Natural Theology

We have just published a new website that develops the ideas of this site. Available at Cognitive Cosmology.com.

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Notes DB 90: Psychogenesis_2024

Sunday 16 June 2024 - Saturday 22 June 2024

[page 373]

Sunday 16 June 2024

I am beginning to think that cognitive cosmogenesis is on the mainstream to success and the time now seems to break it down into short articles to get a bit of coverage. The tech stuff is done, we can fall back to the big bang and quantum field theory, but the real thing is the divine grace to become a preacher at last [I have found my lost God]. Jeffrey Nicholls (2024b): trying to get my stolen god back . . .

Monday 17 June 2024

[page 374]

I am excited because I am beginning to think that cognitive cosmogenesis is a radical new physical / theological theory of the Universe, but somewhat depressed because I can foresee the difficulty of getting a hearing, but I will have to be patient and take my time and wait for a verdict from the book publishers Austin MacCauley and now that I have made a revision I can send the MS to other publishers. So now write article 2000 words for NY Times.

I have to write the Nicene Creed of cosmogenesis, pointwise, in 2000 words, as above, starting with naked gravitation, pure eternal potential. May have to fudge a bit, but it will be no worse than omniscient controlling Christianity.

Tuesday 18 June 2024

Cognitive cosmogenesis website complete and start marketing the book with the creed and the article.

To new notebook: DB 91—DIVINE GRAVITATION

Wednesday 19 June 2024

[Divine gravitation page 1]

First move in the new notebook submit 'the book' [Cognitive Cosmogenesis] to Harvard UP Harvard University Press: Book Proposal guidelines

Thursday 20 June 2024

Chicago UP eds Kyle Wagner kwgner@uchicago.edu. University of Chicago Press

Karen Darling: darling@uchicago.edu

Coumbia University Press. Columbia Univerity Press: About Us

Friday 21June 2024

Darton, Longman and Todd Darton, Longman and Todd: Submission Guidelines

Submission / letter to ATF Press ATF Press: ATF Press Publishing Group

Update all web addresses on jeffreynicholls.net

The next site for development is quantum-theology.net and the core idea is to be cognitive cosmology principle 7: Symmetry with respect to complexity which I will try to expand from naked gravitation (zero energy, zero complexity, zero rate of action to the politics of the Universe as a whole.

An idea for quantum-theology (QuanT) take the principles from cognitivecosmology, refine and develop the principle 7: Symmetry wrt complexity.

[page 2]

Still do not like quantumtheology very much - should be physical theology since it embraces matter [and gravitation] as the foundation for spirit. Keep working on it for a while. Looking now I see that I was already thinking of quantum theology but not symmetry with respect to complexity when I [first] wrote it in 2021.

Saturday 22 June 2024

Wondering what to do with quantum theology and the [an?] answer has arrived. The last two episodes of my story, cognitive cosmology and cognitive cosmogenesis have framed the life of the Universe as a psychodrama, the story of how an omnipotent and totally ignorant thug, the initial singularity which I now know as naked gravitation was constrained by impossibility to build the Universe by random trial, much error, but the discovery of stable systems which we now enjoy. The key to it all has been the creation of stability out of chaos by selection and the key to selection is simply survival. That is why I am alive, but I am reaching the magical age of 80, where fatal errors become more and more probable.

[page 3]

One of the major causes of death, or perhaps the only one, is to be trapped in a situation from which there is no escape. These situations are often self inflicted and the virtue of prudence is proposed as a way to avoid such situations. The Catholic Church signed its death warrant when it declared itself to be infallible, thus trapping itself in a fatal conglomeration of falsehoods which seem to be the fate of all imperial organizations as the study of history shows us. The answer to this fate is to keep one's eyes open and steer away from fatal situations. This has bee the theme of my life. Some might call it cowardice but I am inclined to see it as wisdom, or good luck. My plan to avoid hell was to supererogate by joining a religious order that seemed to promise salvation. The front page of this, my latest website quantum theology, shows me receiving my solemn vows at the hand of the Master General of the Order whose name I will have to look up: Aniceto Fernández Alonso. My good luck was to meet Lawrence Peter Fitzgerald, [erstwhile principal of Blackfriars school, Adelaide while I was there] the local master of studies in the Order who judged my plan to reform theology along the scientific lines developed by Thomas Aquinas to be heretical [although I am sure Thomas would have approved]. Edward Gibbon (1845, 1996): The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Aniceto Fernández Alonso - Wikipedia

