1. Scientific Theories and Laws
2. The First Decade (1936-1946)
4. The Second Decade (1946-1956)
6. The Third Decade (1956-1966)
8. The Fourth Decade (1966-1976)
10. The Fifth Decade (1976-1986)
12. The Sixth Decade (1986-1996)
14. The Seventh Decade (1996-2006)
15. The Theory of More than Everything
16. The Eighth Decade (2006-2016)
18. The Ninth Decade (2016-2026)
Appendix A Paintings
Appendix B TTOMTE and a Steady State Universe
Appendix C Musical Compositions
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However, I'm going to present you with some practical, down-to-earth reasons why we need to take a hard look at the outer universe. In fact, the reasons have to do with our survival, so we need to look at the Big Bang theory from other directions.
This and the next chapter may show why the time has come to move the Big Bang theory to a lower shelf in our trophy case of theories, but what you've learned about the Big Bang won't go to waste. Certain things still hold true; the galaxies move apart, the farthest ones leave us the fastest, and space expands between the galaxies (a tough thing for us to picture).
In this chapter, you will hear from Reginald O. Kapp who was a professor in electrical engineering. In Chapter Six, I mentioned Towards a Unified Cosmology in which he lays out his case in a most elegant way, so try to find this book. He does use formulas (some with calculus) which show where he got his estimates of time and distance, but here you'll get the estimates without the formulas. In one simple concept, he answers two big questions: Why does the universe expand? And what is gravity? (My old friend who takes over whenever I lose my grip on the paintbrush near the top of a ladder.)
Kapp's theory grows out of one simple rule which we'll cover right now.
Scientists don't state this basic rule out loud very often, but they make the greatest progress when they follow its principle if only by instinct.
Think back to the scientific little boy in Chapter One. At first, he proposed his theory, "A hammer will make my head hurt." Then he started making real progress when he said, "Maybe anything hard will hurt." Finally he thought, "Maybe anything hard will hurt anybody." Notice the use of "any."
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