Posted on 06/23/2008 3:05:46 PM PDT by betty boop
What is Life/Non-life in Nature?
by Jean F. Drew
Everywhere we see the “behavior” of life/non-life (death) in nature; but that doesn’t tell us what life/non-life IS.
Darwin’s theory of evolution doesn’t help with this question. It presupposes the existence of life axiomatically, and then proceeds to speak of the origin and evolution of species. Its fundamental assumption is that biological evolution is a wholly naturalistic, material process governed by the laws of physics and chemistry, with random variation and natural selection as the principal drivers of the system. Central to the Darwinist view is that life forms — species — evolve into completely other, more complex species; and this is so because all living beings are members of a Tree of Life that is rooted in a single common ancestor (the theory is silent on where the common ancestor came from).
But Darwinist theory doesn’t tell us what life is, or where it came from, just how it evolves (or speciates) under purely materialistic and naturalistic constraints. It is not a theory of life, and I think Darwin would agree with that.
This does not prevent theorists from speculating that, given the preferred scientific cosmology of a material universe of infinite size and unlimited duration — no beginning, no end — anything that can happen, will happen in time. Therefore, it is plausible to suppose that life itself may have originated from random chemical reactions that somehow “lucked out” and “stuck,” giving us the origin of life and its ubiquity and persistence henceforth.
The important point is that Darwinism rests on a certain cosmology, or world view. That worldview is increasingly being falsified by modern physics. (See below.)
It seems doubtful that an investigation carried out at the level of physical chemistry can demonstrate the emergence of life from non-living matter. This is called abiogenesis, which describes the situation where non-life (inorganic matter) spontaneously bootstraps itself into a living organism.
Miller and Urey attempted to demonstrate abiogenesis under laboratory conditions, using simulated lightning strikes on a suitable “pre-biotic soup.” They got a bunch of amino acids. But amino acids are the building blocks of living systems, not living systems themselves.
Wimmer got a better result in his attempt to create a polio virus, a living organism. He actually succeeded! But his “recipe” involved far more than the material “cell-free juice” he used as his culture: He introduced information into the mix: Wimmer began with the information sequence of RNA which he synthesized to DNA (because RNA cannot be synthesized) and then synthesized the message from DNA to RNA. When he added the message to a cell free juice, it began transmitting and duplicating. And he got himself a polio virus — a living being….
But the important thing to bear in mind is that, although Wimmer was successful in creating a living being, he was not the author of the information that led to this result. It was already “there” — and no scientist claims to know its source. Indeed, physics so far has been unable to locate any source for this type of life-generating information within the physical world. In other words, scientists recognize the indispensable requirement of information to living systems, they see that it is indeed “there”; but they cannot say how it got there, or from whence it came.
Consider also that the universe itself seems to be “informed,” in the sense of displaying evidence of some remarkable “fine-tuning” that guides its evolution. Physical chemistry itself rests on, is informed by, deeper principles: the physical laws, which in turn depend on certain ubiquitous universal constants — the speed of light; the value of pi; Plank’s constant; Plank time; the resonance precision required for the existence of carbon (a necessary element for life); the explosive power of the Big Bang precisely matched to the power of gravity (its density precisely matched with the critical density of the universe); the delicate balance in the strong nuclear force; the precise balancing of gravitational force and electromagnetic force; the meticulous balance between the number of electrons and protons; the precision in electromagnetic force and the ratio of proton mass to electron mass and neutron mass to proton mass; the Big Bang’s defiance of the Second Law of Thermodynamics and gravity’s cumulative effect; etc., for examples.
If the universe were at bottom “random” in its evolution, these instances of evident fine-tuning would be inexplicable. The fact is we cannot say whether a system is random or not without knowing its symmetrical properties.
The “fans of random” speak and act as if they think the problem of symmetry is irrelevant to their concerns. Yet to the extent that they recognize the universe conforms to physical laws (and usually they do), the symmetry problem cannot be obviated. For laws demonstrate the property of what mathematicians call symmetry. A symmetry of some mathematical object — and the physical laws are inherently mathematical structures — is any transformation that preserves the object’s structure.