[page 4]

So my real work of art, a little plot in the cosmic psychodrama is to use the lessons of quantum mechanics, the foundation of cosmic prudence, to point out that the way forward for humanity is to rebuild theology on the insights of quantum mechanics [with built in avenues for change like democracy]. So this site is to be another rewrite of cognitive cosmogenesis, concentrating now on the insights into quantum theory that I have garnered since I studied physics in my last few years of school. The image I am looking for is to put next to my solemn profession is the rainbow over a little church in Ukraine. Historically the simplest way to bring a drama to an end is to kill everyone. The defining feature of the movies coming out of imperialist US when I was a child was a shootout where the hero was left standing. This seems to have been the foundation of politics since time immemorial. A more satisfying answer implicit in both democracy and quantum mechanics, is to choose the path forward by voting and not kill the poeple with old ideas but simply leave them living and pensioned off until they finally leave the scene in the normal course of life. Julius Caesar or Hitler might have lived into retirement if thay had not been carried away by power and we hope that the current crop of dictators waging war on the free world will see the light and retire before they have to be killed for the common good.

[page 5]

We can see the source of all this imperial evil in the nature of the evolutionary process that has enabled the primordial divine thug to become our glorious divine Universe. We just have to deal with these downsides of creativity [and the principle of symmetry with respect to complexity gives us clues here, since we see that bacteria were already devising an immune system to protect themselves against viruses]. Knvul Sheikh (2019): Is Crispr the Next Antibiotic?

The Catholic Church has created pornography by trying to control reproduction and making it sinful. The irony, for me, was that one of the teachers who convinced me that masturtbation is a mortal sin was Brother Bonaventure, aka Peter Searson, one of Australia's leading pedophiles., destroyed, in a sense by his own unrequited lust, the back bone of so much human artistic drama, the lifeblood of Shakespeare and his universe of writers. Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Church Sexual Abuse

From this point 'the book' is behind me [apart from trying to sell it and I am off on a new adventure exploring the relationship of quantum mechanics, creation and democracy and using these ideas to point out the route to reform in the Church and all other organizations, using my body as a paradigm of the 'mystical body of humanity.'

I have now got BBEdit tuned to write quantum-theology but now I have to work out what to say.

Really quantum theology should be called gravitational theology since I want to identify naked gravitation with god [the domain is available, and I have to throw away a few of my old fantasies].

New domain: gravity-is-divine.com

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Further reading

Books

Gibbon (1845, 1996), Edward, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Penguin Classics 1996 'Jacket: 'This definitive three-volume edition presents a complete and unmodernized text, the author's own comments and notes and his famous Vindication. The first volume considers the extend and constitution of the Empire under the Antonines and then takes events down to the end of the fourth century. It includes the controversial chapters on the early Church and examines in detail the reign of the first Christian and last pagan emperors, Constantine and Julian.' 
Amazon
  back

Links

Alex Lo (2024_06_18), What kind of people threaten prosecutors?, ' Washington’s position towards the court shifted several times – it supported the court at certain times and criticised it at others,” international law specialist Andrea Furger wrote in The Conversation last month. “This has largely been tied to a broader assessment of US foreign policy goals and the anticipated costs and benefits that supporting the court could bring.” In other words, it’s pure opportunism. Furger ought to know as she had worked for the ICC’s office of the prosecutor, the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Swiss Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office. Neither Israel nor the US acknowledges the ICC’s jurisdiction. The US voted against the Rome Statute that created the court in 1998. President Bill Clinton nevertheless signed it on the last day of 2000. However, his successor George W. Bush declared the US would not ratify the statute and does not have any legal obligations to it. In 2002, the US passed the American Servicemembers’ Protection Act, which banned support for the ICC. Dubbed by legal wits as “The Hague Invasion Act”, the US law allows the president to use “all means necessary”, presumably including raiding The Hague, to free Americans detained or jailed by the court.' back

