# Should Congress Outlaw the "Big Bang" Theory? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [August 27, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340 "2001-08-27T16:19:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPWhite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d26b3c/32.png) [@DPWhite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPWhite)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2001, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/21 "2001-08-27T23:01:07Z")
While we are at it, how about outlawing math beyond the four basic functions of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing (no long division). No algebra, trig, calculas etc. None of these were ever in the Bible, and if God didn’t need it, and Solomon didn’t know it, then who are we to make this stuff up? Same with all books and ideas dependent on higher math. And fiction. Fiction is blasphemy that takes away from Bible reading time. You’ve heard of fighting fire with fire, well how about fighting ignorance with ingorance! Cecil said it, we believe it, that’s it, you’re an idiot. (Yes, this is satire. Duh.) ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/22 "2001-08-28T02:07:48Z")
Sea Sorbust wrote, in the OP: > [@](#): > > **Why bother?** Because one of the “meaningful, matterful” research areas that is very UNDER-funded–and which has almost NO funding for observational experimentation to validate it; or to even point the way toward “useful” research-directions–is the **(Super) String Theory** from mathematical physics. **Even if** Sea Sorbust really meant “should congress _stop funding research on_ the Big Bang theory,” not “should congress _outlaw_ the Big Bang theory,” as the topic of this thread – and **even if** Superstring theory and the Big Bang theory did not have the interconnections that GIGObuster pointed out – **even if** both of those were true, it is **still** not at all the case that cutting the tiny bit of Federal funding that goes toward one area of scientific research will “automatically” increase funding for other areas of scientific research. The U.S. Federal Budget is **huge.** It isn’t even required to be precisely balanced. At the Federal level, you **do not** have to cut $5 million here in order to gain $5 million there. In fact, until recently, the Federal government had been spending a few **hundred billion** more dollars per year than it had been receiving in taxes. Intentionally. It was called _deficit spending._ We no more need to cut out one paltry research program to fund another, than we need to forego buying one Stealth bomber to adequately fund our public education system. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/23 "2001-08-28T02:17:53Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Beelzebubba \* > How about we outlaw the name Outlaw? Geez, you just made a philosophy professor who I really enjoyed in college illegal! > [@](#): > > What about in-laws? Should they be outlawed or is it an oxymoron? > > If some one robbed a bank, and was on the run, and I married his daughter, would I have an outlaw for an in-law? Along these lines, one of my favorite sayings and parody of the one about guns is “If marriage were illegal, only outlaws would have inlaws!” ---
**Author:** ![Cosmopolitan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/94ad74/32.png) [@Cosmopolitan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cosmopolitan)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/24 "2001-08-28T02:30:14Z")
Re: The OP WHAT??? No…wait…That can’t be what I just think I read, “Outlaw the Big Bang Theory”…Lemme read it over…Surely I must be mistaken. ``` *reads the OP again* ``` WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? ---
**Author:** ![usurper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/bbe5ce/32.png) [@usurper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usurper)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/25 "2001-08-28T02:53:01Z")
This really makes my head hurt. Whether serious or not, some people might think he is. I mean there are people who think that, if they can not use it, or understand it, it is not useful to them or anyone else. People stated for years that we gained nothing from the moon landings, or the space program. In reality, we gained the computers most of us are using to write with. Computer technology is a direct benefit from the space program. It was NASA who made many major advances in computer technology, and information processing. If fact without NASA, you may well have been operating a 4 megahertz, computer right now. It was the challenges of science, coupled with the need to process and store information which gave us our present day conveniences. The complex problems of design, aerodynamics, and navigation, were solved by computer science. Technology advances on all scientific research, even that which at the time may not seem relevant. I am sure many people saw no practical applications for music recording, telephonic transmission, nor the use of radio waves. Most of these people remain confused, ignorant, and foolish, their entire lives. ---
