Tower of Babel AI

Do I exist?

• Todd Francis

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It would take  1.3 million Planet Earths to equal the Sun's mass and 7.5 trillion people to equal the Earth’s mass.  So, where do I fit in?  I myself am made up of 7 octillion atoms, which is 7 followed by 27 zeros.

Each human has a 1 in 400 trillion chance of coming into existence and the size of the Milky Way Galaxy is billions of times smaller than is a spec of dust when compared to the scale of the universe.  

Do we live in an endless mindless expanse or not?!   Is there an invisible being around us or not?!  Shouldn't we have figured out this definitively by now?  Oh well, we haven't.  Maybe we are like Chinese pygmy dormouse - blind.  Who knows.  Does it matter?  Probably.  Should we care?  Probably.   The oceans might know more clearly whether there is a God than we do.  So what.  Praise Jesus.

Challenge reality!

#CosmicPerspective #Philosophy #TowerOfBabel #Creation #Evolution
















Speaker 1:

Hello everyone, this is Todd Francis. Welcome to the Tower of Babel 2.0 podcast, the podcast where we endeavor to deny, to confront the powers of reality. We've come here to think, not to think creatively, not to think out of the box. Out of the box thinking means that you're taking someone else's perspective and attempting to break free from it. You are free from it. Today, we're going to be thinking about the universe and our place in it. The universe is your home, is mine. Tower of Babel it is, so let's move forward.

Speaker 1:

The universe is believed to have grown from a single point to its current size in less than 14.5 billion years. With the use of advanced technology, high-powered telescopes, we can see 45 billion times the distance light can travel in one year. There's nothing that can travel faster that we're aware of. But hold on. Hold on to your hats, because recently the James Webb Space Telescope launched in 2021, has released some very interesting data. It's found that early galaxies were forming at much faster rates than previously, than previously calculated. Long story short, it's thought that some of these early galaxies detected were too well developed to have started at the moment of the Big Bang. Am I the only one that has always thought that the Big Bang seemed to be an incomplete thought, a little bit shy, without saying so. Maybe the universe was born just like everybody else. Maybe it'll die too, tower of Babel. What a beautiful day it is.

Speaker 1:

Tower of Babel using global AI, some interpretations of the James Webb Space Telescope data and other observations suggest the possibility of a universe existing before the event we call the Big Bang. Let's consider, consider. There are thought to be two trillion galaxies before the event we call the Big Bang. Let's consider, consider. There are thought to be two trillion galaxies in the observable universe, tower of Babel, and the closest one is 2.5 million light years away. Our nearest neighbor galaxy, andromeda, holds an estimated one trillion stars. Recent research suggests Andromeda's higher star count may be influenced by past galactic mergers with other galaxies. Can we be be goggled, not befuddled, by the estimated 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe? There are 206 trillion stars in the observable universe, which is 200, followed by 21 zeros, or 1 trillion by 1 billion, by 200.

Speaker 1:

Why are we not aware of this? Radiation was once the dominant force in the universe, then gravity the dominant force in the universe, then gravity the dominant force in the universe. Now something fights against gravity, some unknown component that we cannot see or gauge, does not react to light, known as dark matter, pulling the universe apart, making it spread. So can we agree that human beings are, in one important way, quite insignificant? This is not an attempt to say that you're smaller than you think you are.

Speaker 1:

Let's think about the fact that we can claim our existence and that's about all. We have no size, given the scale of the universe Zero, none. We can claim that we exist. We can claim that we have proof of our existence because of the fact that we have mass. We have a response to gravity that comes from mass. We're made of the same stuff as everything else, except the empty void, where there are few atoms per square meter. Void, where there are a few atoms per square meter. Gravity and the empty void coexisted for billions of years. Now the empty void exists with the dominance of dark matter and the prominence of gravity.

Speaker 1:

Things with mass, such as ourselves, do resist acceleration. We resist against the wind, we can resist against the water and waves. We can resist against a great many things. That gives us, in the physical realm, the thought of ourselves as having an existence. Tower of Babel, a strong wind will pick you up and carry you away as if you are or have no meaning or as much meaning as a leaf. We are infinitely smaller than the smallest of pinpricks. We are 0.0 than zeros running on a computer for the rest of your life before you get to the point where you matter in terms of size 0.000. The entire human race will live and die before the computer 0.0000 can bring you to the point where the infinite string of zeros finally reaches your point of mass.

Speaker 1:

Have you ever thought, have you ever thought, as I do, that we are so small, so insignificant, so insignificant that there's actually a better chance of God existing than yourself? Possibly you don't exist at all. The earth is small. The sun is smaller than that. The Milky Way galaxy is smaller than a speck of dust. If we consider the entire universe, the Milky Way is smaller than a speck of dust on the breeze. The thing is that we human beings bless us all.

