natural theology

We have just published a new book that summarizes the ideas of this site. Free at Scientific Theology, or, if you wish to support this project, buy at Scientific Theology: A New Vision of God

Contact us: Click to email
vol VII: Notes

2018

Notes

Sunday 6 January 2018 - Saturday 12 January 2018

[Notebook: DB 83: Physical Theology]

[page 86]

Sunday 6 January 2018

The basic requirement for making an impression on the body

[page 87]

politic is self belief strong enough to make one take the risk of stepping out and expressing oneself. When I broadcast the peace lecture in 1987 and 1988 I was pretty sure of my position and equally sure that very few people could understand it. At that time I felt that my next step was to enter the academic mainstream with my ideas, but only now, years later, am I in a position to begin an honours course on the subject which I take will lead to a postgraduate degree. This seems to me to be the most effective approach, to test my ideas with peers before unleashing them on the general public. Of course I have had a small presence on the internet but I feel that this is legitimate given the minimal influence I have and the general incredibility of much of the information on the web which should predispose people to be wary of what they read there. A Theory of Peace: Lecture 1: Mathematical theology

Monday 7 January

cyber02Entropy: All the motion on the Earth is a result of the heat engine set up between the Sun (@6000k) and space (@3K) and the radioactive decay inside the earth (also ~6000K) and space. Apart from acting on the scale of winds and ocean currents, the heat engine also works at the scale of chemistry and phase changes, using photosynthesis and similar reactions to store solar energy in physical structure like plants, animals and all forms of life. This may be broadly understood as the establishment of potentials that drive the binding and disintegration of structure analogous to the work of Shiva in its various roles of construction and destruction. Inner core - Wikipedia, Shiva - Wikipedia

Thermodynamics is a branch of statistical mechanics, which explains potential purely by numbers. How? Explain this succinctly to myself. Cybernetic axioms of statistical mechanics. See Feynman. Feynman: Statistical Mechanics: A Set of Lectures

[page 88]

Life is a numbers game by analogy with democracy, natural selection, potential and consistency, which provides a path for realization. If I can get these ideas right they will be realized, driven by the potential in me that wants to repeat the insights of Jesus of Nazareth without the crucifixion, or at least not yet, until I get the story on paper. Confidence comes from realization.

Why are there so many particles? The universe began as a single particle, God which reproduces from the Trinity to the countably infinite. But why [I keep saying Cantor's theorem]?

This project has been a difficult lifetime's work because it swings from elation to despair on a daily basis and has not yet really led to any publishable output, but it remains an obsession and I feel perfectly at home that I will spend the rest of my life working on it. The theological paradigm shift of I wish to engineers is massive, and so given the rate of change of theological ideas, it does not seem unreasonable to expect it to take a century.

Spacetime is the channel for communication. Communication (eg photons) creates spacetime. I have said this before and do not understand it but it seems closely related to special relativity, and to the 3D property [crossed wire prevention] of space.

Tuesday 8 January 2018

Trepidation and philosophy. One role of philosophers is

[page 89]

to generate and argue for positions that may fly in the face of accepted wisdom and appear to the philosophers themselves to be counterintuitive and dangerous. In the scientific realm such argument can be checked by observation but observation may not be able to decide clearly whether or not the universe is divine, so the logical conclusion may seem quite insecure and hard to defend in the light of thousands of years of cultural tradition that deprecates the universe and maintains that its nature makes it impossible to equate with the traditional view of god. This is why I go to some trouble to argue that the divine universe does in fact meet the traditional specification of god vis-a-vis simplicity, eternity, omniscience, omnipotence, creation and so on, even though I feel rather helpless in the face of the enormous weight of tradition. What I am hoping is that I will be able to convince the powers of the university to allow me to do honours and a PhD on this conclusion. While I am in the midst of working along step by step I feel confident. When I wake up in the mornings I often fear that it is all a dream.