Andreas Liesenfeld & Mark Dingemanse, Rethinking open source generative AI: open washing and the EU AI Act, ' ABSTRACT The past year has seen a steep rise in generative AI systems that claim to be open. But how open are they really? The question of what counts as open source in generative AI is poised to take on particular importance in light of the upcoming EU AI Act that regulates open source systems differently, creating an urgent need for practical openness assessment. Here we use an evidence-based framework that distinguishes 14 dimensions of openness, from training datasets to scientific and technical documentation and from licensing to access methods. Surveying over 45 generative AI systems (both text and text-to-image), we find that while the term open source is widely used, many models are ‘open weight’ at best and many providers seek to evade scientific, legal and regulatory scrutiny by withholding information on training and fine-tuning data. We argue that openness in generative AI is necessarily composite (consisting of multiple elements) and gradient (coming in degrees), and point out the risk of relying on single features like access or licensing to declare models open or not. Evidence-based openness assessment can help foster a generative AI landscape in which models can be effectively regulated, model providers can be held accountable, scientists can scrutinise generative AI, and end users can make informed decisions.' back

Aniceto Fernández Alonso - Wikipedia, Aniceto Fernández Alonso - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, ' Aniceto Fernández Alonso was born on 17 April 1895 in the town of Pardesivil, which belongs to the municipality of Santa Colomba de Curueño, in the province of León in Spain. In 1909, at the age of fourteen, he entered the Dominican seminary school at Corias in Asturias] In 1914, when he was 19 years old, he was received into the Order of Preachers (also known as "Dominicans") and began his novitiate in the Padrón convent in La Coruña. In 1915, at the age of 20, he professed his religious vows to the Order of Preachers. He completed his higher studies in the convent of San Esteban de Salamanca (1917–1921) where he obtained the title of reader in theology. He was ordained a priest in February 1921 and transferred to Madrid, where he continued his studies at the Autonomous University of Madrid. He earned a degree at the Autonomous University in physical sciences in 1926.' back

Anthony Faiola & Stefano Pitrelli, Vatican charges pope critic Carlo Maria Viganò with the crime of schism, ROME — He has called Pope Francis a liberal “servant of Satan,” demanded his resignation and suggested that the Vatican’s Swiss Guard arrest the 87-year-old pontiff. Now, after receiving years of withering verbal attacks, Francis appears to have struck back against Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, the former Vatican ambassador to the United States and the pope’s most ardent internal critic. The Vatican’s disciplinary body, the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, issued a formal decree — made public by Viganò on Thursday — assigning the senior cleric to a penal canon trial. The charges: the “crime of schism” and “denial of the legitimacy of Pope Francis". . . .. Viganò appeared to escalate his missives after a December ruling, authorized by Francis, allowing Catholic priests to conduct short blessings of people in same-sex relationships. He referenced the ruling in his lengthy response to the trial, writing, “Bergoglio authorizes the blessing of same-sex couples and imposes on the faithful the acceptance of homosexualism, while covering up the scandals of his protégés and promoting them to the highest positions of responsibility".' back

ATF Press, ATF Press Publishing Group, ' Editorial policy
ATF Press Publishing Group endorses the following principles in its publications:
The avoidance of the risk of plagiarism and respect for intellectual property;
Respect for the rights of human subjects in research;
The identification of and dealing with allegations of research
misconduct;
The identification of and dealing with manipulations of citations;
The disclosure of any conflicts of interest;
Withdrawal from the distribution of publications;
Endorses the American Schools of Oriental Research Policy on Professional Conduct (http://www.asor.org/about-asor/policies/policy-on-professional-conduct/) in particular Section E with respect to Programs and Publications. back

