vol III Development:

Chapter 4: Physics

page 1: God's body

People have been speculating about the nature of reality and our place within it for as long as we have records of human thought. This genre of thought we usually call theology or metaphysics, the traditional theories of everything.

I grew up in the Western Judaeo-Christian tradition (as exported to a colony of Britain), so this is my theological starting point. From my point of view, Christian thought about the nature of God reached its high point in the work of the medieval theologian Thomas of Aquino. Thomas is my starting point for this review of the nature of God. Thomas Aquinas - Wikipedia

Aquinas created a synthesis of Christian ideas and the science and philosophy of his day that remains official in the Catholic Church. His mature writing on the existence and nature of God is contained in the part 1 of the Summa Theologiae. Code of Canon Law, 252:3, Aquinas: Summa qq 2-43

In the terms of modern science, Thomas' work is an hypothesis about the nature of God. The data for Thomas' hypothesis are drawn principally from the dogmatic beliefs of the Catholic Church. As a servant of the Church he was obliged to work from the Deposit of Faith which is the intellectual foundation of the Church. The principal items in the deposit of faith are the New Testament, the Church's records of the life and death of Jesus of Nazareth, and the Old Testament, a version of the Hebrew Bible. Catechism of the Catholic Church 74-100

Jesus' role in our knowledge of God is explained in the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution Dei Verbum. There we read

4. Then, after speaking in many and varied ways through the prophets, "now at last in these days God has spoken to us in His Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). For He sent His Son, the eternal Word, who enlightens all men, so that He might dwell among men and tell them of the innermost being of God (see John 1:1-18). Jesus Christ, therefore, the Word made flesh, was sent as "a man to men." (3) He "speaks the words of God" (John 3;34), and completes the work of salvation which His Father gave Him to do (see John 5:36; John 17:4). To see Jesus is to see His Father (John 14:9). For this reason Jesus perfected revelation by fulfilling it through his whole work of making Himself present and manifesting Himself: through His words and deeds, His signs and wonders, but especially through His death and glorious resurrection from the dead and final sending of the Spirit of truth. Moreover He confirmed with divine testimony what revelation proclaimed, that God is with us to free us from the darkness of sin and death, and to raise us up to life eternal. Second Vatican Council

Both Christian doctrine and the state of medieval science required that God be placed outside the Universe. Further, the Christian doctrine of the Fall implied that both the Universe and human nature had lost their primordial perfection due to a human insult to God.

The Church requires the faithful to believe what they are told and not to question it because it is a mystery. This requirement is based on the Church's belief that it has a mandate from God to explain the relationship between God and the world, that it has the 'gift of ultimate truth' and that it is infallible. John Paul II: Fides et Ratio, Vatican I, Magisterium - Wikipedia

The Church claims that God is an invisible and mysterious being outside the world. Here we set out to explore the alternative hypothesis: that God and the Universe are identical. Our starting point is Thomas definition of God, that God is pure act, an English translation of Latin translation actus of Aristotle's Greek energeia. This definition follows naturally from Thomas' first proof that God is not the universe. Thomas sets out to prove the existence of God, using as evidence our experience of the world and the potency/act model of the world he inherited from Aristotle:

. . . the existence of God can be proved in five ways:

The first and more manifest way is the argument from motion. It is certain, and evident to our senses, that in the world some things are in motion. Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another, for nothing can be in motion except it is in potentiality to that towards which it is in motion; whereas a thing moves inasmuch as it is in act. For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from potentiality to actuality. But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality. Thus that which is actually hot, as fire, makes wood, which is potentially hot, to be actually hot, and thereby moves and changes it. Now it is not possible that the same thing should be at once in actuality and potentiality in the same respect, but only in different respects. For what is actually hot cannot simultaneously be potentially hot; but it is simultaneously potentially cold. It is therefore impossible that in the same respect and in the same way a thing should be both mover and moved, i.e. that it should move itself. Therefore, whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another. If that by which it is put in motion be itself put in motion, then this also must needs be put in motion by another, and that by another again. But this cannot go on to infinity, because then there would be no first mover, and, consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move only inasmuch as they are put in motion by the first mover; as the staff moves only because it is put in motion by the hand. Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone understands to be God. Aquinas 13: Whether God exists?, Aquinas Summa I, 2, 3: (Latin)