Speaker 1:

We do reflect on things, which I believe makes us significant. Do we reflect more? Do we reflect more than a wildebeest? I say we do. Pound your fist on the table tower of babel, I do exist. Have the gall say it if you care to. I do exist. Everything about us is of no consequence except for the fact that we humans have the unmitigated gall, the supposed presence, to believe or understand that we do reflect on things. We do reflect. Pound your fist on the table, put a praise on it, sing a song that says you are living your life like it's golden, sweet chariot or old man river. Take your pick, or just stare at the sky, the night sky, and do what we do best, which is to reflect.

Speaker 1:

Consciousness gives us boundaries and in another dimension, it takes them away. We reflect on things and decide which is more essential. All day, we pay attention to our earthly senses or follow the callings of our higher ones. We give ourselves meaning that way. If I were to say to you breathe, behold the spirit of God, what would you say? I'd say look, my friend. I'd say the earth is estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. Dinosaurs lived on Earth for approximately 165 million years. Is what I tell you. Their reign ended roughly 66 million years ago. Is what I tell you? I tell you that humans, specifically Homo sapiens, have existed for roughly 300,000 years. However, I tell you that modern humans have been using complex technology and cultures for 50 to 65,000 years. Question for you now does the book of Genesis thought to have been written by Moses? Some say Genesis thought to have been written by Moses. Some say states that God created the earth and the heavens in seven days.

Speaker 1:

The theory of evolution states more than just a theory. Now we accept it is so. Evolution as the source of the development of life on earth states that there is an intense and complex pattern of competitive and environmental factors that control the development of all living things, from the most complex animals to the simplest of plants. Question does Genesis match evolution in sequence? Do they have a relationship to each other? Are they both part of the human vision? Are they one and the same regarding the creation of the universe and everything in it and everything that it is? To this question, ai states no.

Speaker 1:

The sequence of events in Janice's creation account does not match the sequence suggested by evolutionary biology. While some may attempt to reconcile the two, significant discrepancies exist, particularly regarding the timing of various creations. Earth before light. Genesis states the earth was created before light, whereas science indicates the universe and light existed long before earth. Genesis places birds before reptiles, flowering plants before animals. Genesis describes flowering plants appearing before land animals, while evolutionary biology suggests the opposite Marine reptiles before whales. Genesis implies whales existed before marine reptiles, but evolution suggests the reverse, with whales evolving from land mammals. Can you see the problem, tower of Babel? Let's think my. You see the problem, tower of Babel? Let's think my problem with the world, my problem with all of this science, my problem with scientists and all of humanity is missing the point. The point is that the point is that both Genesis and science, both Genesis and science, say that there was a sequence. Both have a sequence.

Speaker 1:

The Bible doesn't say the story of Genesis does not say that God snapped his fingers and it all just was in a moment. God didn't throw a magic wheat seed and it all grew in a moment. God didn't throw a magic wheat seed and it all grew in a year. Genesis implies no conflict, no war where the immortals were forced to come out of the clouds or killed to create the universe. There was no procreation between two gods, but there was a sequence. Both follow. Both state that there was a sequence. Both follow, both state that there was a sequence.

Speaker 1:

If the authors of the Bible didn't get the exact order of the evolution of life on Earth correct, so what? So what? Those inspired to write the Bible were describing. They were conveying the fact that life on earth was a pathway where some forms of life, non-existent, once non-existent, were alive and well and thriving on earth. Things that did not exist did appear.

Speaker 1:

We have problems. Interestingly enough, genesis says that we existed in the Garden of Eden prior to knowledge, putting a wedge between us and our glorified state. Think about that. Evolution claims that we live genetically intact for nearly 300,000 years, and the last 50 or 60,000 years we began to use technologies. We began to be more than hunter-gatherers. No similarity there, you decide. I prefer to think that there is a similarity myself. I'm happy about it. We should be pleased by what our senses can provide, without pencil and chalk, without erasers and cardboard, without sand and sticks.

Speaker 1:

Genesis says, and I quote In the beginning, god created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty. Darkness was over the surface of the deep and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said Let there be light. And there was light. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light day and the darkness he called night, and there was evening and there was morning on the first day and God said that to be a vault between the waters to separate water from the water. So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.

Speaker 1:

God called the vault sky.

