[RightWingAtheist]

If the universe is "unattractive" and "ugly," then why are these scientists so enamored by it, to the point of making it their life-work?

It's their job to find the beauty just underneath. When scientists speak of "beauty" and "elegance" or "ugly" and "unattractive" they're using these terms in a manner different from everyday parlance. A "beautiful" theory is one manages to explain simply and concisely a given phenomena or set of interconnected variables. The new evidence makes the universe seem "ugly" just because much is inconsistent with or difficult to expalin with the "beautiful" theories at our disposable. By explaining the evidence through a new set of theories, scientists hope to "touch up" the universe and make it look pretty again.

And I'd posit that the universe is not "hodge-podge" or "random," but more complex than our mortal minds can fathom.

The universe is complex precisely because it is hodgepodge and random, and our mortal minds seem to have evolved precisely so that we can understand objects of great complexity. I believe Einstein once said something to the effect that the universe is wonderful not because it is beyond our understanding, but by virtue of the fact that we can understand it.

I'd argue that the universe is full of wonder beyond our imagination, a thing worthy of our fascinated investigation.

Amen to that! There's a big difference between being beyond our imagination and being beyond our understanding.

[Theo]

Thanks for the kind and instructive words. That helps me understand better. It seems to me that they could have selected better words than "beauty" or "ugly," but if that's their jargon, I'm not going to change that. :-)

The end of my view that the universe was designed and brought about by a beyond-our-comprehension being leaves me with a sense of gratitude and wonder and respect and awe. It seems to me that the end of your view that the universe came about because of chaos and randomness would leave you maybe *feeling* awed, but *thinking* meaninglesses and futility and nihilism. Very sad....

[-YYZ-]

"It's their job to find the beauty just underneath. When scientists speak of "beauty" and "elegance" or "ugly" and "unattractive" they're using these terms in a manner different from everyday parlance. A "beautiful" theory is one manages to explain simply and concisely a given phenomena or set of interconnected variables."

Just an example here, the laws of classical physics, ie Newton's laws and the classical law of gravity, just a few simple equations, do a very good job of explaining and predicting the very complex set of motions of the various bodies of the solar system. Of course in practice where there are hundreds (if not thousands or more) bodies in motion all affecting each other, and a certain degree of precision is wanted, the application of those laws and equations can become very complicated indeed, but they all stem from those very simple equations.

As time went on, of course, it became apparent that even with perfect knowledge of the bodies involved and their motions that those theories couldn't explain certain observations. Enter Einstein and his theories to explain those deviances. And again those theories were quite simple. Without them you had unexplained deviances that would require various "fudge factors" and modifications to the previous equations to make them work, but had no elegance or beauty.

It's quite possible modern physics has reached this point and the theories put forward so far may do a better job of explaining and predicting what we observe, but are not getting at the fundamental processes underneath that drive things. The way that Kepeler's theories of eliptical orbits, for example, did a better job of explaining the motions of the solar system's bodies than the previous models, but didn't explain why they should be so, as well as leaving unexplained a variety of deviances.

[Stallone]

I believe Einstein once said something to the effect that the universe is wonderful not because it is beyond our understanding, but by virtue of the fact that we can understand it.

Wow, talk about a wrong turn!

Here's what Einstein really said:

"Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavour to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case."

Einstein sounds to me like a man who knows his limitations, unlike the arrogant twits referred to in this article.

Here's another Einstein quote:

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."

Cheers.