In the pragmatic Christian atmosphere in which I was raised, striving for an ideal was seen as a positive thing. I have retained that view and as such I don't find the adjective "mere" sits well with "ideal".
I suppose striving to be honest is not such a negative goal in life but striving to be honest at times. Will just make you more and more aware of your own lack of integrity at every point in your life.
We are not saved because we at times have done something wrong to someone else, on the contrary we are saved because that person we see in the mirror. Is a self deceived, self centered, greedy, gluttonous, self righteous person. Christ is saving us from ourselves, Christ did not come to save the righteous but deeply deceived sinners.
The explanations I referred to were attempts to answer the "How", not the "Why". Here you recognise clearly that science has a distinct domain, yet earlier you seemed to be complaining that this was a weakness, when you said "Science makes no attempt to explain why the Big Bang occurred". So, I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here.
Scientific pursuit will in the end ultimately accelerate the destruction of life on this planet.
Science gives us the ability to alter our environment on a global scale. To rapidly deforest the planet, to build huge unsustainable cities that demand resources on an ever increasing scale.
The worlds population is around seven billion yet the planet may struggle to sustain half that number over the longer term. Science has given us an exploding world population.
Science is rapidly becoming the very enemy of mankind because life itself, is now threatened by these past scientific discoveries and on so many levels.
Our last and only chance is a world wide inquisition commanded by yours truly.
We know that the singularity is a reflection of an inadequate understanding of the earliest moments of the universe. That lack of understanding is why we continue to investigate.
Science is in the deep end and is struggling for air. Sub atomic physics has moved beyond the domain of human understanding and requires they say. An entirely new type of science and especially another form of mathematics. Some educated scientists have already stated that these discoveries may be beyond comprehension. Think string theory and multiple universes!
Do you believe that humanity is, in fact, bounded in their quest for knowledge by God Himself?
Limitations to all human endeavor were established into the creation itself and long ago.
That is why after centuries we seem really no closer to any grand unifying theory, rather the investigation is becoming deeply mysterious.
At present there is no superior scientific explanation available for the existing evidence and observations. Personally, I find Big Bang Theory philosophically unattractive.
I find it scientifically unattractive simply because it is more of a scientific miracle than the metaphysical alternative. The Big Bang openly defies scientific logic in so many ways.
I don't "believe" in it, but I have to - logically - accept it as the best current explanation.
I rejected the Big Bang a long time ago. I repeat, you cannot generate two trillion galaxies from an entity smaller than a ping pong ball. That is physically impossible and contradicts everything science is actually based on.
I will not accept that explanation and I do not care whether we have cannot investigate our origin without it.
Since the explanation is also consistent with Christianity I'm not sure what you have against it. (As a general rule, if an idea doesn't upset a Jesuit, it doesn't upset me.)
The existence of the universe and it's mind altering scale is meant to amaze and humble us. We are not meant to try and unravel the mysteries of it's existence or even it's behavior.
Discovering and understanding the facts about a neutron star? Let me just say that I live in a mental asylum and the people that run this mental asylum, have thrown away the keys.
People are selfish, lazy and gluttons to boot. So what did science do? Science gave us labor saving devices and cars. Now everyone is fat, lazy and they eat only fast food.
Remove science and we remove the clear threat to human survival. If we continue with science the game is over.
I already addressed this and provided you with a link to a site that provided an explanation. If you wish a citation to the original research I can try to dig that out for you. Your unattributed quote is outdated.
Fair enough, now explain way dark matter and dark energy.
I thought that we were agreed that science has a specific domain and does not mess with philosophical issues.
Well you may need to tell the scientific world that information because the scientific world, refuses to stay within that domain.
Science gave dangerous narcissistic people nuclear weapons to play with and use those weapons they already have. So if that does not represent a very deep philosophical problem for you, since I'm talking about your very existence. I don't know how you define philosophy and science.