Atheism

RichardDawkins.NET

Post-string physics

http://www.leesmolin.com

Mind

What's a mind made of?
If mind or consciousness is fundamentally differernt to matter, nonmaterial or nonphysical, how could our thoughts have any effect on our actions, or vice versa? But if mind is a form of matter, what exactly does it consist of?

Matter

A definition of matter
Given what's been said below, what would be an appropriate way to define matter?

Physics

What is physics?

One definition of physics is the science of matter, dealing in concepts like mass, energy, force and charge. Here, terms like force have a precise definition, and the relationship between force, mass and energy are also defined. But the term matter is not used unambiguously.

Universe II

Etymology
If you look up universe in the Online Etymology Dictionary you find

1589, "the whole world, cosmos," from O.Fr. univers (12c.), from L. universum "the universe," noun use of neut. of adj. universus "all together," lit. "turned into one," from unus "one" (see one) + versus, pp. of vertere "to turn" (see versus). Properly a loan-translation of Gk. to holon "the universe," noun use of neut. of adj. holos "whole" (see safe (adj.)).

Science

What is science?
Science aims to investigate, describe and understand the world. The scientific method is based on observation and experiment, and the results of this are used to generate models, hypotheses and theories. By using these models, etc to make predictions, they can be tested through further observation. This relationship between experimental and theoretical science is obvoiusly a dynamic, two-way process.

A theory that survives many tests may gain the status of a law. But no matter how well-established it becomes, no theory, no law is ever proven for all time. If observation contradicts a theory, the latter must be either modified or discarded and replaced.

Cosmology is the science of the universe and its evolution, whereas cosmogeny (cosmogony) is concerned with the origin of the universe. But what have these sciences actually established? The best theory or model that we have is the big bang theory. In its most developed form, this model combines data from fields as diverse as astronomy and particle physics, general relativity theory and other branches of physics, and enables us to extrapolate back to a about 10⁻³⁵ second after the universe seems to begin. But science currently tells us nothing definite about what happened before that time, much less about the origin of the universe or what was prior to that origin.