Columbia Univerity Press, About Us, ' Columbia University Press advances Columbia University’s global mission through the publication, translation, and distribution of books in an array of disciplines and professional programs on subjects of worldwide significance. The Press was founded in 1893 and is one of the oldest and largest American university presses. The purpose of the press as expressed in its Certificate of Incorporation is to “promote the study of economic, historical, literary, scientific and other subjects and to promote and encourage the publication of literary works embodying original research in such subjects".' back

Darton, Longman and Todd, Submission Guidelines, "We receive several manuscripts and proposals for consideration each week and, over the years, a small number of our successful books have been published in response to an unsolicited submission. Please note, however, that as our resources are limited we are not able to respond to every submission we receive.' back

Dominican Order, Australia, The Journey of Discernment , ' Discernment is a gift from God. It is the ability to perceive the path of holiness and the course of virtue that Divine Providence has in store for every person. It depends not only on one’s personal experiences but also, and most importantly, on the revelation God has given to the Church community and the individual discerner. In the case of a religious vocation, discernment is not a private matter but a gift which both the individual and the Order receive together from the Holy Spirit. This gift sheds light on the discerner’s search for that vocation which will lead to their true flourishing and authentic happiness as a child of God. Once the person comes to know the way God has set for them since the foundation of the world, the grace of divine charity floods the heart and impels the young person to make the leap of faith: They left their nets and followed Him (Mk 1:18).
In the following of Christ, the disciple can discern two callings or vocations. First, there is the vocation to holiness, which belongs equally to all. Before his Ascension, Christ commanded his disciples to teach all nations what he first taught them and to baptise in the name of the Holy Trinity. By faith and baptism, a person is brought from the darkness of sin and error to the light of Truth in Christ. This transformation is what the universal call to holiness is all about: a conversion which entails the illumination of a human soul by heavenly wisdom; the Trinity’s joyful drawing of a soul towards eternal life.
There is also the particular vocation of each person, and this vocation is the object of discernment. This vocation arises from the first vocation and normally entails some sort of life-long commitment. As this commitment is an act of dedication or consecration to God, it may be expressed through a sacrament - such as priestly ordination or the exchange of marriage vows - or through some other ritual, such as religious profession.' back

Harvard University Press, Book Proposal guidelines, Book Proposal Guidelines Your proposal should give our Acquisitions Editors a clear and detailed idea of what your book will be about and who it is for. Successful proposals usually include: A narrative description of the proposed book’s themes, arguments, goals, and place in the literature. What problem are you solving? What story are you telling? An explanation of the audience you have in mind. Is your book for specialists in your field or for general readers? Is it a book that students might use, and if so, students at what level? A comparison of the proposed book to existing books for a similar audience. (A specialized monograph should be compared to other monographs, for example.) How is your book different? A summary of your professional experience, past publications, and relevant research. Why are you the right author for the book you intend to write? A table of contents and a summary of each chapter. An estimate of the book’s length (total word count including notes), the number and kind of illustrations (if any), how much of the manuscript is already drafted, and the time it will take you to complete it. Submissions should be emailed directly to the relevant acquisitions editor or to submissions_hup@harvard.edu. back

Jeffrey Nicholls (2024b), trying to get my stolen god back . . ., ' This site is dedicated to my mother, a devout Catholic, who introduced me to theology, and my father, a self confessed "bush baptist" who introduced a critical element into my outlook. Both spent their working lives as general practitioners. My mother was one of the first women to graduate from the University of Adelaide Medical School. Her family included nuns and nurses, but no doctors. That was a bridge almost too far in her day. She subtly filled my mind with Catholicism and I did all the right things, catholic school, altar boy and ultimately aspirant priest. I joined the Dominicans and met the intellectual love of my life, Thomas Aquinas. This dream ended five years later when I was found to be a heretic and expelled from the Order. From my point of view the priests and bishops Roman Catholic Church have stolen God, taken possession of them for their own political benefit. God belongs to us all, they are our world, we just have to learn to see them. Jeffrey Nicholls (2008): The Church that stole God.' back

