Introducing the divinity of the Universe
to pave the way for scientifically credible theology
Chapter 21: Fixed points, laws and symmetries
Synopsis
A Goddess told Parmenides, one of the first recorded Ancient Greek thinkers, that we could only have certain knowledge of eternal things. This idea became central to theology with the belief that God is absolutely immutable and eternal. Since that time, we have learnt that the Universe also has many physical features that appear to be immutable and eternal like the speed of light, the quantum of action, and the electric charge and magnetism of the electron and the durability of stable atoms. Many larger and more complex things are also almost eternal. The Earth is about five billion years old, and some estimate that the Sun will continue to be a tranquil source of energy for another five billion years. There is no particular reason for humanity not to outlive the Sun if we learn to recycle 100% and to maintain the life support systems of our on which our existence depends.
Contents
21.1: A turning point: from Catholic to catholic21.2: Motion and stillness: Heraclitus vs Parmenides
21.3: The omniscience of God vs the ignorance of the initial singularity
21.4: Science and all reliable knowledge reveals divinity
21.5: The cosmological constant problem
21.1: A turning point: from Catholic to catholic
Beginning when I was about 4, the nuns at Mater Christi College in Mount Gambier started teaching me that I am a sinner. The lessons continued through 12 years of Catholic education framed in a complex picture of sin, human sacrifice, redemption and apocalyptic rebirth. Catholic theology - Wikipedia
This indoctrination terrified me. I was a sensual child, made of delicious flesh. We clearly understand that child sexual abuse is an egregious evil. The indoctrination of children with manifestly false beliefs, on the other hand, is often ignored. It is simply business as usual for some churches and schools. It took me 20 years to grow out of their depressing message. I am now approaching 80 and keen to overturn deeply ingrained Catholic misunderstandings of our divine world.
When I was 18 I entered the Dominican Order. There I saw how Thomas Aquinas rebuilt Christianity using Aristotle, the only scientist available in his time. In my third year, moved by euphoria of the Second Vatican Council, I suggested that the work of Aquinas could be repeated, using modern science. All that was necessary was to replace the fictitious invisible god with the real visible god, the Universe. This is heresy. The Order expelled me. Dominicans: Order of Preachers
The need for scientific theology is more urgent than ever. Trashy fundamentalism is uniting with inhuman theocracy to rule the world. Politics is now about ideology, not knowledge. Even the Children of Israel are repeating the genocide implicit in Yahweh’s gift to them of an already inhabited promised land. (Joshua 10:12). Theocracy - Wikipedia
Jesus of Nazareth attacked a corrupt priesthood and was tortured to death, but he had it right. Love God (the environment). Love your neighbour (everybody). Unfortunately his movement was captured by Constantine and became a minor feature of the theological-military complex we call Catholic Church. Since then the Church Militant and similar military theocracies have been crusading on the path to political supremacy through religious war. Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia
If the world is one and divine, science and theology study same subject and must work together. The require some modification in both disciplines. The first 20 chapters of this book propose a revision of core Christian beliefs on the nature of God parallel to modern science and cosmology. There I show as well as I can that it makes sense to understand Universe as divine. Now I understand that in the universal force of gravitation we are feeling divinity and I plough ahead.
21.2: Motion and stillness: Parmenides vs Heraclitus
The relationship between stability and motion is an old and deep problem. The issue was recorded 2500 years ago as a debate between Parmenides and Heraclitus.