This proof is empirical insofar as it argues from the fact of motion to the existence of God. This argument follows almost exactly the argument used by Aristotle to establish the existence of an unmoved mover. The principal difference is that Aristotle considered the unmoved mover to be part of the Universe, whereas Aquinas is required by Christian dogma to put God outside the Universe. Aristotle: Metaphysics Book XII

The heart of this proof is Aristotle's theory of potency and act, particularly its principal axiom, that no potency can actualize itself. From the point of view of modern physics, this axiom is no longer true. We see in the motion of a pendulum, for instance, potential energy becoming actual (kinetic) energy and kinetic energy converting back to potential energy. This process happens spontaneously and in the absence of friction goes on forever. Actus et potentia - Wikipedia

This suggests that there may be no difficulty, logical or observable, in considering that the Universe is divine. Instead of God being s mysterious being outside the Universe, we are free to explore the idea that we are living and breathing inside God, and all our experience is experience of God.

God's body

All our communication is body language. We use our bodies to make physical symbols like sound waves. We use our bodies to receive and interpret these symbols. We assume that the same is true of God. If the universe is divine, it is logical to consider the observable universe as the interface between ourselves and God. What we experience is Gods body, just as what we experience is our lover's body. The meaning we give to this experience is our own. Body language - Wikipedia

The ancients believed that absolutely simple pure spiritual beings could store and process information. Aristotle argued in On the Soul that our intellectual power could only be explained by a matter free spiritual soul. Our modern understanding makes this hard to believe. All the information that we receive and transmit is carried by physical symbols ranging from photons to our own body language and beyond. The ancient distinction between matter and spirit no longer seems useful. What we are accustomed to call matter is the expression of spirit, just as a physical copy of the Bible is an expression of the spiritual truths believed to be contained therein. Rolf Landauer, Aristotle - On the Soul

On the next page we explore a guess about how the absolutely simple God postulated by the Church and developed by Thomas can be reconciled with the enormously complex universe revealed to us by science and daily experience..

[revised 16 May 2016]

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Actus et potentia - Wikipedia, Actus et potentia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'The terms actus and potentia were used by the scholastics to translate Aristotle's use of the terms energeia or entelecheia, and dynamis. There is no single word in English that would be an exact rendering of either. Act, action, actuality, perfection, and determination express the various meanings of actus; potency, potentiality, power, and capacity, those of potentia.' back

Aquinas 11, Summa: I 2 1: Is the existence of god known of itself? , 'Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is not self-evident to us; but needs to be demonstrated by things that are more known to us, though less known in their nature--namely, by effects.' back

Aquinas 13, Summa: I 2 3: Whether God exists?, 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

Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book XII, 'But since there is something which moves while itself unmoved, existing actually, this can in no way be otherwise than as it is. For motion in space is the first of the kinds of change, and motion in a circle the first kind of spatial motion; and this the first mover produces. The first mover, then, exists of necessity; and in so far as it exists by necessity, its mode of being is good, and it is in this sense a first principle.' back

Aristotle - On the Soul, On the Soul - The Internet Classics Archive, 'Holding as we do that, while knowledge of any kind is a thing to be honoured and prized, one kind of it may, either by reason of its greater exactness or of a higher dignity and greater wonderfulness in its objects, be more honourable and precious than another, on both accounts we should naturally be led to place in the front rank the study of the soul. The knowledge of the soul admittedly contributes greatly to the advance of truth in general, and, above all, to our understanding of Nature, for the soul is in some sense the principle of animal life. Our aim is to grasp and understand, first its essential nature, and secondly its properties; of these some are taught to be affections proper to the soul itself, while others are considered to attach to the animal owing to the presence within it of soul.' back

Body language - Wikipedia, Body language - Wikipedia, back, 'Body language is a kind of nonverbal communication, where thoughts, intentions, or feelings are expressed by physical behaviors, such as facial expressions, body posture, gestures, eye movement, touch and the use of space. Body language exists in both animals and humans, but this article focuses on interpretations of human body language. It is also known as kinesics.' back