A practical application of the principle of symmetry can be found in Einstein’s observation (in his 1905 paper on Special Relativity, the same that gave us his magnificent unification of mass and energy, e = mc2) that the laws of nature are the same for all observers, regardless of their particular space-time positions.
It is evident that there are symmetries in nature, and also that mathematics has been amazingly successful in teasing them out. A favorite story is Reimann’s geometry of curved spaces. He “created” this geometry at a time when no one believed that geometry could be other than flat (Euclidean). So Reimann put his geometry on the shelf where it sat for about 50 years, gathering dust. Then a friend of Einstein pointed him to Reimann’s geometry (and Ricci’s tensor) as possible keys to the elucidation of the problems of special relativity. And they exactly did the trick.
Indeed, mathematicians have been so good at doing this sort of thing — creating mathematical systems with an eye to symmetry, and finally beauty — that Eugene Wigner marveled about “the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics” in its ability to model and describe nature.
At this point, it seems useful to widen our purview and revisit cosmology, for now we are speaking of the universe as a whole, and cosmology is the branch of knowledge that deals with the universe as an integrated and (some would say) even living system (in some fashion).
Cosmology is conventionally defined as: (1) a branch of philosophy dealing with the origin, processes, and structure of the universe; and (2), the astrophysical study of the structure and constituent dynamics of the universe, with a particular eye on the construction and modeling of a comprehensive theory that describes such structure and dynamics. The latter is the scientific approach. Note that (2) does not explicitly address the question of origin.
Indeed, questions of origin, both of the universe and of life, seem to be troubling to many scientists. Historically, their preferred cosmology has been the eternal universe model, wherein the universe, thought to be infinite in size, just always was, having no beginning or end; it just goes along in periods of expansions and contractions in a sort of self-conserving “boom and bust” cycle forever (no second law of thermodynamics to bother it).
Now in an infinite, eternal universe, anything can happen. And so this “classical perspective” of biology anticipates that the origin of life involves “random chemicals reacting for eons and finally lucking out, resulting in a living cell coming together,” as Harold Morowitz explains it.
But then satellite observations of the cosmic microwave background radiation starting in the 1960s provided striking evidence that the universe actually had a beginning. That is, it is not eternal, and it is not infinite. The CMBR — which is universal in extent — is thought to be the “echo” of the original “big bang,” which constituted the creation event of the universe in which we live, and which powers the cosmic space-time expansion. Thus the universe truly can be thought to have “initial conditions.”
The troubling thing about the big bang/inflationary universe theory is the suggestion that the universe was either created out of nothing, or if it was created out of something, then there’s no way we can detect or prove that cause. Using a “time-reversal symmetry transformation” here — running evolutionary time “backwards” like a videotape played in reverse — the laws of physics break down at the Planck Era — 10–43 of the first second following the big bang. “Prior” to that, there is no space, no time, no physical laws of nature, no matter; it’s pure nihil: Nothing.
The nothingness “before” the creation of the universe is the most complete void that we can imagine — no space, time or matter existed. It is a world without place, without duration or eternity, without number — it is what the mathematicians call “the empty set.” Yet this unthinkable void converts itself into the plenum of existence — a necessary consequence of physical laws. Where are these laws written into that void? What “tells” the void that it is pregnant with a possible universe? It would seem that even the void is subject to a law, a logic that exists prior to space and time. — Heinz Pagels
Which of course is precisely what Genesis says: The Creation is “ex nihilo,” initiated by and proceeding according to the Word, the Logos of God, Who Is the Law of the Void as well as of the Creation, the “logic that exists prior to space and time.”
Evidently this is not a scientific statement, though I believe it is a truthful one. Still it is true that some physicists (and biologists) find the idea of a beginning of space and time out of nothing deeply disturbing for whatever reason. Taking into effect the evidence that leads to this conclusion, some have sought a “non-theistic” explanation for the phenomenon of the Big Bang. This cosmology grudgingly acknowledges that the universe did have a beginning, postulating its origin as a random fluctuation in a universal quantum vacuum field. But of course, this line of reasoning is silent about where the universal vacuum field itself came from in which a random fluctuation can occur, or how time and space got started so that events can occur in it.
