So, getting older and traveling through space or even the very concept of existence are merely illusion? How does one differentiate between reality and an illusion that can't be dispelled?

wth are you talking about?

let me try this one more time... time, distance, a gallon, an inch, a mile, a light year are just forms of measurement that have no basis other than what we decide they are... there are no atoms to dilate, no energy they give off or take in, no way to study something that is not there

aging is how we define it, by the sun taking 1 year to go around the sun, same as with time...

I wouldn't really call reference point a measurement though. Neither is a bit or until. Measurements are set intervals unless you talk about the cubit. That one differed from one person to the next because some people have longer arms than others. hahaha

Using words like bit, until, and when you get to are often used to give directions. Usually because most people don't really know the actual distance to get to the courthouse, the gas station or the insane asylum. Plus what one person considers to be a bit of time and what another person considers it to be aren't going to be the same thing. Especially if you ask a person who's concept or ability to track time is really bad.

It's not the reference points that are the measurement, it's the distance between them. While you can't say that using bit, until, etc. are precise measurements, they are still measurements. They can be useful to a point, but we've developed far more precise systems of measurement. If you just told someone to go one direction, then turn another direction, then turn one more direction without telling them how far to go (a bit, until you reach, etc) they'd be useless instructions.

I guess we just differ on what we consider measurements. Doesn't really matter though.

Counting apples is a measurement. Could an alien understand what you meant, using a completely different language, when you theatrically compare the difference between one apple and two apples?
The answer is an obvious yes.

Doesn't matter how we made up the words we use. The observation is independent of any observer, and observable by any other observer.

Unless it's a really retarded alien. lol

Like say an alien race had set course for earth. But some where along the way they got a really bad sickness and all the aliens died except for a few really really stupid aliens. Then maybe you would have a hard time explaining it to them. lol

but thats all it is, an observation...

What about the expansion of the universe? ... or the spaghettification of matter as it enters a black hole?

In astrophysics, spaghettification (sometimes referred to as the noodle effect[1]) is the vertical stretching and horizontal compression of objects into long thin shapes (rather like spaghetti) in a very strong non-homogeneous gravitational field, and is caused by extreme tidal forces. In the most extreme cases, near black holes, the stretching is so powerful that no object can withstand it, no matter how strong its components. Within a small region the horizontal compression balances the vertical stretching so that small objects being spaghettified experience no net change in volume.

Allegedly:
Gravity moves at the speed of light, or gravitational waves in a vacuum.
Gluons.
Gravitons (hypothetical).
Muffiniums (Hypothetical and hopefully they will name one of the elementary particles; well they do so like to invent new ones weakly (weekly) to plug gaping holes.

If you believe that a photon, not at rest, has 0% mass; then any other elementary particle, that has no mass, would/could travel at the speed of light – in a vacuum

I myself am no believer in an absolute vacuum or a day without muffin.

Inflation -�� if you are a believer in that codswallop, and remember tis just the current in vogue theory for fiddling bumf with gaping black holes in them. Then, erm, empty space, or is it a vacuum…moved faster than the speed of light (depending on your view point and frame of no reference).

Black holes pull in space faster than the speed of light (or faster than light can move away hmmm) – thats why naughty photons and their ilk cannot escape. Which when you think about it is a contradiction..or does it mean that photons have an infinitesimal amount of mass. And of course one must believe that gravity is merely a flow in space/time (gravity therein lies yet another contradiction (or an atom would not be 99.9999etc% empty space).

FTL -�� who knows ;) but given all of above contradicts itself who am I to say ye or nae

Most everywhere is a perfect vacuum at the Plank scale.

The discovery of inflation by Hubble (the guy the telescope is named after) is what began the field of modern cosmology. When he realized the red shift of galaxies meant they were speeding away due to inflation, the universe no longer consisted of just the Milky Way. This FACT lead to the inescapable conclusion that, in reverse, the universe came from a big bang.

The big bang was later verified by the discovery of the cosmic background radiation of the explosion.

All the current in vogue theories deal with what caused the big bang and began the inflation.

Inflation? I bet it was Obama. lol

nothing was verified...

The world of science doesn't see it that way.

might have strengthened the THEORY, but verified nothing... any scientist that says it does is not a real scientist, but a money grubbing person that wants their name in the textbooks...the same as the global warming scientists...

Moe you have to understand.Science doesn't actually have to see the big bang but the evidence they have observed and what was proposed has now been confirmed leads to a conclusion based on facts by the majority of mainstream scientist.
Is it a fact?No it isn't but by what physicist do know based on data,experiments and hypothesis that have been verified...etc.Right now it's the strongest theory.
I myself am not really to convinced either but it is what it is.

i can't see anyone saying it as fact, we haven't even been to another planet yet, but confirming the big bag bang?

remember tommy lee jones in men in black?

"we knew the earth was the center of the universe 1000 years ago, we knew the earth was flat 400 years ago, what will we know tomorrow?"

once we actually go somewhere instead of looking at it threw a glass, maybe i could get on board, but it's a big universe, and there is a lot to learn... it's just guessing when we decide the order of the universe from our little corner and make guesses...


it's like a botanist learning about plants by looking at a picture, never touching, taking samples, or even seeing them up close, all he could do is make guesses...

No. What it is like is someone saying "All scientific evidence indicates an explosion then someone seeing the explosion which, in effect, is the cosmic background radiation. This is called "verification".

only verifies that there is background radiation... what caused it is a guess, nothing more... billions or trillions of years worth of universal history and scientists thing they figured it out in a few hundred years? not buying it yet...

it might verify they could be on the right path, or that it goes along with the data they already have, but hardly verifies "the" big bang happened... wouldn't multiple big bangs do the same thing?

No, just the opposite. It verifies that there was only one. If there were more, there would be overlapping waves of radiation just like overlapping waves in a body of water with waves going in the opposite direction. The distribution of radiation matches a big bang amount of radiation of the type that was created.