Olber's Paradox

Olber's Paradox:
The oldest cosmological paradox concerns the fact that the night sky should appear as bright as the
surface of the Sun in a very large (or infinite), ageless Universe.

Note that the paradox cannot be resolved by assuming that parts of the Universe are filled with absorbing
dust or dark matter, because eventually that material would heat up and emit its own light.
The resolution of Olber's paradox is found in the combined observation that 1) the speed of light is finite
(although a very high velocity) and 2) the Universe has a finite age, i.e. we only see the light from parts of
the Universe less than 15 billion light years away.
Rationalism:
The main purpose of science is to trace, within the chaos and flux of phenomena, a consistent structure
with order and meaning. This is called the philosophy of rationalism. The purpose of scientific
understanding is to coordinate our experiences and bring them into a logical system.

Thoughout history, intellectual efforts are directed towards the discovery of pattern, system and structure,
with a special emphasis on order. Why? control of the unpredictable, fear of the unknown, and a person
who seeks to understand and discover is called a scientist.
Thoughout history, intellectual efforts are directed towards the discovery of pattern, system and structure,
with a special emphasis on order. Why? control of the unpredictable, fear of the unknown, and a person
who seeks to understand and discover is called a scientist.