144.  System of the World. Part Two

 

We were discussing the Materialistic Theory 

The trouble with string theory is its lack of data. However, if we disregard this problem and discuss it just as a possibility, still there are at least three problems with Materialistic Theory: 

(a). How did the universe come into existence? Scientists did not follow Sherlock Holmes dictum, because they did not consider all the possibilities. They should have considered the possibility of a Creator, and then refuted it, if they could. It cannot be refuted. The philosopher Bertrand Russell, in a debate with a bishop, conceded that he cannot disprove the existence of God.

(b). Where did string/brans come from? You see the scientist believe that universe was created out of nothing. But their nothing is not really nothing (an absolute vacuum, where nothing is present). The nothing of scientists is full of positive energy and an equal amount of negative energy, cancelling each other.

Thus we are led to the next question, where did all these particles, fields and energy come from? If there were precursors of them, where did they come from? And so on.  At some point the process has to start from absolutely nothing.

 

 That brings us to the point where we started. Can this huge, infinite universe or for that matter anything start from nothing? Prove it. Create one particle in an absolute vacuum.

 

(3). How do you explain miracles, answering of prayers, foretelling the future, and the existence of the spirits of dead persons who once inhabited earth, without a God. I have dealt with these phenomena, in great detail, in my eleven blogs; 102-112 in part three. If I narrate them here again, it will be needless repetition.

However, who, except God (or His deputies) could transform sandy soil into candy (blog 104)?

Who, except God ( or His deputies ) could answer the prayer of Mr Shevani’s to meet the greatest Qalander of present time, or for that matter Giri Bala’s prayer to learn the way to live without food or drink (blog 111)? Who, except God (or His deputies) would have inspired Swami Vivekananda to tell Mr Dickenson, 43 years in advance, that his guru will give him a silver cup? Who, except God (or His deputies) could provide proof of life after death, in the form of spirit of Bimla Kumari haunting a house in Cuttack, India?

 

A logician will say, where did this Creator come from?

The answer is that this mote does not know. This is an unanswerable question.  Our small mind is not capable of answering this question, just as a cow cannot learn to read.

 This mote has offered his arguments (blog 113). I will repeat them in an abbreviated form for purpose of continuity:

 

1. God can be conceptualized as energy, or something even more subtle than energy, with a supermind.  Human brain is an example. It is made, mainly, of nerve cells, created and fed by our daily food. These cells have the power to think, feel, and create movements and store as memory. These cells communicate with each other instantaneously, at the speed of light. If our brain, a collection of billions of cells, made of atoms, and atoms made of subatomic particles, such as electrons and protons and neutrons, can have thoughts of pain, pleasure, compassion, jealousy, and anger, why not God, a collection of pure energy, have a mind?

               2. How can such supermind arise, out of sheer nothing? The answer is that the same process of evolution, which caused the atoms to combine with each other and make chemicals such as amino acids, which led to the formation of a cell, and then to man, in 3-4 thousand million years( blog 99), could have created God ( I shudder at my own temerity ) in a limitless amount of time.  It may have happened with the same two engines of mutation and natural selection. There is no logical or biological reason for evolution to stop at a certain point. If not mutation, then deliberate experimentation, by the supermind, on the leptons and quarks, to continue its improvement.

 

Religious theory. God created this universe. He runs it. He is responsible for all the happenings in the world and universe, because everything happens by His divine will. I have discussed this theory in great detail in four blogs; 134-137. There is no need to repeat it. But, let me reiterate the points against it. 

Now, let us discuss the arguments against the Religious theory: 

1. It does not explain evil

2. It does not explain injustice

3. Makes God, indifferent, cruel and unjust

4. Why is God hidden?

5. If everything is preordained by God, then what is the purpose of creation?

6. It flies against our daily experience of events happening due to free will.

7. Does not explain the cruelty of predator animals to prey.

8. All human effort is completely useless.

Each of the above mentioned points are examined in detail in blogs 135-137. 

This theory is not valid

 

To be continued.