Catechism of the Catholic Church 74-100, The Apostolic Tradition, ' IN BRIEF 96 What Christ entrusted to the apostles, they in turn handed on by their preaching and writing, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to all generations, until Christ returns in glory. 97 "Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God" (DV 10) in which, as in a mirror, the pilgrim Church contemplates God, the source of all her riches. 98 "The Church, in her doctrine, life and worship, perpetuates and transmits to every generation all that she herself is, all that she believes" (DV 8 § 1). 99 Thanks to its supernatural sense of faith, the People of God as a whole never ceases to welcome, to penetrate more deeply and to live more fully from the gift of divine Revelation. 100 The task of interpreting the Word of God authentically has been entrusted solely to the Magisterium of the Church, that is, to the Pope and to the bishops in communion with him.' back

Code of Canon Law 252, The formation of clerics, 'Can. 252 §1. Theological instruction is to be imparted in the light of faith and under the leadership of the magisterium in such a way that the students understand the entire Catholic doctrine grounded in divine revelation, gain nourishment for their own spiritual life, and are able properly to announce and safeguard it in the exercise of the ministry. §2. Students are to be instructed in sacred scripture with special diligence in such a way that they acquire a comprehensive view of the whole of sacred scripture. §3. There are to be classes in dogmatic theology, always grounded in the written word of God together with sacred tradition; through these, students are to learn to penetrate more intimately the mysteries of salvation, especially with St. Thomas as a teacher. There are also to be classes in moral and pastoral theology, canon law, liturgy, ecclesiastical history, and other auxiliary and special disciplines, according to the norm of the prescripts of the program of priestly formation.' back

Holy See, Code of Canon Law: Canon 252 para. 3, '§3. There are to be classes in dogmatic theology, always grounded in the written word of God together with sacred tradition; through these, students are to learn to penetrate more intimately the mysteries of salvation, especially with St. Thomas as a teacher. There are also to be classes in moral and pastoral theology, canon law, liturgy, ecclesiastical history, and other auxiliary and special disciplines, according to the norm of the prescripts of the program of priestly formation.' back

John Paul II, Fides et Ratio: On the relationship between faith and reason. , para 2: 'The Church is no stranger to this journey of discovery, nor could she ever be. From the moment when, through the Paschal Mystery, she received the gift of the ultimate truth about human life, the Church has made her pilgrim way along the paths of the world to proclaim that Jesus Christ is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (Jn 14:6).' back

Magisterium - Wikipedia, Magisterium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'In Catholicism, the magisterium is the authority that lays down what is the authentic teaching of the Church.For the Catholic Church, that authority is vested uniquely in the pope and the bishops who are in communion with him Sacred Scripture and Tradition "make up a single sacred deposit of the Word of God, which is entrusted to the Church", and the magisterium is not independent of this, since "all that it proposes for belief as being divinely revealed is derived from this single deposit of faith.' 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

Second Vatican Council, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation - Dei verbum, Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation Dei Verbum solemnly promulgated by his Holiness Pope Paul VI on November 18, 1965. back

Thomas Aquinas - Wikipedia, Thomas Aquinas - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Thomas Aquinas, OP (1225 – 7 March 1274), also Thomas of Aquin or Aquino, was an Italian Dominican friar and priest and an immensely influential philosopher and theologian in the tradition of scholasticism, within which he is also known as the "Doctor Angelicus" and "Doctor Communis". "Aquinas" is from the county of Aquino, an area in which his family held land until 1137. He was born in Roccasecca, Italy. He was the foremost classical proponent of natural theology, and the father of Thomism. His influence on Western thought is considerable, and much of modern philosophy was conceived in development or opposition of his ideas, particularly in the areas of ethics, natural law, metaphysics, and political theory. Unlike many currents in the Church of the time. Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle — whom he referred to as "the Philosopher" — and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity.' back

Vatican I, Pope Pius X: Pastor Aeternus, Chapter IV: On the infallibility of the Roman Pontiff . . . 9. Therefore, faithfully adhering to the tradition received from the beginning of the Christian faith, to the glory of God our savior, for the exaltation of the Catholic religion and for the salvation of the Christian people, with the approval of the Sacred Council, we teach and define as a divinely revealed dogma that when the Roman Pontiff speaks EX CATHEDRA, that is, when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church, he possesses, by the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter, that infallibility which the divine Redeemer willed his Church to enjoy in defining doctrine concerning faith or morals. Therefore, such definitions of the Roman Pontiff are of themselves, and not by the consent of the Church, irreformable. So then, should anyone, which God forbid, have the temerity to reject this definition of ours: let him be anathema. back