A Goddess told Parmenides that we can only have certain knowledge of eternal things. Perhaps she did not play ball games, because we now know that we can catch and hit moving balls by following them and meeting them in mid-air. The Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem tells us that we can "catch" and record moving sounds perfectly if we sample them at twice their highest frequency. This is the foundation of digital recording and digital motion processing in general. Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem - Wikipedia
Heraclitus supported the opposite view: everything moves. Plato preferred Parmenides' view. He proposed a heaven of eternal and invisible forms which define (rather imperfectly) the nature of the world and infuse our minds with knowledge. Aristotle the scientist felt that both Parmenides and Heraclitus were wrong. He developed hylomorphism to reconcile the eternity of Plato's forms with the reality of change. Hylomorphism - Wikipedia
Aristotle's world is both stable and flexible enough to accommodate motion, life, growth and intelligence. He understood that Plato's forms are kinematic, like puppets. They have no agency of their own. Hylomorphism needs a dynamic entity to move the forms. He gave this role to a celestial unmoved mover. In the mind of Aquinas Aristotle's unmoved mover became the model of the eternal and omnipotent Catholic God, pure action—actus purus. Unmoved mover - Wikipedia
Although much publicity has been given to uncertainty in quantum mechanics, a most important feature of the theory is the absolute certainty and precision of the quantum of action. The quantum, a certain atomic frequency and the speed of light are fundamental fixed points in the Universe. With their help the definition of the kilogram is no longer a block of platinum, but three natural constants. Kilogram - Wikipedia
21.3: The omniscience of God vs the ignorance of the initial singularity
The traditional theory of omnipotence is that divinity can do anything that does not involve a contradiction. This is the only constraint on the evolution of the world. The omnipotent initial singularity is pure action, bound only by consistency. Initial singularity - Wikipedia
Once Christianized the old God Yahweh became explicitly omniscient, knowing, creating and controlling every event at every moment. They were also found to be structureless, absolutely simple. We see in Chapter 19: Quantization: the mathematical theory of communication that in modern terms simplicity and knowledge are inconsistent qualities. Yahweh - Wikipedia
The gravitational initial singularity proposed by Hawking and Ellis is formally identical to the traditional Christian God. It knows nothing because it has no material structure like the ink on this paper to encode information. Here I understand the nature of this singularity and the emergence of the Universe within it by analogy with the procession of the Trinity described in Chapter 2: The theology of the Trinity. Hawking & Ellis (1975):The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time
The distinction between matter and spirit seem to have been central to theology since time immemorial. We mirror this with a fundamental distinction between kinematic (formal) and dynamic (physical) reality. This may help serve to clear up much of the confusion that the philosopher Kuhlmann notes in quantum field theory. He writes:
In conclusion one has to recall that one reason why the ontological interpretation of QFT is so difficult is the fact that it is exceptionally unclear which parts of the formalism should be taken to represent anything physical in the first place. Meinard Kuhlmann (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy): Quantum Field Theory
We take the kinematic features of the world to be Hilbert space, quantum mechanics and the other mathematical forms that are embedded in the world. Like all mathematics, these structures do not move themselves, but rely on the dynamic properties of the initial singularity and all the particles that are derived from the singularity to operate them, just as we operate mathematical formalism in our own minds.
21.4: Science and all reliable knowledge reveals divinity
If the the Universe is divine, science and theology have same subject. They are both attempts to comprehend the world but they have different criteria of truth. Science is essentially evidence based and has been forced to change frequently since we learnt to look more deeply into the world using telescopes and microscopes and measuring it with rulers and clocks. Science - Wikipedia
Science is tightly coupled to technology. As we learn how the world works we are better able to adapt it to our own use. For those able to share modern technology the difference between practical daily life now and a thousand years ago is immense. Technology - Wikipedia
The subject of theology, on the other hand, is essentially invisible. The God of Exodus is typical. They appear as a voice enveloped in smoke and fire, they make the law and demand obedience:God spoke all these words:
I am the LORD your God, . . . You shall not have other gods beside me.You shall not make for yourself an idol or a likeness of anything in the heavens above or on the earth below or in the waters beneath the earth; you shall not bow down before them or serve them. For I, the LORD, your God, am a jealous God (Exodus 20:1–5). Theology - WikipediaScientists agree because their opinions are drawn from the close observation of the world, and the world in one. Theologians agree because, in institutions like the Catholic Church, their jobs depend on it, as I discovered. In some ancient and modern theocracies, the incentive to agree is much greater: conformity is maintained with imprisonment, torture or execution. This is how Jesus of Nazareth died. His resurrection was, of course, a work of mythopoesy. Roland Greene (2012): The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics
Now modern science, scrupulously following its empirical method, has demonstrated through cosmology and evolution that the Universe is fully huge, magnificent and intelligent enough to play all the roles of God. Like the traditional God, it reaches the bounds of possibility. It evolves and the only boundary on its evolution is dynamic impossibility. Universe - Wikipedia
21.5 The cosmological constant problem
Like theologians, scientists can be stubborn. The leading theory of fundamental physics, quantum field theory (QFT), is beset by a radical difficulty, the cosmological constant problem. QFT is founded on the vacuum whose role is analogous to the Hilbert space introduced in Chapter 11. Like the Hilbert space, the vacuum is source of the variety from which the Universe is created. It is also considered to be the source of the energy that drives the world whereas in this book we derive our energy from the omnipotent singularity.