143. System of the World. Part One

 

When one thinks that how this universe is run, many questions arise in one’s mind. For instance, who created this universe? Did the universe create itself? Why was it created? Is there a God? Is planet Earth, which we call our world, runs on the same principles, as the rest of universe? Are we the only intelligent, self-aware, sentient form of life, or are there other planets or moons where there are similar life forms? What are the fundamental laws of nature? A universe is governed by same laws of nature, are there other universes which have different laws? Does true vacuum (where nothing is present) exist? And there are many other questions which philosophers and astrophysicist have in their minds.

 

This mote is a mystic, not a philosopher, astrophysicist, or a religious scholar. Here I want to theorize, not on the universe, but on the system of this world, our earth.

 

Basically, there are three hypotheses to explain the system:

 

1. There is no GOD or Creator. The universe was created at a finite period of time. Nobody knows, for sure, what was before that time. Scientists have theories about it, but essentially it is unknowable. Why was it created and who created it is also unfathomable, but scientist surmise that it created itself.  After the creation of universe, it is running on its own, by the laws of nature. Everything that happens in the world happens, because of the law of cause and effect. For purposes of this discussion we will name this, the “Materialistic theory”

 

2. There is a God or Creator. God created this universe at a finite period of time. God was there before the universe was created. He created it because of reasons only known to Him. Everything that happens in the universe happens because of His will. The world runs by fundamental laws of nature including the law of cause and effect. These laws were created by God. We will call this the “Religious theory”

 

3. There is a God or Creator. God created the universe at a certain period in time. God was there before the universe was created. He created it because of unknown reasons. However, after the creation of the universe he does not run the universe (but He may intercede on some occasions if He so desires), it runs automatically by the law of cause and effect and other laws of nature.  We will call this ‘Materialism with God theory’

 

Let us now examine these three hypotheses in greater detail.

 

Materialistic theory: I have discussed the origin of universe and the evolution of life in some detail in my blogs 98-101, in Part Three. According to the present knowledge, the universe started with a big explosion called Big Bang, 13.8 billion years ago. Nobody knows what was there before Big Bang. Was there a complete vacuum, with nothing in it? No matter and no energy. If that is true then this huge universe came into existence out of nothing! I think this is a preposterous notion. Nothing can arise out of nothing.

Science deals with this question in several ways:

1. It is useless to surmise without facts. Since we have no pre-Big Bang data we are not going to think about it. Universe is just there.

2. There is no pre-Bing Bang, because Time started at Big Bang. This is what St. Augustine also said 1600 years ago. Big objects such as planets and stars pull the fabric of time-space towards themselves by their force of gravity. Time slows. A big object such as Sagittarius A at the center of our galaxy has a mass of 4 million suns. Time must be slower over there. At Big Bang the whole matter-energy of the future universe was compressed in a singularity much smaller than an atom, the size of a Planck length; a centimeter divided by 1 followed by 32 zeroes. The massive pull of this singularity made the Time stand still.

 

3. As Sherlock Holmes, a fictional detective, once said, that if you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, is the truth. Therefore, it follows that there must be the same amount of energy-matter before Big Bang as it was at Big Bang, and is there now, 13.8 billion years later, because the law of conservation of energy-matter states so. The law of conservation of energy is a fundamental law of nature. According to this law, energy can neither be created nor destroyed, but it can be transformed.

One of the current popular theories is that most or all or some of the energy-matter was in the form of extremely small ( the size of a Planck length ) strings, or in the form of membranes (abbreviated as brans). These strings ( like the strings of a guitar ) vibrated at different speeds, all the time, giving rise to different types of particles, just like different musical notes emerge by different tension and plucking of  guitar strings.  These subatomic particles caused the formation of atoms.

 

If my writing, at this time lacks clarity, it is because the subject itself is not clear.

 

To be continued.

 

 

 

142. Fate versus Free Will. Part Nine

 

We were discussing another theory, which may be the correct solution, and satisfy the paradox stated in blog 139. 

