Perpetual Change

Geneva II

Because of the huge amount of diplomacy (UN), science (CERN), and capitalism, Geneva is comprised of 40% foreigners. Many of these are French, obviously, but not a majority of them. The family that I stayed with, said that they went to a neighborhood event and found it difficult to speak to someone in French; there were so many English speakers. They said that 50 years ago, when their grandmother bought the land, it was all agricultural; no water or electricity. Now it is all very modern homes. They said that 70 went up in the single year that their son was born. The border is very close and open. There is a guard station in the road, but you don’t have to stop at it. There is no fence at the border. They do sometimes make car checks. You aren’t allowed to bring meat, butter or alcohol over the border.

Notes from the session on God and Science by scientists at CERN:

Geneva is the home of the largest particle accelerator on Earth. It travels between France and Switzerland. The talks by the three scientists were each interesting. One was on CERN itself, one was on the science that CERN is working on, and one was on how those things can compliment religion but do not have to.

From the talk “On the Science of CERN”:
(there were figures, but I’ve left them out, because doing the math now, I see that they are not right; I was making notes in a dark crowded hall)
-Today we live a long time (10 to the 18th seconds, I think) after the big bang.
-Today we can literally SEE back 400,000 years to look at what particles made up the universe then, by looking at stars so far away that it has taken that amount of time for the light to reach us.
-At some point, the amount of particles becomes opaque, but we can simulate what space looked like with the particle accelerators. We can currently do that 10 to the -10 second after the big bang, but soon we will be able to see to 10 to the -12 second with a new accelerator about to come on line. This will greatly help our understanding, because apparently that very short time was very significant.

This session made me realize that no one can know or even understand the whole body of knowledge anymore. Even in one field. It is truly a collective conscience. I am reading James Frazer’s The Golden Bough. He speaks of people that created a religion they could understand out of the whole body of their knowledge. I don’t think that would be possible today. One of the scientists said “responsibility is not achieved by limiting access to knowledge, but by education and transmission.” I couldn’t have said it better myself.

One of the scientists used the term “Fideism” as if we all knew it, but I don’t. I think it was the one who spoke about how God and CERN can be reconciled. Can anyone help me out?

These are notes from a talk on the history of Geneva: It was fascinating.
-Genevans claim that the Reformation was the start of both humanitarianism and capitalism (that does explain the Swiss banks).
-Calvin wasn’t the only reformer. File, Tebes, Nox and one other were also important reformers, and there is a great wall to them (and a museum) in Geneva. There is also the Palais Ena, but I didn’t find out what that was because I never saw it.
- Geneva petitioned to join Switzerland from France. They kicked out their corrupt bishop at the time, who was as much a political leader as a religious one, but they didn’t wish to form a new church.
- The reformers had these founding concepts:
+ Only Faith - we can talk to God through Jesus, so we don’t need priests.
+ Only Scripture - we must be able to read the scripture if that is where the teachings of God are and so we should be able to write; this was the start of schooling for the general population.
+ Only Grace - you can’t buy salvation, brother; so you better do some good works. This is what started humanitarian aid and community service and that is why we have the Red Cross with an inversed Swiss flag. (by the way, I decided that square flags look nicer and fly better than rectangular ones).

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posted by jjs @ 3:42 AM