The essence of the problem is the huge numerical difference between the measured and computed energies of the vacuum. This problem seems to point to a radical error in the theory. The problem is succinctly described by Hobson, Efstathiou & Lasenby:
How can we calculate the energy density of the vacuum? . . . The simplest calculation involves summing the quantum mechanical zero point energies of all the fields known in Nature. This gives an answer about 120 orders of magnitude higher than the upper limits on [the cosmological constant] set by cosmological observations. This is probably the worst theoretical prediction in the history of physics!
The problem has two ingredients: the nature of zero point energy; and all the fields known in Nature. M. P. Hobson, G. P. Efstathiou & A. N. Lasenby (2006): General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists
As we see from the article by Kuhlman quoted above, quantum field theory is a vast and difficult labyrinth of theory intended to explain the simplest entities in our world. It is often difficult to distinguish the observable physics from the formal mathematics.
The philosopher Sunny Auyang writes:
According to the current standard model of elementary particle physics based on quantum field theory, the fundamental ontology of the world is a set of interacting fields. Two types of fields are distinguished: matter fields [fermions] and interaction fields [bosons]. . . . In fully interactive field theories, the interaction fields are permanently coupled to the matter fields, whose charges are their sources. Fundamental interactions occur only between matter and interaction fields and they occur at a point. Sunny Auyang (1995): How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?
Frank Wilczek proposes a new version of the classical aether (which he calls condensate) which many thought had been slain by special relativity. His story seems plausible, until we come to page 109 where he lists a few numbers suggesting that the condensate is denser that we actually measure by factors ranging from 1044 to infinity. Another cosmological constant problem! This does not seem to worry him: strange for a scientist proud of the numerical precision yielded by theoretical calculation. Frank Wilczek (2008): The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces
We might distinguish a formal logical kinetic quantum (a static unit of measurement) from a dynamic quantum (a unit of action). The logical quantum has nothing to do with the zero point energy and acts in Hilbert space. The dynamic quantum in that we observe in Minkowski space has units of angular momentum. Logical Hilbert space is independent of the real Minkowski space of concrete events (see Chapter 12: Is Hilbert space independent of Minkowski space?).
The existence of non-existence of zero point energy is a matter of measurement rather than theory. Measurements show that the zero point energy is quite small.
As we shall discuss in more detail (Chapter 26: An alternative to quantum field theory?) fields seem unnecessary. We consider all particles in the Universe, including ourselves, as material bodies associated with formal Hilbert spaces (analogous to mind) which govern their behaviour when they meet. Control is inside the particles not outside in the space in which they move. This is consistent with our own lives, moved by internal forces to interact with an environment comprising all sots of other rparticles like ourselves.
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Notes and references
Further reading
Books
Auyang (1995), Sunny Y., How is Quantum Field Theory Possible?, Oxford University Press 1995 Jacket: 'Quantum field theory (QFT) combines quantum mechanics with Einstein's special theory of relativity and underlies elementary particle physics. This book presents a philosophical analysis of QFT. It is the first treatise in which the philosophies of space-time, quantum phenomena and particle interactions are encompassed in a unified framework.'
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Greene (2012), Roland, and Cushman, Cavanagh, Ramanzi & Rouzer (editors), The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics, Princeton UP 2012 ' Poetics, the theoretical and practical study of poetry is among the oldest disciplines in the West, one of those founded by Aristotle along with ethics, logic and political science. The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics is the comprehensive guide to this rich field. . . . The Encyclopedia includes five kinds of entries: terms and concepts; genres and forms; periods, schools and movements; the poetries of nations, regions and languages; and poetry in relation to other cultural forms, disciplines and social practices such as linguistics, religion and science.'
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Hawking (1975), Steven W, and G F R Ellis, The Large Scale Structure of Space-Time, Cambridge UP 1975 Preface: Einstein's General Theory of Relativity . . . leads to two remarkable predictions about the universe: first that the final fate of massive stars is to collapse behind an event horizon to form a 'black hole' which will contain a singularity; and secondly that there is a singularity in our past which constitutes, in some sense, a beginning to our universe. Our discussion is principally aimed at developing these two results.'
