Hi all,

Yesterday I signed in for this forum, and now I already I am not sure where I found the link to CFI. I think it was CSI…

I studied Philosophy with subsidiary subject Physics in the Netherlands. Since I need some money to live, I learned a little bit databases too, now working as system administrator and programmer in Switzerland. I am married, have two boys (and two old dogs…).

My main interests still are Philosophy and Physics, but also Astronomy and Religion. My main daily discussion topics are trying to be understood by people who think they need to believe in some form of higher powers, and stubborn scientists, who think that what is true is always valuable, (they seem to adhere to theadagium ‘everything that is possible should be done’. ), without taking responsibility , and those who think what they know can immediately know everything about everybody and the whole universe, because some scientific hypothesis might be correct.

If I need a label, I call myself a ‘religious materialist’: my world view is physicalist, but I am convinced that we as humans need more than truth only. So I also practice Buddhist meditation (with an intensity of about one retreat a year).

I hope I can have a few interesting discussions here.

For those who took the initiative for this forum: thanks! I’ve read already a lot of interesting topics!

Gert

Glad to have you here, Gert. It’s been a long while since I visited Switzerland, but it’s a beautiful country. Enjoy the discussions!

Welcome Gert.  Jump right in and join the conversations.    I’ve never been to Switzerland, myself, but it would be nice hearing a little about it too, if you don’t mind sharing.

Your ideas sound interesting, Gert.  I hope you share some of them on the forums.

Occam

I updated my avatar. I wonder why I did not got this idea much earlier.

The man depicted is Eise Eisinga. He built what now is called the oldest still working orrery in the world. The trigger for him to build the Planetarium (as we call it in Dutch) is said to be a prediction of the end of the world due to a conjunction of Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter. (Some doubt is mentioned in the Wikipedia article. Maybe he had already heard about this prediction before it was published?) So he was a debunker.

And then add to it that his father is an ancestor of me, it would have been the right choice from the beginning.

For some more information, see here, here, and here.

GdB - 03 July 2012 10:45 PM

For some more information, see here, here, and here.

The highly gifted Eisinga was not allowed to attend the Latin School because he was expected to become a woolcomber like his father before him. All on his own, he immersed himself in the study of the principles of maths and astronomy. The fact that the Franeker Academy was close by suited him well.

Oh wow, a go-getter as we say over here.

Beautiful instrument

Very cool, GdB! In its previous incarnation, there was a big orrery in the basement of the Hayden Planetarium in NYC which I used to love to look at. With the rebuild in 2000, they got rid of it. Of course, the new Hayden is pretty amazing on its own (and with a pretty amazing director ) but unfortunately no orrery!

BTW, from one of the mentioned Websites:

The sky over the Netherlands on Sunday, 8 May 1774.