This view (non-theistic cosmogenesis) is fallacious, however, because sudden quantum appearances don’t really take place out of “nothing.” A larger quantum field is first required before this can happen, but a quantum field can hardly be described as being “nothing.” Rather, it is a thing of unsearchable order and complexity, whose origin we can’t even begin to explain. Thus, trying to account for the appearance of the universe in a sudden quantum fluctuation doesn’t do away with the need for a Creator at all; it simply moves the whole problem backward one step to the unknown origin of the quantum field itself. — M. A. Corey
Whether your cosmology is philosophical or scientific, ultimately it rests on an unknown that is directly unknowable, a mystery. Scientists just as much as anybody else ponder the origin question, despite the fact that their formal methods cannot help them much there.
Cosmologically speaking, scientists get much better traction with the problem of constructing and modeling a comprehensive theory that describes, not the origin, but the structure and dynamics of the universe. But even here, they run into “mysteries.” Such as evidence for the almost eerie fine-tuning of the universe necessary for the inception, evolution, and support of Life. As Freeman Dyson put it, “The more I examine the universe and the details of its architecture, the more evidence I find that the universe in some sense must have known we were coming.”
Take just one example from among many, the just mentioned universal vacuum. Because the vacuum is not “nothing,” it has energy, specifically “vacuum energy” — the energy content of empty space. Ian Stewart notes:
As it happens, the observed value [of vacuum energy] is very, very small, around 10–120, but it is not zero.
According to the conventional “fine-tuning” story, this particular value is exactly right for life to exist. Anything larger than 10–118 makes local space-time explode; anything smaller than 10–120 and space-time contracts in a cosmic crunch and disappears. So the “window of opportunity” for life is very small. By a miracle, our universe sits neatly within it.
But Stewart is a tough-minded mathematical scientist, and so evidently feels constrained to add:
The “weak anthropic principle” points out that if our universe were not constituted the way it is, we wouldn’t be here to notice, but that leaves open the question why there is a “here” for us to occupy. The “strong anthropic principle” says that we’re here because the universe was designed specially for life to exist — which is mystical nonsense. No one actually knows what the possibilities would be if the vacuum energy were markedly different from what it is. We know a few things that would go wrong — but we have no idea what might go right instead. Most of the fine-tuning arguments are bogus.”
What a relief that Professor Stewart thinks that only “most” of the fine-tuning arguments are bogus, and not all of them! One of the things likely to “go wrong” under his scenario would be the end of life as we know it on this planet, and with it intelligence. But other than that, his is a respectable argument, even though it would probably be entirely moot under different values for the vacuum energy, since intelligent beings probably would not then be around to entertain it.
There is an abundance of evidence from the precision of the fundamental values of the universe that contradicts the theory that a universe compossible with life can arise (or indeed actually rose) from an “accident.” Just as “nothing comes from nothing,” the laws of nature cannot have been established via a random process. There is nothing implicit in the meaning of “random” that contains any motive spring for it to generate order, organization, higher complexity. It is simply “random”; i.e., it reflects no law in its behavior. The people who say that the universal evolution is nothing more than the effect of a process of matter in its motions and “pure, blind chance” — as Nobel laureate Jacques Monod claims — rely on the same reasoning that says, if life can be spontaneously generated from non-life, then similarly order can come from disorder.
Which is the same sort of problem, it seems to me, involved in all the multiverse and parallel universe and “panspermia” cosmologies one finds littering the landscape these days. The latter — panspermia theory — seems to be a particular favorite of atheists such as Francis Crick and Sir Fred Hoyle.
Panspermia theory holds that life on Earth was seeded here by space aliens. I gather anything that avoids the conclusion that the universe, and Life, is a divine creation, and thus has a spiritual dimension (which would include such things as intelligence, law, information, etc., all the “non-phenomenal” aspects that “tell” phenomena “what to do”) is what is being sought in such fanciful imaginings. Such theories seem ultimately designed to forbid anything that is immaterial from having causal impact in the universe. But if you say that, then where does physical law fit in, where mathematics, or logic, or intelligence, or information? Not to mention the evident universal constants? None of these are material entities.