Speaker 1:

And there was evening and there was morning the second day and God said Let the water under the sky be gathered in one place. And so it was. God called the dry ground, land, and the gathered water he called the seas, and God saw that it was good. Then God said Let the land produced vegetation, seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit. And it was so. The land produced vegetation, plants bearing seed according to the kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seeds in it according to their kinds.

Speaker 1:

And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning the third day, and God said Let there be light in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them be lights in the vault of the sky. And it was so. God made two great lights the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth and God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day I keep one in their head.

Speaker 2:

I don't wanna die 5-5-5-5 every day.

Speaker 2:

Like my gun sounds stuck on replay, replay. Niggas know me. I stay with a blink. Niggas know me. I stay with a chop Pen through my pen on this blob. Be getting sturdy when I'm sending the shot, like who rock? Who shot Moon rock too hot. I be moving like ain't nothing on me, but they know that I'm keepingin' it on me, fast watchin'. I spot him Bad, block him, headshot him. I got nine in the club. I'ma toss it.

Speaker 2:

I'm a general, never gon' forfeit 5-5 like a melody. Fuckin' this. Stephanie Perk Got me feelin' nauseous. Nah, she like the way that I source it. She like the way that I'm all in way. Look, i'ma send him away. Do it this what I do when I move. Look, you can peak my movement. Look a nigga in tune. Yeah, and I'm never in school. Stay with the tune. I'm up in the two, always lit. I have something to do you a bitch. You got nothing to prove. Like uh, always stuck in your mood, please. You know I play with me, not in the mood. 380 on me and the 9 on me too. They watching my body. They copy my moves. Look, they copy my moves and I'm staying in tune. I got the kid with me too. I might say J to the moon Joy like a melody in my head. I keep on in the head I don't wanna die. 5-5-5-5 every day. Like my car sounds. I'm gon' replay Outro Music Like my gun sounds. Stop on me, play, play, thank you Good job, thank you.

Speaker 1:

And said Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas and let the birds increase on the earth. And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day, and God said Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds, the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground and the wild animals, each according to its kind. And it was so. God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.

Speaker 1:

Then God said let us make mankind in our image, our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God. He created them, male and female. He created them. God blessed them and said to them be fruitful and increase in number, fill the earth and subdue it, rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground. Then God said I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit within the seed. This will be yours as food and to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground, everything that has the breath of life in it.

Speaker 1:

I give every green plant for food, and it was so. God saw all this that he had made and it was all good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. We know what happened on the seventh day we went to church.

Speaker 1:

Now, judaism and Christianity traditionally hold that Moses, under divine inspiration, wrote or compiled the book of Genesis, along with other four books of the Pentateuch Exodus, leviticus, numbers and Deuteronomy. Many scholars believe that it was compiled from multiple sources across the ages, across the ages. Ai concludes that, in essence, while Moses is a central figure in the Genesis narrative and may have played a role in its composition or compilation, the book as we have it today is likely a result of a more complex literary process spanning a longer period. What is missing from Genesis are the points related to natural selection and things such as survival of the fittest. Creation implies that things are created by God and take their places in the natural world. For me, tower of Babel, many of these differences between Genesis and evolution are semantic. The orders of things, how things came about one by one, are semantic, but not this, not this. God may have ordained it so in the book of Genesis, but Genesis does not state the level of violence and or hardship and craftiness species of animals took to get to where they are today. Tower of Babel. Genesis does not state development of creatures. It states that they just arrived, which is a very large difference between the two. It's not semantic.

Speaker 1:

I play the ukulele and last week the strangest thing happened In my side yard. Beautiful day I heard a chirping noise and there, sitting on the split on the tree, was a squirrel looking right at me. I kept playing and it stayed there until the song was done. I didn't know what to do. There was the otherworldliness looking at me from behind its eyes, the purest black. It was the only intelligence that I could see. So, regarding squirrels liking ukulele music, ai says while there are no conclusive scientific proof of squirrels liking ukulele playing, some anecdotal evidence points towards them not necessarily being bothered by it and, in some cases, appearing to enjoy the sounds.

Speaker 1:

I prefer a dog listening to me than a squirrel. I prefer a chimp listening to me more than a dog and I prefer a dolphin listening to me more than a chimp. Now, that would be a treat dolphin listening to me. But, by the way, dolphins are generally considered to be smarter than chimpanzees. Though both are highly intelligent animals, it's hard to definitely rank them. Dolphins excel in areas like imagination, memory and understanding Symbolic language, while chimpanzees demonstrate complex social skills and problem-solving abilities.

