CARS CARS CARS!!!

Eyeing these hot hatches!

Renault Clio III

Skoda Fabia

Honda Jazz

Ford Fiesta

Hyundai Getz

Nissan Latio Sport

Mini Cooper

Nissan March

Kia Rio

Fiat Grande Punto

Toyota Yaris

Daihatsu Terios

Chevrolet Aveo 5

Mitsubishi Colt

Suzuki Swift

Kia Picanto

Mazda 2 SP

I'm intending on getting either of these phones soon. My Xphone II keys are getting a bit cranky. Someone give me an opinion on which one to get? I only want a Windows Mobile phone. No Palm please. :P

Each of the phones have their pluses and minuses... I'm gravitating towards the Atom cos there's a camera flash... and I need it when I go to Melbourne next year... But the other two are either cheaper or newer models...

1) HP iPaq rw6828

2) O2 Xda Atom

3) Dopod 818 Pro

As promised! This is going to be quite long. Almost 3000 words. :) Gonna have to separate the entries. lol...

The Theory of God
Written by: Kenny Ong, Sherilyn Tan and Elvin Yio.

Prologue – The Masking

“And the conclusion, my fellow esteemed scientists, is that this knowledge should be kept from the world. I fear the imminent destruction of all we hold dear, should Mankind, in his madness, exploit this knowledge for power.”

The audience, pioneer developers in revolutionary physics, was predictably aghast at their beloved tutor’s request to conceal knowledge. Unthinkable! It was akin to asking doctors to be murderers! The commotion dwindled, as each one contemplated the possible calamity that could be unleashed by such knowledge. They acceded grudgingly, aware that their complicated theories and equations were beyond the average man’s comprehension. Who could uncover what they hid? They left with heavy hearts, already planning their modifications.

The Unravelling

Ernst Rice and Ray Olsen, two aspiring physicists, were on the verge of completing their scientific paper on the merging of monotheistic religion with science. They were getting ever closer to the possibility of proving the existence of a higher supernatural being. Their search for opinions and evidence from established scientists brought them around the world and to Professor Stephen Hawking.

As they were led to the professor’s study, Ernst prepared himself to challenge the professor’s No Boundary Proposal that negated the need of a higher supernatural being, “Sir, you proved the Big Bang Singularity and introduced the Inflation theory. Does that not show the presence of God? If the rate of the universe’s expansion one second after the Big Bang had been smaller by just a quantum margin, as you hypothesised, the universe would have collapsed into a fireball. How then, did inflation come about so conveniently? The probability of giving today’s flat universe with constant background radiation throughout is ridiculously small! And…” The tirade died in his throat as he stared at the large study in awe.

“Make yourselves at home.” The maid chuckled as she left.

The two physicists wasted no time and started devouring the rare research papers and books on Quantum Physics and Cosmology. Ernst was engrossed in a research paper that could help him solve a particularly vexing problem he had. Ray, however, tossed aside old research books impatiently; aware of the short time they had available to them.

As he pushed aside the first layer of journals, some old, battered books fell unceremoniously on the ground. “Diaries!” He exclaimed excitedly, flipping them open. “Schrödinger, Heisenberg, Carl Sagan, Sir Fred Hoyle, Hawking and even Einstein!”

“Ray!” Ernst exploded at his partner’s irresponsible behaviour and hurriedly placed each book carefully back on the shelf. “Put those back!” He hissed as he turned to face the door after hearing footsteps along the corridor.

“Gentlemen, the professor will now see you in his office.” The maid intoned as she opened the door.

Ray casually slipped the old diaries of legendary physicists into his briefcase, intrigued by how Hawking had managed to get them. These books had been left untouched for ages; no one would miss them.

Discovery

“He refuses to believe that science can describe the existence of a God! This is a wasted trip.” Ernst exclaimed disgustedly as Ray drove through the gates after their visit.

“If it makes you feel any better, I’ve got all the diaries in my briefcase.” Ray stated calmly.

“What!” Ernst screeched angrily. “If someone finds out, we’re both dead!”

“Chill, Ernst.” Ray replied. “Think. Why would the personal diaries of these scientists, who were the forefathers of quantum physics and cosmology, be with Hawking? He wasn’t even that close to them.” Ray pointed out logically. “There’s something fishy going on. Open one, Ernst, and read it. It will help with our deductions.”

