Expert: Marco - 2/13/2009

Question
Hi Marco, I know you're here to answer Catholics questions, however since I do align myself with the Catholic teachings and need an answer about science... I thought I'd try you.

After my office going on about the "end of the world in 2012" I read a really good article by a Catholic man whom researched the topic and stated scientific facts.


He dismissed the first part of why people thing the world is ending in 2012 because it's a mix of occultic belief and over interpretation of a Mayan calandar more than likely used to farming.

One of the reasons people think that the world is ending that year is to do with our galaxy approching the galactic plane. frankly I'm a little anxious about the whole topic.

- if the galactic plane is x light years away how fast does our galaxy travel that distance to the galactic plane?

- does our galaxy slowly move towards the galactic plane (as per theory that every 35mil years the galaxy passes through it) or does it constantly and randomly move up and down and up and down and every 35 mil years it drops into the galactic plane??

thanks..

Answer
Dear J,

since the distance between the sun and the other stars is so large, an eventual alignment with the galactic plane may have no effects at all on the earth. Besides, such aliggnment is already occurre in 1998.

Your brother in Christ,

Marco

PS I think that faith cannot come only from logic, because to have faith in God means to trust and love God.
I think however that logics and science prove the existence of our soul and the existence of  God and that there are many rational arguments strongly supporting the christian faith.
The explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.