Zeldovich - Creation of Particles . . . Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich: The Creation of Particles and Antiparticles in Electric and Gravitational Fields

Devlopment / Cybernetics / page 5: Mathematics

Johnny Cash: Bitter Tears Johnny Cash: Bitter tears

Wednesday 9 January 2018

The structure of human space is measured by the metric which measures the distance between people.

ie the structure of human space by analogy with Einstein's spacetime is determined by the metric which measures the distance between individual people [generalized metric, corresponding to generalized geodesic. The gravitational symmetry means in effect that there maybe no gravitational difference between the generalized geodesic and the standard geodesic, since the only operative input to the metric is the energy of the relevant inertial frames. However, there are more complex interactions between people mediated by elecromagnetism, eg speech, touch, smell etc.]. Notes / Notes13 / 1 December

[page 90]

Thursday 10 January 2018

The corollary of the notion that space enables the simultaneous existence of p and not-p is that consistency is purely local. This notion lies at the foundation of the effectiveness of calculus by devising a point of local consistency (a differential) which one can use [by] integration to move to the global picture by taking advantage of the symmetry that embraces the local consistency. So given f '(x) one can extrapolate to f(x) given that f(x) is a continuous and differentiable / integrable function, ie that nothing really happens from an algorithmic point of view as x varies, ie we have a symmetry represented by the algorithm f.

Einstein was able to exploit this feature of symmetry to extrapolate from the special theory of (local) relativity to the general theory. The interesting point is that the resulting theory points to singularities such as the initial singularity and black holes, the boundaries on the symmetry which act as boundary conditions on whole, that is the whole of the symmetry expressed as a point as if to say that the whole meaning (which is nothing) of the general theory is concentrated in the initial singularity ancient mystical analogue of god.

Agatha: Murder in Mesopotamia: Poirot: ' "And I may say though I'm now arrived and what I believe to be the true solution to the case, I have no

[page 91]

material proof of it. I know it is so because it must be so because in no other way can every single fact fit into it's ordered and recognised place.

"and that, to my mind is the most satisfying solution there can be." . . .' Christie

Friday 11 January 2018

Economic Philosophy of the Internet of Things. James Jupiter. Jupiter

Saturday 12 January 2018

Birthday, 74 yo.

Copyright:

You may copy this material freely provided only that you quote fairly and provide a link (or reference) to your source.

Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Christie, Agatha, The Murder of Roger Akroyd, Harpercollins 1991 Amazon customer review: .The Murder of Roger Ackroyd was the first Christie I ever read - and it's a real masterpiece. The ending is pretty horrifying, but read the book again, and you'll wonder why you didn't notice various things - things the Murderer/Murderess (I'm not saying which it is!)said and did during the novel, that one didn't notice at the time. Extremely good stuff.. H Lim 
Amazon
  back

Christie, Agatha, Murder in Mesopotamia, Pan / Collins 1981 Foreword by Giles Reilly M.D.' The events chronicled in this narrative took place some four years ago. Circumstances have rented it necessary, in my opinion, that a straightforward account of them should be given to the public. There have been the wildest and most ridiculous rumours suggesting that important evidence was suppressed other nonsense of that kind. These misconceptions have appeared more especially in the American Press.' 
Amazon
  back

Dauben, Joseph Warren, Georg Cantor: His Mathematics and Philosophy of the Infinite, Princeton University Press 1990 Jacket: 'One of the greatest revolutions in mathematics occurred when Georg Cantor (1843-1918) promulgated his theory of transfinite sets. . . . Set theory has been widely adopted in mathematics and philosophy, but the controversy surrounding it at the turn of the century remains of great interest. Cantor's own faith in his theory was partly theological. His religious beliefs led him to expect paradox in any concept of the infinite, and he always retained his belief in the utter veracity of transfinite set theory. Later in his life, he was troubled by attacks of severe depression. Dauben shows that these played an integral part in his understanding and defense of set theory.' 
Amazon
  back

Feynman, Richard P, and Robert B Leighton, Matthew Sands, The Feynman Lectures on Physics (volume 3) : Quantum Mechanics, Addison Wesley 1970 Foreword: 'This set of lectures tries to elucidate from the beginning those features of quantum mechanics which are the most basic and the most general. . . . In each instance the ideas are introduced together with a detailed discussion of some specific examples - to try to make the physical ideas as real as possible.' Matthew Sands 
Amazon
  back