There was a prolonged silence as Ernst started reading; first skimming through the pages disinterestedly, then slowly and more intently. He flung aside one diary and opened another, devouring the pages, flipping to specific pages and reading with growing horror. Diary after diary he read, quivering increasingly with an uncontrolled emotion.

“It’s impossible.” Ernst breathed, shivering despite the heat, finally turning towards his partner in anguish. “Ray! Read this!”

Ray stopped the car by the road, visibly concerned. Ernst was known to be emotional, but never had Ray seen Ernst lose his composure so completely. He took a diary and read it aloud.

“‘Any scientific theory formulated which points towards the TOG must be quashed or encrypted. Suggested encryption methods would include the addition of extra mathematical terms or removing constants within theoretical equations.’ What is the TOG anyway?” Ray’s anxiety was evident in his voice.

“What we were looking for, Ray…” Ernst slumped into the car seat, looking utterly dejected. “The Theory of God. What you just read was the agreement to hide it.”

Deductions

Back in their laboratory in Geneva, Ray and Ernst emptied out their documents, entitled “The God Hypothesis” and compared their research to the discoveries noted in the diaries. A Holy Bible lay on their work bench, its worn out pages bearing mute testimony to its use in their research.

“There goes our first hypothesis.” Ray remarked disappointedly, as he read Einstein’s diary entry aloud. “God is light.”

“Yesterday, a sudden realization occurred to me. There were numerous references to God being the ‘Light of the world’ or simply ‘God is light’. I realized that if He is light, would it not mean that He travels at the speed of light? Impossible for humans to achieve but do they not say, that ‘With God, nothing is impossible’? Considering that, length contracts and time dilates infinitely for Him! Beautiful! Would length contraction explain why He has no physical presence? And considering that time dilates infinitely, He has the ability to be omnipresent – being anywhere at anytime, implying that He has the power to know everything that is going on – omniscience! To be everywhere at the same time and to know everything confers omnipotence. The Godly characteristics of being omniscient, omnipresent and omnipotent - explained by this simple theory!”

“That was the easiest hypothesis we came up with.” Ernst sighed desolately. “There were so many hints in the Bible, how could anyone have missed it?” Ernst prodded a pile of diaries with his foot. “These diaries prove that these scientists came up with our second hypothesis of a Relativistic View of Genesis before us.” Ernst read the diaries in order to explain Genesis.

George Ellis:
“At the point of creation, the universe existed as a singularity, where the curvature of space-time was so strong that general relativistic laws broke down, leaving only quantum gravity laws. At that point, the gravity of the universe was astronomically high, due to its high curvature. According to Einstein’s theory of special relativity, time slows down so much in the presence of such a high gravitational field that God was able to create the universe in 7 days, which to us, equated to billions of years!”

“They went even further than us,” Ernst continued despondently, “hypothesising the links between every paragraph of Genesis and Particle Physics.” He gave a bitter laugh. “Listen to these.”

Michael Turner:

“An on-going debate about the existence of dark energy was in my mind as I watched a children’s play put up by my nieces and nephews on Genesis. At once, the words struck me. Perhaps, in the creation of light in Genesis 1:3, He also created energy. And ‘separating light from darkness’ was symbolic to separating energy into light energy – the kind carried by photons – from dark energy, which we currently know nothing about.”

Charles Munger:

“It came to me in a dream, while I was sleeping during a Sunday sermon on Genesis, after an exhausting session of debating the preponderance of matter over anti-matter despite postulated equal amounts during baryogenesis, that perhaps God did explain it all in a rather cryptic way in the Bible. In Genesis 1:6, could the “expanse between waters to separate water from water” not refer to a powerful flux of gamma rays produced to create a boundary between anti-matter atoms from anti-matter stars and galaxies to prevent contact from matter particles in our universe? It’s a shame that God couldn’t be more explicit.”

Diaries after diaries revealed the physicists’ hypotheses about God, the various secret experiments and their results demonstrating His power. They were far more advanced than the papers that the duo had prepared so far.