But the fact regarding these exotic cosmologies is, not a one of them can be falsified, or subjected to replicable experiments. All these cosmologies are works of pure philosophical imagination dressed up in the language of scientific jargon.
However, that doesn’t mean the adherents of such imaginative speculations are bad scientists. Here’s Sir Fred Hoyle, a “non-Darwinian evolutionist,” contented atheist, and honest thinker:
No matter how large the environment one considers, life cannot have had a random beginning… there are about two thousand enzymes, and the chance of obtaining them all in a random trial is only one part in (1020)2000 = 1040,000, an outrageously small probability that could not be faced even if the whole universe consisted of organic soup.… the enormous information content of even the simplest living systems… cannot in our view be generated by what are often called “natural” processes,… For life to have originated on the Earth it would be necessary that quite explicit instruction should have been provided for its assembly… There is no way in which we can expect to avoid the need for information, no way in which we can simply get by with a bigger and better organic soup, as we ourselves hoped might be possible a year or two ago.
Information is the key to life, just as it is the key to the fundamental structure and evolution of the universe, from the beginning. One conjectures the universe has the structure and dynamics it has because these were “programmed” in at the beginning. And this structure evidently was primed for life.
Again, this is what Genesis tells us: The Universe has an intelligent cause that is outside of space-time. Physics and biology acknowledge the necessity of information for the rise and maintenance of life, but assign no cause for this information within spatiotemporal reality. But if it cannot be found “there,” then where can it be found?
See Genesis. And consider this observation, from Albert Einstein:
“The natural law reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection.”
Scientists recognize so well that the universe has fundamental structure that they are encouraged to propound “grand unified theories,” GUTs, or “Theories of Everything.” The standard model of physics today recognizes four fundamental forces in nature: the nuclear strong, the nuclear weak, electromagnetism, and gravity. So far, all have been conveniently “reconciled together,” or unified — except for gravity, which continues to resist being fitted into any kind of “grand unified” model thus far.
Regarding the four fundamental forces, here are some more interesting thoughts from Ian Stewart:
Other types of forces could in principle give rise to other types of universe, and our ignorance of such possibilities is almost total. It is often claimed that without the particular forces we have, life would be impossible, proving that our universe is amazingly fine-tuned to make life possible. This argument is bogus, a wild exaggeration based on too limited a view of what constitutes life. Life like ours would be impossible — but it is the height of arrogance to assume that our kind of life is the only kind of organized complexity that could exist. The fallacy here is to confuse sufficient conditions for life (those aspects of our universe on which our kind of life depends) with necessary ones.
It is interesting that here Stewart reduces life to the definition, “organized complexity.” The description appears to be general enough to encompass everything (everything material at least), yet at the same time, is useless to provide insight into the living nature of actual, particular living beings.
Be that as it may, it seems Stewart is working to a doctrine, to a particular world view, in giving his analysis. And he seems to recognize this in what follows:
The view that a Theory of Everything must exist brings to mind monotheist religion — in which, over the millennia, disparate collections of gods and goddesses with their own special domains have been replaced by one god whose domain is everything. This process is widely viewed as an advance, but it resembles a standard philosophical error known as “the equation of unknowns” in which the same cause is assigned to all mysterious phenomena…. “Explanations” like this give a false sense of progress — we used to have three mysteries to explain; now we have just one. But the one new mystery conflates three separate ones, which might well have entirely different explanations. By conflating them, we blind ourselves to this possibility.
When you explain the Sun by a sun-god and rain by a rain-god, you can endow each god with its own special features. But if you insist that both Sun and rain are controlled by the same god, then you may end up trying to force two different things into the same straightjacket. So in some ways fundamental physics is more like fundamentalist physics. Equations [brief enough to fit] on a T-shirt replace an immanent deity, and the unfolding of the consequences of those equations replaces divine intervention in daily life.