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Hobson (2006), M. P., and G. P. Efstathiou, A. N. Lasenby, General Relativity: An Introduction for Physicists, Cambridge University Press 2006 'After reviewing the basic concept of general relativity, this introduction discusses its mathematical background, including the necessary tools of tensor calculus and differential geometry. These tools are used to develop the topic of special relativity and to discuss electromagnetism in Minkowski spacetime. Gravitation as spacetime curvature is introduced and the field equations of general relativity derived. After applying the theory to a wide range of physical situations, the book concludes with a brief discussion of classical field theory and the derivation of general relativity from a variational principle.'
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Wilczek (2008), Frank, The Lightness of Being: Mass, Ether, and the Unification of Forces, Basic Books 2008 ' In this excursion to the outer limits of particle physics, Wilczek explores what quarks and gluons, which compose protons and neutrons, reveal about the manifestation of mass and gravity. A corecipient of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physics, Wilczek knows what he’s writing about; the question is, will general science readers? Happily, they know what the strong interaction is (the forces that bind the nucleus), and in Wilczek, they have a jovial guide who adheres to trade publishing’s belief that a successful physics title will not include too many equations. Despite this injunction (against which he lightly protests), Wilczek delivers an approachable verbal picture of what quarks and gluons are doing inside a proton that gives rise to mass and, hence, gravity. Casting the light-speed lives of quarks against “the Grid,” Wilczek’s term for the vacuum that theoretically seethes with quantum activity, Wilczek exudes a contagious excitement for discovery. A near-obligatory acquisition for circulating physics collections.' --Gilbert Taylor
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Links
Catholic theology - Wikipedia, Catholic theology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Catholic Church understands the living tradition of the church to contain its doctrine on faith and morals and to be protected from error, at times through infallibly defined teaching. The church believes in revelation guided by the Holy Spirit through sacred scripture, developed in sacred tradition and entirely rooted in the original deposit of faith. This developed deposit of faith is protected by the "magisterium" or College of Bishops at ecumenical councils overseen by the pope, beginning with the Council of Jerusalem (c. AD 50).' back |
Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, Constantine the Great and Christianity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' During the reign of the Roman Emperor Constantine the Great (AD 306–337), Christianity began to transition to the dominant religion of the Roman Empire. Historians remain uncertain about Constantine's reasons for favoring Christianity, and theologians and historians have often argued about which form of early Christianity he subscribed to. . . . Constantine's decision to cease the persecution of Christians in the Roman Empire was a turning point for early Christianity, sometimes referred to as the Triumph of the Church, the Peace of the Church or the Constantinian shift. In 313, Constantine and Licinius issued the Edict of Milan decriminalizing Christian worship. The emperor became a great patron of the Church and set a precedent for the position of the Christian emperor within the Church and raised the notions of orthodoxy, Christendom, ecumenical councils, and the state church of the Roman Empire declared by edict in 380. He is revered as a saint and is apostolos in the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church, and various Eastern Catholic Churches for his example as a "Christian monarch”.' back |
Dominicans, Order of Preachers, '... the official international Web site of the Order of Preachers (the Dominicans). The branches of the Dominican family are multiple: brothers, contemplative nuns, congregations of contemplative and apostolic sisters, lay persons in fraternities or secular institutes, secular priests in fraternities.' back |
Hylomorphism - Wikipedia, Hylomorphism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Hylomorphism (Greek ὑλο- hylo-, "wood, matter" + -morphism < Greek μορφή, morphē, "form") is a philosophical theory developed by Aristotle, which analyzes substance into matter and form. Substances are conceived of as compounds of form and matter.' back |
Initial singularity - Wikipedia, Initial singularity - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The initial singularity is a singularity predicted by some models of the Big Bang theory to have existed before the Big Bang. The instant immediately following the initial singularity is part of the Planck epoch, the earliest period of time in the history of our universe. The use of only general relativity to predict what happened in the beginnings of the Universe has been heavily criticized, as quantum mechanics becomes a significant factor in the high-energy environment of the earliest Universe, and general relativity on its own fails to make accurate predictions. Although there is no direct evidence for a singularity of infinite density, the cosmic microwave background is evidence that the universe expanded from a very hot, dense state. ' back |
Kilogram - Wikipedia, Kilogram - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The kilogram is defined in terms of three defining constants: |