“I cannot believe it, Ray. There goes our work.” Ernst muttered despondently, as he re-read the conspiracy agreement. “It must be encrypted? What does it mean?”

As an answer, Ray flipped open various diaries, pointing out familiar equations. “This is the real Schrödinger’s wave function. He omitted a term. And he’s not the only one.” Ray pointed out the differences between what they knew and the original equations. “In fact,” Ray continued, picking up Einstein’s diary from the floor, “Einstein was the first and most obvious. It is a well-known fact that he added a cosmological constant. Now we know why. He’s part of this conspiracy as well.” Ray concluded.

“Now I understand why Einstein modified his otherwise correct cosmological equation!” Ernst slammed his fist on the table in a rare display of anger. “Even Sagan’s Oscillating model, Hoyle’s Steady State Theory and Hawking’s No Boundary Universe Theory were just to give the impression that the Universe is eternal, negating the need for a beginning and therefore, a God! What a hoax!”

“They’ve been silenced by Penzia and Wilson’s discovery of background radiation and Guth’s inflation theory.” Ray contemplated meditatively. “It’s no use getting angry at dead men. Let’s find the real equations and work things out from there.”

The Pursuit

Back in their own laboratory, Ernst and Ray worked on the statements found. The scrawls of revised physical equations covered the papers which became balls of crumpled and rejected working papers.

“I don’t understand.” Ernst snapped irritably, frustrated with the prospect of relearning equations and reworking derivations. “How could so many equations be tampered with without anyone realizing it?”

“The Occam’s Razor principle. Nobody likes complicated equations so the fewer unknowns, the better.” Ray pointed out patiently, head bent, still scribbling as he spoke. “You’ve got most of the scientists in this conspiracy. It’s easy. Scientists review other scientists and quarrel with one another when they’re not doing experiments. If these scientists support each other, even if some disagree, it would seem perfectly normal. After all, who would actually bother to find out all of these? How many in our class would be interested in religion and science? Everyone thinks science is the anti-thesis of religion. The conspiracy works too well.” Ray thought for a moment. “It seems to make sense. But it’s weird that I keep making the same mistake. There’s an extra value of the root of minus seven.”

“That sounds familiar.” Ernst rummaged through the pile of papers that lay next to him. “I got this value as well and I thought it was an error.” Ernst showed Ray the heap of crumpled working papers. “There! It’s the undefined complex number that keeps screwing up all my equations!”

Ray’s eyes met Ernst in shocked surprise. “Then it can’t be an error, since we can’t be all wrong. Perhaps it’s a new constant. Let’s experiment, rather than waste our time.”

The Experiment

Entering the CERN’s laboratory containing the Large Hadron Collider, the two physicists were busy keying in numbers and re-programming formulae. It was late at night, the only timeslot when the LHC was available and the room was virtually empty.

The hum of the machine filled Ernst and Ray with growing excitement. The LHC recently built was the only plausible way of testing the various hypotheses of scientists on escaping the three dimensional world and traversing multi-dimensional worlds where God was said to reside. A huge amount of energy was needed to create wormholes to another dimension. If the untested hypothesis of God - the recalculated formulae and the square root of minus seven, affectionately termed the God constant KG - was correct, it would create a micro black-hole that could create anti-matter at its event horizon, giving them unlimited energy as the anti-matter annihilated matter, to sustain the black-hole. They waited with bated breath; this moment could be a life-changing experience for the both of them.

“We were correct!” Ernst enthused jubilantly. “The KG controls multiple dimensions of the string theory, allowing us to enhance the strength of gravity such that when two aggregates of fermions with mass-energy equal to the Planck mass-energy collided within a distance of a Planck length, they would form a micro black-hole! See how energy explosion is instantaneously converted by Einstein’s E = mc2 to a small dense mass warping Einstein’s space-time fabric, creating wormholes or point singularities! Look at the small dark shroud in the middle, Ray! According to George Smoot, it might be a gateway to heaven. I wonder what we’ll see on the other side!”

Indeed, the light energy produced by the annihilation reactions illuminated the entire LHC, except for a point devoid of light which they could clearly elucidate.

