chaos from becoming the norm of the universe. This force is something we are all familiar

with. It is Tao. It has precedence over everything.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? We have now explored the events leading up

to now. Scientists and engineers have given us ideas

about how things happened in the past. But they have not given the reason why these

events happened. Scientists and engineers only look at the

events through evidence and facts. Whereas philosophers look beyond these

dimensions to possibilities and potentials of why we have come to be.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Consider this thought: It was only about

three hundred years ago or so that man stepped away from the agrarian culture and went into a manufacturing culture. Consider just one thing – transportation. The advent of the Newcomen Engine,

the forbearer of the steam engine, which removed water from deep coal mines. Where did this thought come from?

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Can We Exist Without Tao? James Watt and his ideas went on to

harness steam in stationary engines, ships, and later, steam powered trains. This was all started in the mid to late 1700s.

The Industrial Revolution was in full swing. By the early 20th Century, Man was flying,

people were communicating with one another without wires – radio, and people were traveling on rails and on pavement; the automobile has now become a servant of man.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Science was now becoming a prime

interest to all. Man looked into the heavens through the largest telescopes at that time and established the idea that things are constantly changing, not static as some people believed. The concept of the Big Bang has now arrived. Einstein published his Theory of

Relativity and his famous equation, E=MC2, that shocked the scientific community to its roots.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Mid 20th Century brought about the

harnessing of the destructive power of the atom and its potential as a new source of energy.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Two new electronic devices also showed

up on the horizon – television and the computer.

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Can We Exist Without Tao?It is truly remarkable the advances in the

last part of the 20th Century, too many to list here; however, could the inspirations of these inventions just appear, or were they preconceived?

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Is there a direction or guide that is

giving us inspirations, concepts, ideas that show us how to better ourselves technologically? Is there some methodologies that

illustrate a control, an order to all and these technological discoveries are, in themselves, a way of achieving this insight to our own fate?

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Can We Exist Without Tao? Yet there MUST be something in this

universe that not only created it, but also controls it, and give life to all who occupy it. I am speaking of the one power that is

responsible for this. It can go by many names, but the one

bottom line element is that we must acknowledge it.

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Can We Exist Without Tao? And this power is called – Tao. From the very beginning, from the time

of the Big Bang to now and beyond, we observe the structure of Tao, the Laws of Nature if you would, but Tao is definitely the power behind the Laws of Nature.

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Conclusion The last illustration to be presented is a

photograph obtained from NASA. This photograph complied in 2004, could be titled as one of the greatest images ever taken. This image was taken over a period of

11 days. It took 800 separate exposures. These images were shot in Black and

White (the only way the Hubble can take pictures) with different color filters used.

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Conclusion This picture shows what appears as

stars, but a closer examination will reveal that each patch of light is a galaxy! Some of the red smudges are at a

distance of 12 billion light years away! Please observe this famous image from

a patch of seemingly empty sky south of the Orion constellation.

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Conclusion You have just witnessed the beauty and

majesty of Tao. This awe inspiring image is just a microscopic view of the universe. To photograph the entire sky in this manner would require a period of about 1 million years! And all these images would reveal about the same density of stars and galaxies. A conservative estimate of the number of galaxies in the total universe is about 125 billion!

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Conclusion As we conclude this science lecture, we

should be reminded of the power that Tao has not only over us, but of the entire universe and all that it contains.

And I leave you with this final wish…

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