Feynman, Richard P, Statistical Mechanics: A Set of Lectures, Westview Press 1998 Jacket: 'Physics, rather than mathematics, is the focus in this classic graduate lecture note volume on statistical mechanics and the physics of condensed matter. Containing many original contributions to the field, the book provides a concise introduction to basic concepts and a clear presentation of difficult topics, while challenging the student to reflect on as yet unanswered questions,' 
Amazon
  back

Jupiter, James, The Economic Philosophy of the Internet of Things (Routledge Studies in the Economics of Innovation), Routledge; 1 edition (June 18, 2018) Language: English ISBN-10: 9781138478176 ISBN-13: 978-1138478176 2018 ' To properly understand the nature of the digital economy we need to investigate the phenomenon of a "ubiquitous computing system" (UCS). As defined by Robin Milner, this notion implies the following characteristics: (i) it will continually make decisions hitherto made by us; (ii) it will be vast, maybe 100 times today’s systems; (iii) it must continually adapt, on-line, to new requirements; and, (iv) individual UCSs will interact with one another. This book argues that neoclassical approaches to modelling economic behaviour based on optimal control by "representative-agents" are ill-suited to a world typified by concurrency, decentralized control, and interaction. To this end, it argues for the development of new, process-based approaches to analysis, modelling, and simulation. The book provides the context―both philosophical and mathematical―for the construction and application of new, rigorous, and meaningful analytical tools. In terms of social theory, it adopts a Post-Cognitivist approach, the elements of which include the nature philosophy of Schelling, Marx’s critique of political economy, Peircean Pragmatism, Whitehead’s process philosophy, and Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology of the flesh, along with cognitive scientific notions of embodied cognition and neural Darwinism, as well as more questionable notions of artificial intelligence that are encompassed by the rubric of "perception-and-action-without-intelligence".' 
Amazon
  back

le Carre, John, The Honourable Schoolboy, Pocket Books 2000 Amazon: 'John le Carré's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him - and his hero, British Secret Service agent George Smiley - unprecedented worldwide acclaim. In The Honourable Schoolboy, George Smiley is made leader of the Circus (the British Secret Service) in the wake of a demoralizing infiltration by a Soviet double agent. Devising a counterattack, Smiley puts his own hand-picked operative into action. His point of attack: the Far East -- a burial ground of French, British, and American colonial cultures, and fabled testing ground of patriotic allegiances.'  
Amazon
  back

Zee, Anthony, Quantum Field Theory in a Nutshell, Princeton University Press 2003 Amazon book description: 'An esteemed researcher and acclaimed popular author takes up the challenge of providing a clear, relatively brief, and fully up-to-date introduction to one of the most vital but notoriously difficult subjects in theoretical physics. A quantum field theory text for the twenty-first century, this book makes the essential tool of modern theoretical physics available to any student who has completed a course on quantum mechanics and is eager to go on. Quantum field theory was invented to deal simultaneously with special relativity and quantum mechanics, the two greatest discoveries of early twentieth-century physics, but it has become increasingly important to many areas of physics. These days, physicists turn to quantum field theory to describe a multitude of phenomena. Stressing critical ideas and insights, Zee uses numerous examples to lead students to a true conceptual understanding of quantum field theory--what it means and what it can do. He covers an unusually diverse range of topics, including various contemporary developments,while guiding readers through thoughtfully designed problems. In contrast to previous texts, Zee incorporates gravity from the outset and discusses the innovative use of quantum field theory in modern condensed matter theory. Without a solid understanding of quantum field theory, no student can claim to have mastered contemporary theoretical physics. Offering a remarkably accessible conceptual introduction, this text will be widely welcomed and used.  
Amazon
  back

Papers

Zurek, Wojciech H, "Schrodinger's sheep", Nature, 404, 6774, 9 March 2000, page 130-131. back