Despite these reservations, my heart is with the physical fundamentalists. I would like to see a Theory of Everything, and I would be delighted if it were mathematical, beautiful, and true. I think religious people might also approve, because they could interpret it as proof of the exquisite taste and intelligence of their deity.
Exactly so — that would be my takeaway!
To sum up, it appears that a model of the universe that stipulates that all that exists — life and non-life — is simply the product of random transformations of “matter in its motions” has been falsified by modern physics. To the extent that information — which presupposes intelligence — plays a role, we have to acknowledge that other, immaterial factors are at work. Which of course we do, to the extent we realize and acknowledge the universal existence of physical laws, of finely-tuned cosmic values, and of the symmetries in nature. To do so, we have to put a check on randomness as a possible explanation for the nature or structure of things.
But we cannot eliminate randomness altogether. In the final analysis, it seems to me the universe lives in the dynamic tension that obtains between that which is changeless (the symmetry), and that which is changeable (a symmetry-breaking event). Or as Leibniz put it, at the level of fundamental universal principles the universe must consist of something that does not ever change, and something that is capable of changing.
For example, consider the first and second laws of thermodynamics. The first is a conservation law — matter cannot be either created or destroyed — that is, matter is unchangeable; i.e., it is “symmetrical” under all known conditions. The second law “breaks the symmetry” of the first; and if it couldn’t do that, then probably nothing would ever happen in our universe.
The most amazing thing to me is that evidently, as a consequence of such a fundamental tension, we live in a “guided” universe, but not a wholly deterministic one.
And the Guide does not seem to reside in the system — at least, as far as science can tell.
Thus it seems to me if the Guide could construct a universe finely-tuned and primed for life on the most global scale — i.e., that of the whole universe — then it should be child’s play for this Source to prime and guide any living (or non-living) sub-unit of the universe — preeminently biological creatures; and of these, Man above all.
Given that the universe evidently has been left deliberately incompletely determined, or underdetermined (Planck’s constant reminds us of this), then not only the “free development” of nature has been left intact (subject only to the natural symmetries), but so also has human free will been left wholly intact.
Given the splendors of natural reality, and the uncanny facility that man has for exploring and understanding them, really all I can say is: I am on my knees in gratitude, thanks, and praise, and all glory be to God — in Whom we live and move and have our Being.
The future will still be a surprise when I get there and all it is is the present getting data from the past.
Is the future "real" in that example? Hard to say ... by taking positive action we certainly make it real. One supposes it's a reasonable analogy to the "observer" aspect of quantum theory.... And in that sense I suppose the future in our macro world, is similar to what we can observe in the quantum world. I don't think there's serious doubt that the quantum world exists in some objective sense ... and I think "the future" has many of the same features.
As religious folks, of course, we accept that the "God's eye view" of reality most likely eliminates the distinction between present and past, at least in the way we perceive them.
Current physics theory (the standard model) has particles as the medium of exchange tying you to your universe via sensing due to particle impact upon your sensing mechanism. By what means deos the future communicate ‘back’ to you in the present?
Is the path of least action followed because a future outcome pulls upon temporal position, or sends particles to the past? Or is there some medium whereby temporal position future communicates with temporal position past/present?
And thanks to all of you for this fascinating sidebar!
But does this necessarily mean that humans can never have an awareness of an “actual present?” It seems to me there has to be a persistent, actual present in order for cognition to take place at all. If we become aware of it, then we would know that we have indeed “sensed” it; and because we did indeed sense it, then it is real (i.e., not just an “epiphenomenon of the brain”).
God the Creator, of course, is not subject to observer-related gaps "in" His Creation.
But it is possible for the Spirit filled mortal to overcome the physical limitations in perceiving the “now” or the “future” - e.g. prophesy.
But the best a physical man can do is to predict or anticipate the "now" and the "future."
In a later post, hosepipe said:
But that, I submit, is because physical perceptions often override our spiritual discernment, even among Christians.
And thus I strongly agree with betty boop and the philosophers she quotes, that men – in particular, Christians – are at the crossroads of time and timelessness.
All mortals are physically observers on a worldline physically sensing the arrow of time, e.g. cars rust, people die. Christians, in addition to this, are alive with Christ in God - timelessly, even while yet in the flesh.