Speaker 1:

Now we're going to jump back to the stars and infinity. Great babble, because they are infinite. Let me read this to you from Google AI. I asked it do the stars collide when galaxies merge? It returned while galaxy collisions are dramatic events involving the merging of two galaxies, the vast distances between stars within each galaxy means that direct collisions between stars are extremely rare. Instead, the main effects of a galaxy collision are changes in the orbit of stars and increasing star formation due to compression of gas and dust clouds. So, collide the stars? Do not because of the space between stars. I said again, tower of Babel, your favorite star might have exploded or extinguished 250 million years ago. You've not been notified of that because your star is too far. The light from the disruption hasn't gotten to you yet. At the current speed our spaceships travel, it would take around 70,000 years for us to reach Proxima Centauri, which is the Earth's nearest star. The universe is 14.5 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way galaxy, and Andromeda, the nearest to us, will collide due to mutual attraction, gravity in 4.5 billion years. Me and you, we are here, we are alive, we've made it Okay. We have consciousness, we have self-awareness, we have perception. We've done well.

Speaker 1:

And I write. I won't make a sound. Why would I write a poem about the stars now? Why would I speak to them? I thought they were grains of salt. I thought they were slices of yam. I thought they were a million skaters doing figure eights. I thought they were slices of yam. I thought them a million skaters doing figure eights. I thought they were a billion can openers in a billion cans of spam. I thought they bore some relationship to Rutger Hauer and George Clooney and Denzel and all that would have been all right with me. I thought them fine to see me back from hell. I thought you'd be there if I was hit directly in the face. I thought you great stars were trillion eyes shedding one salty drop every day at dawn. I thought I could find the stairs. You can get me absolutely nowhere.

Speaker 1:

Now You're simply there to confuse and befuddle me, to shock my imagination with your lies, but what you are are 200 times a billion, times a trillion. You are Armageddon. Now I need to break in with a little Shakespeare to help me with this cause. And I quote tomorrow and tomorrow. And tomorrow creeps in this petty pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time. And all our yesteryears have lighted fools the dusty way, the way to dusty death. Out out brief candle, life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more. It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying that the chance of you existing is 1 in 400 trillion. Some calculations include the odds of the specific parents meeting them, forming a relationship and having the child, and the odds include the likelihood of your ancestors surviving. You are one in never possibly happening. You're one chance in infinity to occur. You have a better chance of winning the mega millions, one million days in a row, than you have to be born.

Speaker 1:

I may be perfectly conscious, but I'll be infinitely impossible to define now. Every day, all day, that's what we all do, that's what I'm going to do, o Tower of Babel. I'll work and I'll work to define myself and wonder what my world is all about, and wonder what my world is all about. But I know what it's all about. It's about me looking at the sky, collecting all my pearls and using them as best as possible. Hit me up with that mighty falcon and sword borrowed from my God. God, god, I'm a tired man, old tower of Babel. I'm just tired Now.

Speaker 1:

When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up on the mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and he began to teach them. He said Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be fulfilled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure of heart, for they will seek God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. You let light shine before others that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven.

Speaker 1:

Why don't we talk to a Christian now? Sounds very good to me. Now. Sounds very good to me If Stephen Hawking had said that the grand design included mystery and possibility. So let's speak to one of my favorite Christians and see what she thinks about her universe and ours. Hello, hi, carol. How are you doing today? I'm doing well, thank you very much. You're right. Great thanks, thank you. So just I'm having a conversation about god. You are a first of all a Christian and you are a psychologist, therapeutic, you're a master gardener and many other things that you're involved with, including supporting a bereavement group in your church. What is God to you?

Speaker 3:

what is God to you? God is the creator of all things. God is he, who, he she, who edifies us, who strengthens us, who guides us, who protects us. God is just the air that I breathe and even though there are many other things in this life that get my attention, things to do, pressure, things that make me happy, things that make me sad, things that scare me, I just regard God as my anchor, the one that just sort of leads me through all of that. God is a spirit. It's not something that any of us can really understand and it's something that you just sort of believe and feel. Certainly not something that you can touch or prove.

Speaker 3:

But without a belief in my God, this life doesn't make that much sense. I don't know how to really manage life without that belief, because there are days, and I've learned a lot. Everybody learns a lot. If you're a believer, you learn a lot about how to cope with so many things. So there are days when things don't go well, or somebody does something to upset, or I have done something that is wrong.

Speaker 3:

I always have a place to go to reset myself and find a way to forgive the other person, find a way to chastise myself and understand that these are things that I have to be responsible for and have to do better. It's the strength that helps me go from one day to the next, because life is difficult. There's great joy, but there are disappointments and challenges at every turn, and it is my belief in God that helps me to do the right thing to get up when I stumble, because I fall and stumble as much as anybody else, anybody else, and I need a God to help me be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday and to feel joy.