Zurek, Wojciech Hubert, "Quantum origin of quantum jumps: Breaking of unitary symmetry induced by information transfer in the transition from quantum to classical", Physical Review A, 76, 5, 16 November 2007, page . Abstract: 'Measurements transfer information about a system to the apparatus and then, further on, to observers and (often inadvertently) to the environment. I show that even imperfect copying essential in such situations restricts possible unperturbed outcomes to an orthogonal subset of all possible states of the system, thus breaking the unitary symmetry of its Hilbert space implied by the quantum superposition principle. Preferred outcome states emerge as a result. They provide a framework for 'wave-packet collapse', designating terminal points of quantum jumps and defining the measured observable by specifying its eigenstates. In quantum Darwinism, they are the progenitors of multiple copies spread throughout the environment &mdash the fittest quantum states that not only survive decoherence, but subvert the environment into carrying information about them &mdash into becoming a witness.'. back

Links

Andrew Griffin, Phones are helping to bring about the Antichrist, says head of Church, ' Phones and other smart devices are bringing humanity closer to the arrival of the antichrist, according to the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. The data-gathering capacity of the devices are helping create a vast web of information that could be used to control people, he said.' back

Aquinas 13, Summa: I 2 3: Does God exist?, I answer that the existence of God can be proved in five ways. The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. . . . The second way is from the nature of the efficient cause. . . . The third way is taken from possibility and necessity . . . The fourth way is taken from the gradation to be found in things. . . . The fifth way is taken from the governance of the world. back

Aquinas 13 (Latin), Summa: I 2 3: Whether God exists?, 'Respondeo dicendum quod Deum esse quinque viis probari potest. Prima autem et manifestior via est, quae sumitur ex parte motus. Certum est enim, et sensu constat, aliqua moveri in hoc mundo. Omne autem quod movetur, ab alio movetur. Nihil enim movetur, nisi secundum quod est in potentia ad illud ad quod movetur, movet autem aliquid secundum quod est actu. Movere enim nihil aliud est quam educere aliquid de potentia in actum, de potentia autem non potest aliquid reduci in actum, nisi per aliquod ens in actu, sicut calidum in actu, ut ignis, facit lignum, quod est calidum in potentia, esse actu calidum, et per hoc movet et alterat ipsum. Non autem est possibile ut idem sit simul in actu et potentia secundum idem, sed solum secundum diversa, quod enim est calidum in actu, non potest simul esse calidum in potentia, sed est simul frigidum in potentia. Impossibile est ergo quod, secundum idem et eodem modo, aliquid sit movens et motum, vel quod moveat seipsum. Omne ergo quod movetur, oportet ab alio moveri. Si ergo id a quo movetur, moveatur, oportet et ipsum ab alio moveri et illud ab alio. Hic autem non est procedere in infinitum, quia sic non esset aliquod primum movens; et per consequens nec aliquod aliud movens, quia moventia secunda non movent nisi per hoc quod sunt mota a primo movente, sicut baculus non movet nisi per hoc quod est motus a manu. Ergo necesse est devenire ad aliquod primum movens, quod a nullo movetur, et hoc omnes intelligunt Deum.' back

Faith Ridler, The 1,800-year-old Greek handwriting homework: wax tablet with intricate ancient lettering that was once used by an Egyptian child around 200AD will finally go on display after 40 years, 'A wax tablet displaying a child's Greek homework from 1,800 years ago is to be put on show at the British Library. The ancient tablet, which contains remarkable examples of handwriting, spelling exercises and times tables, has been in storage for the past 40 years. It will now go on display at the British Library as part of the Writing: Making Your Mark exhibition between April 26 and August 27.' back

Ferris Jabr, How Beauty is Making Scientists rethink Evolution, ' Ornaments, Darwin proposed, evolved through a separate process he called sexual selection: Females choose the most appealing males “according to their standard of beauty” and, as a result, males evolve toward that standard, despite the costs. Darwin did not think it was necessary to link aesthetics and survival. Animals, he believed, could appreciate beauty for its own sake. Many of Darwin’s peers and successors ridiculed his proposal. To them, the idea that animals had such cognitive sophistication — and that the preferences of “capricious” females could shape entire species — was nonsense. Although never completely forgotten, Darwin’s theory of beauty was largely abandoned. Now, nearly 150 years later, a new generation of biologists is reviving Darwin’s neglected brainchild. ' back