However, it appears that some who are not Christian also have a sense of timelessness or at least of a “beyond” or a belonging to that “beyond.” Plato comes to mind as do some Eastern mystics. Nevertheless, I doubt their “sense” is comparable to a Christian’s “awareness” due to the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
Theories which approach relativity from expanded extra dimensions (Wesson et al) do not necessarily make that presupposition. And the number of dimensions is typically, 5. Which is to say, the expanded dimension theories only require one dimension to be added to our sensory-perceptible three of space and one of time.
I suspect that if Einstein were still with us, he’d be supportive of the expanded theories to transmute the base wood of matter to the pure marble of geometry.
Then was the part of the hand sent from him; and this writing was written. And this [is] the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN. This [is] the interpretation of the thing: MENE; God hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting. PERES; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes and Persians. – Daniel 5:24-28
Geometrical relations in spaces with more than three spatial dimensions seems to be impossible to imagine. This is a remarkable property of the human cognition, the discussion of which will be shortly given in this section.
We will concentrate on the most simple question in this context about a fourth spatial dimension. No mathematical training seems to be sutiable to access a mental state, which makes it possible to operate with the tesseract in the same way we are used to operate with objects in the 2- or 3- dimensional space. Therefore, it is no wonder that most efforts in this direction were made a little bit apart from traditional science.
Nevertheless, the choices offered by a possible access to a fourth spatial dimension are astonishing. Just to name a few:
• The content of a box could be taken without opening the box.
• A node could be removed from a string without moving the ends of the string.
• A body could be lifted without external forces.
• A body could be moved to its mirror forms.
And to a three spatial dimension mortal, what a four spatial dimension angelic being would do would be quite miraculous.
How much more so would this be in regard to expanded temporal or time-like dimensions?!
While we are yet in the flesh, the question will remain open – how many dimensions exist, expanded or compactified, temporal or spatial. But it is great fun to speculate, to explore the elegant universe that God is speaking.
Einstein's speech 'My Credo' to the German League of Human Rights, Berlin, autumn 1932, Einstein: A Life in Science, Michael White and John Gribbin, page 262
But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.
And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these [is] charity. - I Corinthians 13:9-13
Truly if there were not a mathematical — or logical (read Logos or Word) — ordering of physical reality we could not understand it at all.
Great points, dearest sister in Christ! Indeed, something more seems needed for the integration of the domains of classical, quantum, and relativity theory, for none appear to be "complete" yet. And Einstein, like Penrose and Tegmark, is looking for the fundamental geometry that underlays and gives order to physical reality.
You wrote: "man may realize that physical reality is but a manifestation of mathematical structures existing outside of space and time — but he does not know (and may never be able to know) what those mathematical structures are."
This last would be difficult to accept for those who believe in the unlimited capacities of human reason (and the scientific method) to answer all problems. Man's corporeal existence is finite; and it appears that reason indeed has inherent limits (e.g., as Aristotle put it, reason is bound to finite ends). But then as you note, no observer can see all that there is. Reason can only be as effective as the completeness of the "materials" it works on....
You wrote: "Any insights which might result from information theory as well as geometry being gathered under mathematical physics could be very helpful to philosophers and theologians exploring the 'thing in itself.'"
I so agree! Unlike some of our friends here, I do not hold that science and philosophy/theology are, and must be, forever mutually exclusive. Rather, it seems to me, they are not only complementary, but stand in a dynamic relation to each other. Neither discipline "refutes" the other in any way; each "informs" the other; and both are necessary for the complete description of the total "system" — which is physical and metaphysical ("meta" the Greek word for "beyond")....
Clifford Hooker had this to say about their relations:
The relations between philosophy and science have been, and are, subtle. Historically, each with its prejudices has retarded the other, and each with its innovations has spurred on the other. It is dangerous for philosophy to (attempt to) dictate to science. [Yet p]hilosophical analysis can contribute to the sensitivity and breadth of vision characterizing a scientific endeavor. Let us then pursue Einstein's ideal, let us pursue field theories, current algebras, and the like; and let us pursue Bohrian generalizations of quantum theory — but let us be aware of the kind of thing being attempted in each case.Methinks Einstein and Bohr are "complementary," too!