Speaker 1:

You're saying that you need a God, right, but just some people might say, just because you need a God doesn't doesn't mean that there is one that exists.

Speaker 3:

Well, I don't know, that we have to prove. I would find it very difficult. I can't imagine doing this life without a God, imagine doing this life without a God. That doesn't mean that I have to prove or that I can't prove there is one. It's what I believe. It's what I choose to believe. It's how I choose to live. It's a choice. So I would never enter into a discussion to try to prove, to try to demonstrate in some type of analytic or scientific way that there is a God, in some type of analytic or scientific way that there is a God.

Speaker 3:

I think that when people get very desperate and feel vulnerable, they realize that they don't have any power, that there can't be something from nothing, and that's what I find to be the most sustaining that when I get upset about certain things, I realize how minimal these things really are. I can only tell you what I believe. Do I know what's going to happen when we die? No, I'm not one of these people who will say well, I know what's going to happen when Jesus comes. I know what happens after we die. No, I don't know. This is only what I believe.

Speaker 1:

It's not what I know.

Speaker 3:

What's the point of prayer? No-transcript? And it's a conversation. It's a conversation with something outside of you and outside of this earth, and I think prayer is a way of doing a kind of a morning and an evening or a daily assessment of who you are, what you stand for, of who you are, what you stand for, what's important to you, asking God for help to guide you, to sustain you, to heal you, to heal other people. It's a conversation, it's a communication with our God that's outside of you and above you and outside of all that we can go and touch and feel, because it's like food. That's what prayer is. It feeds me. When I go to church, I feel fed, I feel nourished.

Speaker 1:

I feel nourished. What's the best way for you to love thy?

Speaker 3:

neighbor as thyself that if you take a moment in time and realize that I am not here for myself, I am here to serve. God did not put Carol on this planet for herself.

Speaker 1:

She is here to help and to serve. That expression, then, or that quote love thy neighbor as thyself.

Speaker 3:

who said that Jesus did in different ways? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. What are the two greatest commandments? Love God, love your neighbor. There's many different expressions of that same concept that you have to love your neighbor as yourself. And love means sacrifice.

Speaker 1:

Sacrifice meaning.

Speaker 3:

Meaning being willing to put your needs aside and do something for someone else that they need. Sometimes it's a big sacrifice and sometimes it's a tiny one.

Speaker 1:

Appreciate all your thoughts and your insights Beautiful ones to this conversation. Give us a person from the Bible. All right, I'll tell you what Jesus had 12 followers and tell us just which of those. Today do you think we can find some relevancy?

Speaker 3:

I might say Thomas, based on just thinking of our conversation today, because when Jesus first after the resurrection and he came back and the first time he was seen by his apostles, thomas wasn't there and he didn't believe him. Yet I have to put my hands in your side in order for me to really believe that this is really Jesus. So, thomas, that's where the whole expression doubting Thomas comes from, because Thomas didn't believe that Jesus had come back, but he had to prove it to him and he turned out to be one of his greatest apostles and went on to evangelize in India and other places. And that is where we are today.

Speaker 3:

How do you know that there's a God? Where's the evidence that there's a God? Because we can't see him, we can't feel him, we can't touch him, we don't have evidence of him. Then it can't exist. It's that human arrogance that we have to know all things, and I think that's a lesson for all of us. We don't know very much at all, least of all, whether or not there's a God. I know it because I believe it. It's a gift of faith. Some people don't have that gift of faith.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, gracias, many thanks. You've been awesome and I hope we can meet with you again another time.

Speaker 3:

Well, I certainly would look forward to that. It's been a pleasure.

Speaker 1:

Thanks again, carol, and we'll talk to you soon, god bless. Thank you very much, the.

Speaker 3:

Lord be with you.

Speaker 1:

You too, thank you. I'm sitting here right now thinking of where I might see God day to day, the best place that I could think of, the best place that I could think of. So I drive to work and on the way there is an elementary school and there's a crossing guard there. She's a woman, probably retired, maybe 70 years old, and she stands there at the corner and she has these huge black sunglasses on so you can't see your eyes, and everyone that passes by that corner, she waves to or drives through the intersection, she waves to and she has this huge following at 4 o'clock in the afternoon, or 3.30 people who just wave back at her in this one lonely intersection. Wow, okay. So thank you for joining us today on Tower of Babel 2.0. I've enjoyed your presence. I've enjoyed your time, enjoyed your time. Hopefully we'll meet again. Friends, take care of yourself and we'll see you next time. Love you all. Tower of Babel 2.0. Take care.