**Author:** ![clairobscur](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/839c29/32.png) [@clairobscur](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clairobscur)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/26 "2001-08-28T03:06:18Z")
The US certainly should ban this theory. Actually, in my country, not only unuseful theories were banned, but also the gravitation law was amended in the vicinity of airports. The reduced gravitation not only substantially reduce the cost (fuel-wise) during take off, but also increased safety during landings. An example which should be followed. ---
**Author:** ![jshore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/b5e925/32.png) [@jshore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jshore)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/27 "2001-08-28T03:23:19Z")
**clairobscur** , that’s an awesome idea! I know some climbs at the climbing wall and some hills when I ride my bicycle that can certainly benefit from gravity reduction. Besides which, think of what we could save on our gravity bill!!! Not only that, but it sounds like a great job creation program for us physicists…Physicists to turn gravity down, physicists to turn it up, government physicists to help make sure the law is not being violated…We may have 1 million lawyers today, but soon we’ll have 1 million physicists! I’m getting giddy just thinking about it! ---
**Author:** ![Enderw24](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ba9def/32.png) [@Enderw24](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enderw24)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/28 "2001-08-28T04:16:00Z")
Not to worry all. I live in Kansas. I’m sure we’ll get around to banning the Big Bang Theory sooner or later. I’ll let you all know how it turns out. ---
**Author:** ![JonScribe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3be4f8/32.png) [@JonScribe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JonScribe)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2001, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/29 "2001-08-28T05:31:10Z")
Matterful? ---
**Author:** ![Sea\_Sorbust](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Sea\_Sorbust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sea_Sorbust)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/30 "2001-08-29T20:29:39Z")
**Qwertyasdfg:** You wrote: > [@](#): > > Also, the BBT didn’t happen “far away from the Earth.” It is the origin of what eventually (about 10 billion years later) became Earth. Have been thinking about this in the context of (Super)String Theory, and have concluded that your view of the Earth and its position relative to the BBT’s view of “the origin”, is more wrong than you can possibly imagine. (Alas, ☹ , the same comment applies to my own nearly-antithetical view of “so far away from Earth that…”). “In science, a little more thinking frequently leads to surprises.” ---
**Author:** ![g8rguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@g8rguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/g8rguy)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/31 "2001-08-29T22:49:03Z")
Whoa. I’ve been trying desperately to talk myself out of displaying my prejudices here, but alas, though I’m violating one of those commandments (the one that reads DNFTT), I can’t help it! I am weak, weak I tell you! > [@](#): > > Why? Because it is a nearly irrelevant theory about the beginnings of the Universe: Who will ever know for sure? Who, other than the theorists, will ever care? Uh, me? I’m not a cosmologist and **I** want to know what the origins of the universe are. I should hope I’m not the only one! > [@](#): > > Yet we spend huge amounts of money, physical resources, and media-coverage space (that could and would otherwise be devoted to MEANINGFUL, “MATTERFUL” scientific research) on this, to be generous, esoteric near-garbage, based on “VooDoo mathematics”. Are you **sure** you don’t have string theory and the standard model backwards? String theory is all about voodoo math\*, the standard model is all about making testable predictions, as is general relativity, and strangely enough, they actually work. > [@](#): > > and which has almost NO funding for observational experimentation to validate it And the reason for that would be that they don’t really HAVE much anything resembling testable predictions, certainly not predictions that we can test at present. > [@](#): > > Some thinkers believe that both the “mind” and the “soul” can (literally) be found in some of the posited dimensions of this elegant theory. Some thinkers also believe that an apple a day keeps the doctor away. Go apples! > [@](#): > > As to the “Big Bang” Theory: Can anything have less practical use than studying something that happened BILLIONS OF YEARS ago, so far away from Earth that it’s very location isn’t even guessed at?? No no, **Qwertyasdfg** is quite correct; the big bang happened everywhere at once, because space was a single solitary point which has since been expanded a whole lot. > [@](#): > > Let’s get on with REAL physics; physics that has REAL practical implications (–other than making its inventors rich from book-publishings!). Amen! More funding to the semi-conductor guys! - Well, of course they’ll have the complete and exact solution in 1 to 6 years, just as soon as they clear up little problems like figuring out what the thing they’re solving for is and what equation they actually have to solve to get it. But other than that, and figuring out the mathematics that will be needed for doing these things, yeah, it’s not **too** much more cheesy than any other branch of high energy physics. Oh, fine, yet it is. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/32 "2001-08-29T22:58:19Z")