How does God have foreknowledge? There are two possibilities: 

 1. He knows it because He has an infinite mind that can compute all the possibilities.

2. The play is being played a second time. First time in a computer, similar to some sort of simulation, or actually  in our planet or some other planet. What is going to happen now, in our planet, will be the same as happened the first time around. Suppose you are watching a film second time, you can easily tell how the plot will proceed. What the actors are going to say? If you play the film thousand times, every single detail will occur exactly the same way. The drama of this world is something like that, except that we write, direct and act in this drama, and not the decrees of God. 

               Men of God tell a particular future event. Because God wants them to tell. God gives them permission to tell and they always seek permission from God before they tell, because they fully know that it is a divine law to have the future hidden from mankind (otherwise mankind would not put their full effort). They violate the law with divine sanction. When Brunton asked Chandi Das to tell him his future, Chandi Das rebuked him and said, “Why do you seek to know? The Creator has kept the future hidden for a fit reason” (blog 91)

 Let us now restate the paradox: 

1. Some persons can see future, therefore it exists somewhere

2. Future does not and cannot exist, because it has not been made yet. 

Both statements are true. There is no paradox! 
 

What is required is to restate 1, as:

1. Some persons can see future, therefore it exists somewhere, but not the actual future, but how is it going to transpire, in a screen play, which these persons can access. 

There is one small puzzle to be settled. When Chandi Das told Brunton his future, he also said that he can only see a part of the future:

“Only in part. The lives of men do not move so smoothly that every detail is ordained for them.” 

Did he mean the two-tier hypothesis of Ramakrishna?

‘Just as, when a cow is tied to a post with long tether, it can go to a distance of one cubit, or it can go up to the full length of the tether according to its choice, so too is the free will of the man….God has given man some power and freedom to utilize it as he likes.

That is why the man feels himself free…’ 

This mote thinks that the solution to this problem is not the two-tier hypothesis of religion but that the things get clearer as the event approaches ( a seer told me this fact ). It is as if one was witnessing a city from far distance. One can only see a mass consisting of thousands of house. As one approaches nearer, one can see separate houses and buildings. Still nearer, one can see the multiple storeys and windows in the buildings. As one approaches further, one can see occupants of the houses and whether they are men and women or children. 

In the end, let us see what the components of hypothesis 2 (free will) are:  

1. Man is free to choose his own fate

2. Nothing is preordained.

3. God started this play of universe for His inscrutable reason.

4. God sometimes interferes in the screen play for His unfathomable reason. This part appears contradictory to number 1. This will be discussed in greater detail when I discuss the “system of the world” at some future time.

5. God has foreknowledge of the future.

6. A Master screen play exists.

7. The future can be foretold by some men of God.

8. The difference from hypothesis one (fate) is that the fate is not preordained. Everything happens by the interaction of free will with Mother Nature. Future does not yet exist. The difference from hypothesis two (free will) is that future can be foretold by selected persons. 

Difference from modern scientists is:

(a). That there is God, who created everything

(b). Future can be foretold (according to science, future cannot be foretold because it does not yet exist). It does not yet exist, because it has not been made yet. 

What are the flaws in the components of hypothesis 2?  

 It is based on many suppositions but very little evidence. 

Let us study this criticism. Component number one and two are not in dispute by scientists and logicians. Components number 3-5 depend upon the existence of God. I have written eighteen blogs (blogs 97-114) to prove the existence of God. I presented lot of anecdotal evidence. The reader is at liberty to read those blogs and make his/her own mind. I don’t want them to be repeated over here. Personally, I do not have an iota of doubt.

I have also presented plenty of anecdotal evidence in support of item number seven. I do not have any doubt left, after I learnt the episode of lottery numbers (blog 135), by the seer himself. 

The main supposition, for which there is zero evidence, is the existence of a Master screen play. I arrived at it by logic. It is the only way to reconcile the paradox. The seers have to see something in the present, because as Saint Augustine repeatedly said (and this mote arrived at the same conclusion, independently) that the future does not yet exist. How can anybody see anything which does not exist? Therefore, it is logical to assume that there exists, somewhere in present, a record of future events (I called it screen play).