Gideon Levy, Divorcing in Kafr Qasem, ' A huge billboard greets people entering Kafr Qasem, an Israeli city. It reads: “The time has come to divorce the Palestinians.” . . . It’s a place where there should have been a black memorial sign with an inscription commemorating eternal shame, reading: “May the people of Israel remember the 47 sons and daughters whom security forces murdered in the criminal massacre that took place here,” but instead the retired generals taunt the survivors of the massacre and their descendants, as if the massacre was not enough. ' back

Inner core - Wikipedia, Inner core - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' The Earth's inner core is the Earth's innermost part. It is primarily a solid ball with a radius of about 1,220 kilometres (760 miles), which is about 70% of the Moon's radius. It is composed of an iron–nickel alloy and some other elements. The temperature at the inner core's surface is approximately 5,700 K (5,430 °C) . . . which is about the temperature at the surface of the Sun.' back

James Feman, Time to call a truce in the war on drugs, 'In 2001, Portugal took the radical, and some would suggest outrageous, path of decriminalising all drugs. Weed, cocaine, heroin, you name it; Portugal decided to treat possession and use of small quantities of these drugs as a public health issue, not a criminal one. So what happened? Did they become a nation of druggies and stoners? No, what happened was the number of drug addicts fell by over half, the rate of drug induced deaths fell to 1/5, the number of newly diagnosed cases of HIV/AIDS in people who use drugs fell to almost zero.' back

Joanna Groom, Five life lessons from your immune system, ' As an immunologist, it strikes me that many of our recurring analogies for a healthy, functioning immune system promote excellent behaviour traits. In this regard, we should all aim to be a little more like the cells of our immune system and emulate these characteristics in our lives and workplaces. ' back

John Donne, Death be not proud, 'This is a quick and rough explication. I had no desire to write it, but I finally got exhausted by the sheer number and frequency of emails from people in varying stages of panic and confusion pleading for help in decrypting this poem. I do not know why explicating this poem should incite such terror, since it is really not an impossible task. Regardless, here it is. Should you choose to use any of it, make sure to quote properly, and to give credit in your footnotes, end notes, or "Works Cited." Otherwise your professor may consider you guilty of plagiarism—academic dishonesty which is punishable in every reputable institute of academic learning. '—AJ. back

Johnny Cash, Bitter tears (full), 1. As Long As the Grass Shall Grow 00:00
2. Apache Tears 06:10
3. Custer 08:48
4. The Talking Leaves 11:09
5. The Ballad Of Ira Hayes (Album Version) 15:03
6. Drums 19:12
7. White Girl 24:15
8. The Vanishing Race 27:19 back

Leo XIII, Aeterni Patris, ENCYCLICAL OF POPE LEO XIII ON THE RESTORATION OF CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY To the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops of the Catholic World in Grace and Communion with the Apostolic See. The only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father, who came on earth to bring salvation and the light of divine wisdom to men, conferred a great and wonderful blessing on the world when, about to ascend again into heaven, He commanded the Apostles to go and teach all nations, and left the Church which He had founded to be the common and supreme teacher of the peoples. For men whom the truth had set free were to be preserved by the truth; nor would the fruits of heavenly doctrines by which salvation comes to men have long remained had not the Lord Christ appointed an unfailing teaching authority to train the minds to faith. And the Church built upon the promises of its own divine Author, whose charity it imitated, so faithfully followed out His commands that its constant aim and chief wish was this: to teach religion and contend forever against errors. To this end assuredly have tended the incessant labors of individual bishops; to this end also the published laws and decrees of councils, and especially the constant watchfulness of the Roman Pontiffs, to whom, as successors of the blessed Peter in the primacy of the Apostles, belongs the right and office of teaching and confirming their brethren in the faith. Since, then, according to the warning of the apostle, the minds of Christ's faithful are apt to be deceived and the integrity of the faith to be corrupted among men by philosophy and vain deceit, the supreme pastors of the Church have always thought it their duty to advance, by every means in their power, science truly so called, and at the same time to provide with special care that all studies should accord with the Catholic faith, especially philosophy, on which a right interpretation of the other sciences in great part depends. Indeed, venerable brethren, on this very subject among others, We briefly admonished you in Our first encyclical letter; but now, both by reason of the gravity of the subject and the condition of the time, we are again compelled to speak to you on the mode of taking up the study of philosophy which shall respond most fitly to the excellence of faith, and at the same time be consonant with the dignity of human science. back