“It’s getting bigger, Ernst!” Ray shared his partner’s joy. “Its like the theory says, the virtual particles collides with the wormhole, radiating anti-matter as the matter particles from the virtual particles get sucked in! The increase in matter gradually increases the mass of the wormhole and increases the gravitational pull. The event horizon of that wormhole is expanding according to Hawking’s Law of Area Increase for Black Holes and the high heat is lowering the threshold of observable reality!”

“Hey, my pen’s in there! How did it get there?” Ernst pointed out in surprise.

Ray stared, his excitement turning to shock. He pulled out another sheet and made some quick mental calculations as an alarm went off. “The anti-particles are affecting Born’s Psi probability density, leading to the increase of random quantum effects on large objects. I think your pen just experienced quantum tunnelling. Strange!”

Ernst stared in horror. “Ray, how do we stop the black hole’s expansion? It’s absorbing more matter into itself, growing bigger and radiating even more anti-matter!”

More alarms started going off. Ray and Ernst tried stopping the reaction but to no avail. They gasped helplessly as the pen was annihilated by anti-matter. More objects from the room found their way into the collider as the Psi probability in the room fluctuated wildly, affected by the anti-matter radiation from the artificial wormhole. They backed away in terror but suddenly found themselves in the collider, staring into the whirling wormhole at point blank, feeling the strong pull drawing them closer and closer…

Epilogue

“An accident occurred last night in Switzerland. The mysterious disappearance of 2 physicists, various technical gadgets and parts of the LHC have left police and physicists baffled. Investigations are pending.

On the same night, astronomers were left puzzling over a sudden burst of gamma rays, seemingly from the Earth itself…”

Stephen Hawking listened to the morning news impassively. It was easy to deduce the nature of the experimental accident – he had vast experience in thought experiments due to his disability. The wormhole created absorbed equal amounts of matter and anti-matter, radiating the complementary component of the particle/anti-particle sucked in. It would first radiate out anti-particles since the environment provided more matter to be sucked in, until the amount of matter and anti-matter in the environment was constant, before sucking in both amounts equally. Because it was essentially a primordial black hole created by the extreme density of matter, it was miniscule in comparison to the normal black holes with a size of 3 solar masses formed by the gravitational collapse of stars. Since all black holes emitted Hawking Radiation inversely proportional to their mass, which further decreases their mass, such a small black hole would have an extremely short-life span, leading to an explosion or a gamma ray burst, leaving no other trace of its existence.

It was unfortunate that his disease prevented him from writing all his later thoughts into his stolen diary. If it had been written, perhaps the young physicists would have known of the short life span of the micro-black hole they created and the quantum effects it would have caused. 2 young lives had now been wasted.

The two young physicists who reminded him of Bohr’s Complementarity Theory – the passionate drive of Ernst complementing Ray’s cool logic – producing a phenomenal team. They were the closest to finding out all the unmodified theories and hypotheses about God. He regretted not explaining and convincing them to join the conspiracy. Now, 2 valuable lives were lost forever. He sighed, reminiscing how his beloved tutor, Dennis Sciama, implored his protégés to join this long-standing “vision” formed by Einstein.

“My beloved students and now, my fellow reputed scientists, please consider what I say carefully. I am aware that many of you are developing new theories proving the existence of God through science. However, as your tutor, I must implore you to stop.

I understand your bewilderment. The awful truth is that various quantum physicists and relativists are painfully aware of the existence of a higher supernatural being. Over the years, we have sufficient proof on the existence of a God and have conducted experiments proving His powers.

Consider the implications of a proven God! All religions will claim that they are correct, as they enter a frenzy of evangelism, fighting over which is the real religion. Blind ignorant faith inflames the mind and weakens logic. Man exploits his religion for personal gains at the expense of the weak.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are looking at a possible third world war.

And the conclusion, my fellow esteemed scientists, is that this knowledge should be kept from the world. I fear the imminent destruction of all that we hold dear, should Mankind, in his madness, exploit this knowledge for power.”

Hawking opened his eyes. He was the last of the conspiracy. The diaries of his departed fellow scientists that contained all knowledge of the Theory of God had been lost – forever.

Mankind was safe.

Coming soon... on 11th April 2006...

The Theory of God

A Novel written by 3 people who desperately needed a credible science fiction story for their physics module.