This mote prayed to God, even today, a way to access the future, at least for once, so that I can then say that I have myself seen some future event. For me, at least, then it won’t be hearsay.

 

141. Fate versus Free will. Part Eight.

 

We were discussing the possible explanations of prophecies

 

5.   There is a parallel world, which is an exact copy of our world, but it is ahead of us in time. Let us suppose it is 500 years ahead of us. Let us further assume that it is one hundred light years away from us (a light year is the distance light travels in one year, at the speed of 186,000 miles per second.). If the year on our earth is 2014, the year in the other world is 2514. If we had the ability to watch the events at the other world right at this minute, we would be watching what is going on in the other world in year 2414. (It took the light to reach to us a hundred years; therefore it is 2514 minus 100).

               So, if by some technique you were able to make a video film of the last 4 hundred years of the other planet; years 2014 to 2414 of the other world, and feed it to a giant computer on earth, or still better, download it in the memory center of your own brain, if you were a holy man, you would have the ability to forecast events which are going to happen on earth, in the next four hundred years,! You could have started recording in year 1614 of earth time, and be up to date, in the present year of 2014.

               However, to have all that to happen, you have to fulfill the following conditions:

 

1.  A planet which is an exact replica of our planet, like an image in the mirror.

2. The planet is ahead of our planet in time.

3. We have the ability to watch or record the events in the other planet.

 

First two are highly implausible suppositions, but the third is easy and is being routinely done by many telescopes on earth and in space.

Therefore, we cannot discard this possibility. Maybe, in the future, when the science is much more advanced, we will find the parallel world.

However, there is one consideration, which can make us reject this scenario, at least the part which deals with prophecies.

 

We were discussing the possibility of a parallel world, which is exactly similar to our world, like the image in a mirror, but is ahead of us in 500 years, away from us by 100 light years, and this is the year 2014. A man of God, or a scientist, has downloaded the film of years 2014 to 2414. What is going to happen in year 2015 is exactly, and in every single detail, recorded and can be viewed.

Let us play out the scenario of Swami Vivekananda telling Dickenson that he will receive a silver cup from his guru (blog 102). This event occurred 43 years later. Therefore, if Vivekananda foretold the event, he must have seen, in his mind’s eye, what happened in the other planet; he must have seen an image Vivekananda telling image Dickenson that he will get a silver cup, by seeing what happened in another ( third) planet.

               But there is no other (third ) planet! We assumed there were only two planets. Is there a third planet? If we proceed on this path, there has to be a fourth, and fifth planet. As a matter of fact, an infinity of mirror-image planets, ahead of each other in time. We are entering the realm of absurdity.

 

Is that the end of our theorizing? If this mote is baffled, he derives some satisfaction, that mightier minds and more advanced mystics than him have similarly accepted defeat. Listen to what St Augustine had to say in ‘Confessions’:

‘ Thou then, Ruler of Thy creation, by what way dost Thou teach souls things to come? For Thou didst teach Thy Prophets. By what way dost Thou, to whom nothing is to come, teach things to

come; or rather of the future, dost teach things present? For, what is not, neither can it be taught. Too far is this way of my ken: it is too mighty for me, I cannot attain unto it; but from Thee I can, when Thou shalt vouchsafe it, O sweet light of my hidden eyes’

 

I have another theory, which may be the correct solution, and satisfy the paradox stated in blog 139. We will call it explanation 6.

 

6. The people who prophesied, and told about future events have access to the Master screen play. In the drama of the universe, God is not the writer, and director of the play, He is more like the producer of the play. He had the idea to create the play.  Whatever, the actors will do or say on stage, how the plot will proceed, how the drama will end, is in the screen play. However, He did not write the screen play. He knows by His infinite mind what is in the screen play. He did not preordain the screen play but He has foreknowledge of the screen play.

The writer and director of the play are we, ourselves, and the Mother Nature.

The people, who tell the future, do not travel into the future. They stay in the present. They do not see the future, because the future does not yet exist. Scenes are brought to their mind’s eye, or words are wrung from their mouths without their forethought, by higher powers, which have access to the Master screen play.

 

To be continued