Understanding the Universe: Revelations Beyond Science and Religion

Reality is so astonishingly incredible that many find it easier to believe in religion.

### The Unbelievable Nature of Reality: Understanding the Universe Beyond Conventional Wisdom
* 🛁 In 1992, a transformative bubble bath experience led to a **profound realization about the universe**, shifting from **confusion to clarity**.
* 💡 The author reflects on moments when friends and loved ones glimpsed the universe's **complexity**, evoking emotions of **confusion and enlightenment**.
* 🌌 These revelations highlight that understanding the cosmos often occurs **mentally rather than visually**, emphasizing the **importance of knowledge** in experiencing this awareness.
* 🤔 A recurring question arises: "**Why didn't anyone tell me?**" illustrating the frustration of discovering that **profound truths were always within reach yet unheard**.
* 🌍 The author posits that the reality of existence—**our connection to the universe and its origins**—is so astonishing that it can be easier to accept **religious explanations**.
* 🔍 To truly grasp the universe, one must integrate knowledge of **atomic theory, cosmology, and evolution**, as understanding their interconnections reveals a **deeper comprehension**.
* 🍩 The metaphor of doughnuts suggests that while one may have tasted the superficial, there is a **rich depth of knowledge ("jam")** waiting to be discovered.
* ✨ Ultimately, the author encourages **embracing the complexity of reality**, noting that true understanding **transcends surface-level learning** and invites a **more profound appreciation of existence**.

There is a fundamental and serious problem with both the Big Bang Theory and with evolution. To explain what that problem is and why I think it exists, I must take you back to 1992 and the most important bubble bath I ever had. I was reading a very basic book about quantum

mechanics. I can't remember exactly what page I was on or what I was thinking at the time, but I do remember the moment that I arrived in this universe. You see, before that bath, I was living in a very different place, where surprisingly little made sense, a place where nobody

really knew anything and a place where no truth at all could ever be found. Then, in what seemed like a second, something changed inside, but everything outside looked different, more real, more interesting. I couldn't think of anything that wasn't interesting. The colors on the surfaces of the

bubbles in the bath were mesmerizing to me. I remember giggling as I realized that I knew why those colors were there. For the first time in my life, I didn't feel like a fool. A few years later, a friend turned to me after watching an episode of

Cosmos by Carl Sagan. She was crying. She looked confused and angry for a few seconds. I didn't understand, and then she asked me the saddest question I ever heard. But it was a question I instantly remembered asking myself over and over

back in that bubble bath. And a few years after this, I'm on the phone to my girlfriend and we're talking about special relativity. That's right, I know what the lady's like when there's this sudden and prolonged silence on the

other end of the line and the next thing I hear is that same question again. I can't tell if she's laughing or crying, it sounds like both. So on three occasions, I've been present when somebody caught a glimpse of the universe, not through a telescope, but

with their mind. Photos are beautiful and revealing that the nature and scale of the cosmos are not things you can see with your eyes. They can only be seen, and even then only partially and fleetingly, in your mind, and only then after you've learned enough.

Sadly, there aren't that many people who've experienced it compared to the number that could actually experience it, and fewer still have seen it happen to others. It doesn't make me an expert, but I think it's at least interesting, with all three experiences, I have

similarities. It can only be called a revelation. It happens suddenly, without any warning, and it doesn't last long. Maybe you'll just be daydreaming when out of nowhere a new realization comes to you that explains something you never understood before, that in turn explains

something else that explains something else that explains something else that explains something else. An understanding simply comes into view. The Sun will never be just the Sun again, and you'll understand why people say that minds connect. Span, it's the only word for it.

You won't really know why you're laughing, and that too will be funny. It's like you know a big secret, and it was all just too easy and too obvious in the end. Everything fits, everything makes crystal-clear sense, everything flows into everything else, and the gaps that

are supernatural Gods used to occupy with plenty of room to spare will evaporate any shred of religiously instilled fear, guilt, or shame will vanish utterly in that second you never imagined it was possible only now do you know that it is just as you know you

will never believe a holy book ever again you'll understand that science will never be complete but that'll be okay what else would tomorrow hold but then comes a kind of anger in the form of that question why didn't anybody tell me how could it be that the answers were