Meinard Kuhlmann (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy), Quantum Field Theory, ' Quantum Field Theory (QFT) is the mathematical and conceptual framework for contemporary elementary particle physics. In a rather informal sense QFT is the extension of quantum mechanics (QM), dealing with particles, over to fields, i.e. systems with an infinite number of degrees of freedom. (See the entry on quantum mechanics.) In the last few years QFT has become a more widely discussed topic in philosophy of science, with questions ranging from methodology and semantics to ontology. QFT taken seriously in its metaphysical implications seems to give a picture of the world which is at variance with central classical conceptions of particles and fields, and even with some features of QM.' back |
Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem - Wikipedia, Nyquist-Shannon sampling theorem - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' In the field of digital signal processing, the sampling theorem is a fundamental bridge between continuous-time signals (often called "analog signals") and discrete-time signals (often called "digital signals"). It establishes a sufficient condition for a sample rate that permits a discrete sequence of samples to capture all the information from a continuous-time signal of finite bandwidth.' back |
Science - Wikipedia, Science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe. In an older and closely related meaning, "science" also refers to a body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained and reliably applied. A practitioner of science is known as a scientist..' back |
Technology - Wikipedia, Technology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Technology is the application of conceptual knowledge for achieving practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word technology can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible tools such as utensils or machines, and intangible ones such as software. Technology plays a critical role in science, engineering, and everyday life. Technological advancements have led to significant changes in society. The earliest known technology is the stone tool, used during prehistoric times, followed by the control of fire, which contributed to the growth of the human brain and the development of language during the Ice Age.' back |
Theocracy - Wikipedia, Theocracy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Theocracy is a form of government in which one or more deities are recognized as supreme ruling authorities, giving divine guidance to human intermediaries who manage the government's daily affairs.. . . The term was initially coined by Flavius Josephus in the first century AD to describe the characteristic government of the Jews. . . . according to Josephus, the government of the Jews was unique. Josephus offered the term theocracy to describe this polity in which a god was sovereign and the god's word was law. . . Iran has been described as a "theocratic republic" by the CIA World Factbook, and its constitution has been described as a "hybrid" of "theocratic and democratic elements" by Francis Fukuyama. Like other Islamic states, it maintains religious laws and has religious courts to interpret all aspects of law. According to Iran's constitution, "all civil, penal, financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations must be based on Islamic criteria". ' back |
Theology - Wikipedia, Theology - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, Theology is the systematic and rational study of concepts of God and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university, seminary or school of divinity. . . . 'During the High Middle Ages, theology was therefore the ultimate subject at universities, being named "The Queen of the Sciences" and serving as the capstone to the Trivium and Quadrivium that young men were expected to study. This meant that the other subjects (including Philosophy) existed primarily to help with theological thought.' back |
Universe - Wikipedia, Universe - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The Universe is all of spacetime and everything that exists therein, including all planets, stars, galaxies, the contents of intergalactic space, the smallest subatomic particles, and all matter and energy. Similar terms include the cosmos, the world, reality, and nature. The observable universe is about 46 billion light years in radius. back |
Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, Unmoved mover - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The unmoved mover (Ancient Greek: ὃ οὐ κινούμενον κινεῖ, lit. 'that which moves without being moved' or prime mover (Latin: primum movens) is a concept advanced by Aristotle as a primary cause (or first uncaused cause) or "mover" of all the motion in the universe. As is implicit in the name, the unmoved mover moves other things, but is not itself moved by any prior action. In Book 12 (Greek: Λ) of his Metaphysics, Aristotle describes the unmoved mover as being perfectly beautiful, indivisible, and contemplating only the perfect contemplation: self-contemplation. He equates this concept also with the active intellect. This Aristotelian concept had its roots in cosmological speculations of the earliest Greek pre-Socratic philosophers and became highly influential and widely drawn upon in medieval philosophy and theology. St. Thomas Aquinas, for example, elaborated on the unmoved mover in the Quinque viae. ' back |
Yahweh - Wikipedia, Yahweh - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Yahweh was the national god of ancient Israel and Judah. The origins of his worship reach at least to the early Iron Age, and likely to the Late Bronze Age if not somewhat earlier. In the oldest biblical literature he possesses attributes typically ascribed to weather and war deities, fructifying the land and leading the heavenly army against Israel's enemies. Most scholars are of the view that at that time the Israelites were polytheistic and worshipped him alongside a variety of Canaanite gods and goddesses, including El, Asherah and Baal.' back |