Knvul Sheikh (2019), Is Crispr the Next Antibiotic?, ' Crispr is a specialized region of DNA that creates what amount to genetic scissors — enzymes that allow the cell (or a scientist) to precisely edit other DNA or its sister molecule, RNA. (Crispr is shorthand for “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats.”) Crispr was originally discovered in bacteria, where it helps keep track of past injury. When a virus attacks, the bacterium stores small chunks of the viral genome within its own DNA. This helps the bacterium recognize viral infections when they occur again. Then, using Crispr-associated enzymes, it can disarm the virus and prevent the infection from spreading.' back

Lijun Qi et al, Krause corpuscles are genital vibrotactile sensors for sexual behaviours, ' Abstract Krause corpuscles, which were discovered in the 1850s, are specialized sensory structures found within the genitalia and other mucocutaneous tissues1,2,3,4. The physiological properties and functions of Krause corpuscles have remained unclear since their discovery. Here we report the anatomical and physiological properties of Krause corpuscles of the mouse clitoris and penis and their roles in sexual behaviour. We observed a high density of Krause corpuscles in the clitoris compared with the penis. Using mouse genetic tools, we identified two distinct somatosensory neuron subtypes that innervate Krause corpuscles of both the clitoris and penis and project to a unique sensory terminal region of the spinal cord. In vivo electrophysiology and calcium imaging experiments showed that both Krause corpuscle afferent types are A-fibre rapid-adapting low-threshold mechanoreceptors, optimally tuned to dynamic, light-touch and mechanical vibrations (40–80 Hz) applied to the clitoris or penis. Functionally, selective optogenetic activation of Krause corpuscle afferent terminals evoked penile erection in male mice and vaginal contraction in female mice, while genetic ablation of Krause corpuscles impaired intromission and ejaculation of males and reduced sexual receptivity of females. Thus, Krause corpuscles of the clitoris and penis are highly sensitive mechanical vibration detectors that mediate sexually dimorphic mating behaviours.' back

Mable Fratti, Mable Fratti: Sentir Que No Sabes review – rich, rewarding, spellbinding, ' There are scattered interludes when Sentir Que No Sabes sounds like what the advance publicity might lead you to expect, although the improvisation feels full-blooded and emotionally driven rather than an intellectual exercise. The drones of Elastica I give the impression that her cello is being heavily amplified, that she’s playing sparsely but at immense volume so that every movement of the strings is attended by squeals of feedback – with shades of John Cale’s treatment of his viola in the Velvet Underground.' back

Pok Man Leiung et al, Trace gas oxidation sustains energy needs of a thermophilic archaeon at suboptimal temperatures, ' Abstract Diverse aerobic bacteria use atmospheric hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO) as energy sources to support growth and survival. Such trace gas oxidation is recognised as a globally significant process that serves as the main sink in the biogeochemical H2 cycle and sustains microbial biodiversity in oligotrophic ecosystems. However, it is unclear whether archaea can also use atmospheric H2. Here we show that a thermoacidophilic archaeon, Acidianus brierleyi (Thermoproteota), constitutively consumes H2 and CO to sub-atmospheric levels. Oxidation occurs across a wide range of temperatures (10 to 70 °C) and enhances ATP production during starvation-induced persistence under temperate conditions. The genome of A. brierleyi encodes a canonical CO dehydrogenase and four distinct [NiFe]-hydrogenases, which are differentially produced in response to electron donor and acceptor availability. Another archaeon, Metallosphaera sedula, can also oxidize atmospheric H2. Our results suggest that trace gas oxidation is a common trait of Sulfolobales archaea and may play a role in their survival and niche expansion, including during dispersal through temperate environments.' back

University of Chicago Press, University of Chicago Press, ' Our acquisitions editors are listed below with links to their individual profiles. If you wish to contact one of them about a new project, please first consult our submission guidelines, which explain what materials we welcome from you and answer some frequently asked questions. We also provide an overview about publishing with Chicago here. We look forward to hearing from you. back

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