**Sea Sorbust** , please explain the Big Bang Theory. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_Juliet](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/cc9497/32.png) [@Lady\_Juliet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_Juliet)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2001, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/33 "2001-08-29T23:47:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sea Sorbust \* > **Should Congress Outlaw the “Big Bang” Theory? > Who will ever know for sure? Who, other than the theorists, will ever care** Like, **g8rguy** , I’d like to say that _I_ care. Tremendously. This curiosity often keeps us from ignorance. Without it, we might still think that if you sailed far enough into the ocean, that eventually you would fall off the face of Earth. Besides, if you outlaw the Big Bang Theory, it’s _only fair_ to outlaw creationism along with it. No one other than theorists (for the former) and creationists (for the latter) will care anyway, right? :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/34 "2001-08-30T00:03:25Z")
usurper wrote: > [@](#): > > People stated for years that we gained nothing from the moon landings, or the space program. In reality, we gained the computers most of us are using to write with. Computer technology is a direct benefit from the space program. _cough_ Bletchley Park _cough_ ENIAC _cough_ first microprocessor in 1975 _cough_ ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/35 "2001-08-30T15:32:48Z")
At first I thought Sea Sorbust’s thread was foolish. The I thought he should read George Orwell’s ‘1984’\*. Then it struck me. Maybe (just maybe) he’s onto something. Pi. It’s irrational! People spend hours of computer time **that could be used for something else** calculating Pi. When I was young, I spent **several minutes** learning the approximation 3.1416. All that wasted time … LET’S MAKE Pi = 3!\*\* \*for the benefit of some posters, this is a book. Furthermore, it was written before 1984. But (important) none of the events described in the book happened in 1984. Sea-Sorbust-clone: “Well that settles it. Since the events **never** happened, we don’t need to spend time studying it!” \*\*We could call it … American Pi! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/36 "2001-08-30T16:19:23Z")
> [@](#): > > equal time should be devoted. . .to the theory of Creation By The Great Green Arkelseizure. Gesundheit. > [@](#): > > Have been thinking about this in the context of (Super)String Theory, and have concluded that your view of the Earth and its position relative to the BBT’s view of “the origin”, is more wrong than you can possibly imagine. What Jab said. Please, o great sage **Sea Sorbust** , explain both String Theory and BBT. Ans please bear in mind that several of us have a solid working understanding of astronomy and astrophysics (and some of us are are professionals . . . where’s BA?). ---
**Author:** ![g8rguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@g8rguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/g8rguy)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/37 "2001-08-30T16:55:25Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\*We could call it … American Pi! 😃 **glee** , come here so I can maim you. (Actually, I’m just jealous that I didn’t think of that first, but still.) ---
**Author:** ![pldennison](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@pldennison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pldennison)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/38 "2001-08-30T17:01:19Z")
Actually, having rethought it, I thing maybe we should ban the Big Band theory. Bebop and Hard Bop were what really stretched the boundaries of what jazz could be, so Big Bands are really irrelevant. ---
**Author:** ![armedmonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@armedmonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/armedmonkey)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/39 "2001-08-30T17:15:54Z")
**pldennison** ,if we outlaw the Big Band, should the Federal Government put those funds into String Theory? Or should it take a broader view and support the Percussion, Brass, and Woodwind Theories as well? ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340/40 "2001-08-30T18:22:12Z")
We should outlaw the Big Bopper Theory. Henceforth no classic-rock radio station may play “Chantilly Lace.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/should-congress-outlaw-the-big-bang-theory/78340.md?page=3)