there all along just a few books away and I didn't know why did I have to waste all those years thinking it was all a mystery how could I get out of school and not know that the Big Bang almost certainly happened why couldn't I live in that universe all

along what else is school for if not to teach kids what we know about how things are why weren't people yelling at me screaming at my stupidity and ignorance so much is known and I didn't know why didn't anybody tell me three times I was there and three times

that the first question asked afterwards at the time I thought the answer was simple bad schools about teachers but now I think I know better it's just not true that nobody told us the people that knew were telling us all along the question is not why didn't

anyone tell us but rather why couldn't we hear and while it's true that the truth can get lost in this world of  and stupidity I think there's a far bigger problem even for the courageously honest and rational this reality we find ourselves in the

Big Bang, the emergence and evolution of life and love from atoms, and those four and a half billion summers on Earth. Without Earth, and then we come along, possibly the only minds in the cosmos contemplating the sunrise for hundreds of millennia, yearning to understand the universe, only to find out to our

surprise that we are the universe, but our atoms were once at the core of a star, and before that we were the energy cascading from a quantum event that we may never understand. Isn't that the very definition of incredible, literally incredible? And that's the problem I think the

reality itself is simply too unbelievable, too hard to accept on an instinctive level. What an astonishing situation to find ourselves in! Reality is unbelievably unbelievable, so unbelievable that for many, religion is actually easier to believe. How unbelievable is that? But there is a way

to be free of confusion and so much of your doubt and to step into a universe that makes sense. If you want to paraphrase Einstein, cosmology without atomic theory is lame, an atomic theory without cosmology is blind, and evolution without either of them is only

a third of what you need to understand. Anyone who knows anything about how a car works sees a car more completely than a non-mechanic who just sees the surface. And so it is with the universe. You won't get it if you only know about the spark plugs and the battery and the

steering wheel. That ain't a car, but at some point as you learn about the major components and their relationships and interdependencies, then in your mind you see a car in a way that eyes can't. And if this happens for you with the universe, this is how it will be.

I can only say what it's like, it's like you've only ever eaten okay but dry doughnuts. You know, when you encounter a good one, if you are to take one thought away from this video, let it be this: there is an awful lot of jam in the

doughnut of truth. It's like knowing, or rather like knowing that you probably know, like you know, you thought you knew, but now you know you know. Probably... would you read that back to me? I'm afraid that might make me sound pompous to your

Why Didn't Anybody Tell Me?

philhellenes

Personal Revelation and the Problem with Existing Theories

The speaker introduces a fundamental problem with the Big Bang Theory and evolution.

The speaker describes a transformative experience in 1992, relating it to a shift in understanding.

The speaker details the profound impact of this experience on their perception of the universe.

The speaker recounts similar experiences with a friend and girlfriend, highlighting the shared nature of this revelation.

The speaker emphasizes the rarity of this understanding and its dependence on acquired knowledge.

The speaker describes the sudden, unexpected, and brief nature of the revelation.

The revelation is characterized by a cascading understanding, connecting various concepts.

The speaker describes the emotional and intellectual impact of this revelation, including feelings of understanding, joy, and anger.

The revelation eliminates gaps previously filled by supernatural beliefs.

The speaker expresses anger at not having been told this understanding sooner.

The speaker questions the role of education in conveying this knowledge.

The speaker reflects on the initial belief that bad schools were to blame and then shifts to a different understanding.

The speaker suggests the problem lies not in the lack of communication, but in the inability to hear the message.

The speaker introduces the idea that the reality of the Big Bang, evolution, and our place in the universe is too incredible to accept instinctively.

The speaker highlights the astonishing fact that we are the universe, connecting our atoms to stars and quantum events.

The speaker proposes that the unbelievable nature of reality makes religion easier for many to believe.

The speaker suggests a way to overcome confusion and doubt by understanding the interconnectedness of cosmology, atomic theory, and evolution.

The speaker uses the analogy of understanding a car to illustrate the need for a holistic understanding of the universe.

The speaker emphasizes that a complete understanding requires knowledge of the major components and their interrelationships.

The speaker describes the transformative experience of gaining a holistic understanding of the universe.

The speaker uses the metaphor of a jam-filled doughnut to represent the abundance of knowledge and understanding available.

The speaker reflects on the certainty of knowledge gained through this experience.