Matin Lloyd Jones and Paul Konesaroff, Here's why doctors are backing pill testing at music festivals across Australia, https://theconversation.com/heres-why-doctors-are-backing-pill-testing-at-music-festivals-across-australia-109430 back

Ofer Aderet, General's Final Confession Links 1956 Massacre to Israel's Secret Plan to Expel Arabs, ' 'Yiska' Shadmi, the highest IDF officer tried for the Kafr Qasem massacre, admitted before his death that his trial was staged to protect military and political elites. Historian Adam Raz believes that behind the horrific 1956 event was a secret plan to transfer Israel's Arabs.' back

Rolf Landauer, Information is a Physical Entity, 'Abstract: This paper, associated with a broader conference talk on the fundamental physical limits of information handling, emphasizes the aspects still least appreciated. Information is not an abstract entity but exists only through a physical representation, thus tying it to all the restrictions and possibilities of our real physical universe. The mathematician's vision of an unlimited sequence of totally reliable operations is unlikely to be implementable in this real universe. Speculative remarks about the possible impact of that, on the ultimate nature of the laws of physics are included.' back

Rowan Cowan, Guide to the Classics: Juvenal, the true satirist of Rome, ' An angry man stands at the crossroads and rails against the moral cesspit around him, teeming with sexual deviants and jumped-up immigrants. This is the image which the Roman poet Juvenal paints of the satirist castigating the vices of contemporary Rome. Juvenal’s Satires provide a fascinating window onto the social melting-pot that was early second century CE Rome. But they also hold up a mirror to those whose feelings of alienation and disempowerment produce a bitter distortion of that society.' back

Sacagawea - Wikipedia, Sacagawea - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Sacagawea (May 1788 – December 20, 1812) was a Lemhi Shoshone woman who is known for her help to the Lewis and Clark Expedition in achieving their chartered mission objectives by exploring the Louisiana Territory. Sacagawea traveled with the expedition thousands of miles from North Dakota to the Pacific Ocean. She helped establish cultural contacts with Native American populations in addition to her contributions to natural history. She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 2003.' back

Shiva - Wikipedia, Shiva - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Shiva (Sanskrit: शिव, Śiva, lit. the auspicious one) is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being within Shaivism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism. Shiva is known as the "Creator, maintainer and the destroyer" within the Trimurti, the Hindu trinity that includes Brahma and Vishnu. In Shaivism tradition, Shiva is the Supreme being who creates, protects and transforms the universe.' back

Yakov Borisovich Zeldovich, The Creation of Particles and Antiparticles in Electric and Gravitational Fields, ' 32 On the Possibility of the Creation of Particles by a Classical Gravitational Field (pp. 228-232) In a recent article. Hawking [1] pointed out that “if 𝑇𝑎𝑏satisfies a physically reasonable condition … a space time … which is empty at one time must be empty at all times.” Knowing about annihilation of pairs of particles into gravitons and vice versa, he traces the discrepancy “to the difficulty of defining a local energy-momentum operator for the matter fields in a curved space-time” and “to the fact that we have quantized the matter fields but not the metric” (citations from [1], p. 301, 302 and 305). More precisely, he asserts that if at an initial moment of... back

www.naturaltheology.net is maintained by The Theology Company Proprietary Limited ACN 097 887 075 ABN 74 097 887 075 Copyright 2000-2020 © Jeffrey Nicholls