In Laurence Krauss' book, A Universe From Nothing, he postulates that the Big Bang is merely a stage in a cycle of bang-expansion-contraction-next bang-next expansion etc. I can't say that I understood it fully, but it's intertwined with theories of Dark Matter, multiple universes, and more. It is,...

Thanks Tulip.

No I'm not a teacher, just a science nerd who reads a lot of pop science books.

There are loads of views on the "before the big bang" question. Here's a few off the top of my head: Hawking regards the question as meaningless as asking "what's north of the north pole?". The universe was the beginning of space-TIME and there therefore was no "before" the big bang. Fecund suggests...

I assumed that evil jesuit guy on facebook was eccles. They're of the same age profile and nationality, live in the same city and exert similar behaviours.

Very curious that an organisation would voluntarily alienate some of its own members in this way. I recently joined my local credit union. Will have to make a point to attend the next general meeting myself.

I got bored with the conversation some time ago. Just tit for tat stuff and one guy who can't comprehend the idea of atheists organising themselves to ensure their rights are not trampled on.

I say fair play to anyone who defected from the church when the option was there. It was a fantastic stunt which drew considerable media attention. The nay sayers can't argue with that.

There's a feeling you get when you "miss" mass? The thought that I wasn't in mass didn't at any point cross my mind at any point in my life. I certainly had a feeling on the very few occassions when I was forced to go to mass. It was of extreme boredom, wishing I was somewhere else and wondering why...

Holland tackled the problem of human trafficking by legalising the brothels. This means they are inspected for health and safety and pay tax etc. etc. This stopped illegal woman being forced into prostitution in Holland all workers need a social security number. However it can be also be the case t...

Australia has had legal brothels for many years now. It started in Victoria in 1984. In Queensland it started approximately 10 years ago. I had assumed that legalisation was the answer, but even when you legalise some forms of prostitution, there will always be an underground market for other illega...