Thank you so very much for your deeply insightful essay/post, dearest sister in Christ!
Science relies on evidence. Religion relies on belief. I have yet to figure out what philosophy relies on. It seems to be rhetoric and ambiguity.
But based on the philosophical discussions on these threads, which seem to be carrying on a nearly 3000-year tradition of getting nowhere, I don't think I need to know.
True.. not that "we" can really understand a dimension on a higher/futher plateau but that we can cogitate it.. even sense or imagine it.. I submit dreams.. Dreams (can) take our minds/spirits to places not possible in this dimension.. Could be a foretaste of the next plateau.. so it will not seem stange to "us".. Else why do we dream?.. What possible good can dreaming offer?.. Must be something else we wouldn't do it..
Dreams might be a foretaste of enternity.. You know so it will not seem strange to us when we first experience it.. and we can learn to embrace that experience as "normal".. As in a dream "shape"(geometry) can appear to be liquid.. Shape shifting can be normal.. if shape is even important at all..
Well, that's actually not a compelling argument. For example, here is a link to a report on an experiment featuring "spooky action at a distance."
If we accept the idea of a 4-D space/time continuum, the "instantaneous response" of the one photon to a stimulation of the other may in fact suggest the sort of thing you're describing.
And again: as Christians we accept ideas such as prophecy, and a God Who is outside of space and time. In present context, that belief is consistent with precisely the kind of "real future" we're discussing. Perhaps that's not a scientific statement, but it does give one pause.
Hm. So, if philosophy relies on "rhetoric and ambiguity," I guess that statement makes you a philosopher. Because it's not based on evidence, and it's certainly not believable.
Oh, that's easy: It relies on the egos of the philosophers. :)
But I have a more important question: Have you ever been able to figure out what ethics and morality rely on?
So, how does the spin on one of a pair of photons 'communicate' to the other separated photon in the pair? It appears that spatial separation is of no consequence, that the temporal 'togetherness' is the operant phenomenon, where the temporal proximaty remains even though the pair may be separated by perhaps millions of miles. So how is it that the 'communication' takes place between the paired photons? THAT is the essence of what I refer to as temporal location. In my paradigm for the universe, everything ought to be 'located' with a where/when.
AG, I don't happen to believe there are more than three variable expressions of dimension space, and that what you are referring to as a four spatial variable is in fact an artifact of another temporal variable (you will recall the 'temporal volume'?) ... we are in agreement that dimensions space and time are linked for the physical universe, and that we have yet to discover the other continua existing as expressions of different mixes in temporal and spatial variables. The 'things' you describe a 'four-spatial variables' being doing are in fact recorded in the Bible at different times and are, I happen to believe, due to different temporal variable expression ... like Jesus leaving the burial wrappings without unwrapping them and leaving the tomb without the stone being rolled away and entering and leaving closed rooms without opening conventional passage ways. Again, the trick is to describe the where/when ... have I mentioned before the episode where Jesus was about to be grabbed and stoned for referring to Himself as God, and He 'passed through them' and escaped their effort?
Bottom line: we must love God surpassingly above all else, believe Him, trust Him no matter what our sensory perceptions might be feeding us.
= = =
INDEED . . .
the bottom
. . . top, middle, sides . . .
THE LINE above all else.
Underneath all else.
The enlightened self interest of populations?
Indeed, the Scriptures tell us that God has spoken to people in dreams. And we do tend to "see" things in dreams (such as geometry) in very different ways than we would "see" them physically.
Indeed, I was aware that the expanded dimension in your speculation is temporal. In a similar approach, P.S. Wesson's fifth dimension is time-like.
In our reference frame they are separated, but from their reference frame at the speed of light (time stopped/length contraction maximum) they are not separated. Only when they are observed (stopped) do they return to our 3 spatial dimensions,1 temporal dimension reference frame. Called the "Go-Splat" theory of photons, does away with the spooky actions at a distance problem.
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