TO BELIEVE OR NOT TO BELIEVE

 

THE SECOND COMING

In my last post I focused on the importance of making the right choice between good and evil. In this post I want to talk about why it is so difficult to sort out good from evil and know what to believe and what actions to take. I will focus on one specific very extraordinary belief of the Christian and Muslim religions: That is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. But first, let’s look at what we mean by belief. Every belief system, whether it is thought of as science, philosophy, or religion, is a conceptual model based on a set of a priori assumptions that must be accepted without proof, and the most basic of the assumptions of any model is almost always in some way fantastic beyond belief when taken by itself alone! In this sense, every belief system is, in effect, a religion for those who believe in it.

You may think that modern science is an exception to this, but it is not. Experimental science is based on the observation, measurement, and interpretation of empirical data. But the interpretation of observations and experimental data depends on the acceptance of certain unprovable assumptions. At the bottom of the current mainstream scientific belief system we find the unprovable metaphysical assumption of atheistic materialism.

Most scientists have accepted the assumption that everything can be explained in terms of materialism, and that thus there is no need to suppose that there might be a conscious intelligence behind the existence we experience. These assumptions are materialistic and atheistic, pure and simple. That’s why we hear mainstream scientists and students these days saying things like: “I am a scientist, so of course I’m an atheist!”

Scientific atheistic materialism leads to logical contradictions that cannot be resolved within the belief system that created them.  The Standard Model of particle physics and the Big Bang Theory, the major parts of current scientific materialism, both exhibit such internal contradictions. Assuming that everything is made up of nothing but particles and physical forces leads to contradictions like massless and dimensionless particles. And assuming that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of physical evolution, rather than a primary aspect of reality, leads to the belief that a violent explosion could create something as exquisite as a butterfly or a rose!

Those who believe that materialistic science holds the answers to all questions, are actually idol worshipers and scientism is their religion. The unprovable assumptions of particle physics and the big bang theory are their litany, and the celebrated physicalist scientists of mainstream science are their priests.  All finite belief systems fall short of the transcendental elegance of Reality – i.e., the Glory of God! With this understanding that all belief systems are based on miraculous assumptions, let’s turn to one of the miraculous ideas underlying Christianity: The Second Coming.

There are more than 20 Biblical verses mentioning the Second Coming, and there have been at least 50 publicized  predictions since the time of Jesus, made by as many different individuals, including some well-known people like Emanuel Swedenborg, Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church of Latter-day Saints, brilliant Educator Rudolph Steiner, Edgar Cayce the Sleeping Prophet, and Alice Baily of the Theosophical Society. A spectacular reappearance of Jesus of Nazareth, has been predicted for a number of specific dates, ranging from 500 to 2057 AD. But most of these predictions have been wrong. Only a few of them are yet to be determined. For example:

In 1946, Alice A. Baily, a major leader of the Theosophical Society, predicted the return of Christ sometime after 2025.

Some Christians believe that the second coming will be preceded by a “rapture” and a seven-year “tribulation” period  This view was popularized as “Unsealed World News” by the Site Unsealed.org. In 2016, they predicted that this seven-year tribulation would begin with the total solar eclipse in America in August 2017, and end with a similar solar eclipse in 2024.

In theoretical physicist Frank J. Tipler’s book The Physics of Immortality, he claims to have proved the existence of God as part of his Omega Point Theory. In a follow up book, The Physics of Christianity, published in 2007, he says the Second Coming of Christ will occur within 50 years, i.e., by 2057, and will be coincident with the technological “Singularity” defined by mathematician Vernor Vinge as a time when artificial intelligence (AI) will supersede human consciousness, triggering unpredictable changes in human civilization around the year 2030. Futurist Ray Kurxweil has also written about the singularity, and predicts it may occur around 2045.

While I find Tipler’s work, Vinge’s work, and Kurzweil’s writings interesting, the “Singularity” is a complex concept that raises a plethora of questions far beyond the scope of the present post. AI researchers and enthusiasts think that the singularity will bring about a fantastic merger of living human bodies with AI mechanisms through chemical and electronic nano-technology. But AI enthusiasts are mostly materialists, who believe that consciousness is simply an epiphenomenon of physical evolution, and they do not consider the Second Coming as a real thing.

On the other hand, my research and mathematical analysis leads me to believe that Christ Consciousness is real, and that the singularity fantasy is a Frankenstein nightmare likely end in death and destruction, much like the chemical and pharmaceutical industries “better living through chemistry” dream ended in the unleashing of waves of pain, suffering and death from all kinds of disease and dependence on synthetic drugs. So let’s look at some of Biblical references, coming from Origen of Alexandria’s translations of the original Jewish and Christian scrolls to help us understand more accurately what the people who lived during Biblical times were talking about when they used the term.

"For the Lord Himself, with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call and with the sound of God’s trumpet, will descend from heaven, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up in the clouds together with them to meet the Lord in the air; and so we will be with the Lord forever." – Thessalonians 4:16-17

“While he was going and they were gazing up toward heaven, suddenly two men in white robes stood by them. They said, ‘Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up toward heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken up from you into heaven, will come in the same way as you saw Him go into heaven." - Acts 1:10-11

“So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for Him.” – Hebrews 9:28

“Keep awake therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.” - Matthew 24:42-44

“Do not be astonished at this; for the hour is coming when all who are in their graves will hear His voice and will come out—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.” - John 5:28-29.

“For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all, training us to renounce impiety and worldly passions, and in the present age to live lives that are self-controlled, upright, and godly, while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.- Titus 2:11-13.

“Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains.” – James 5:7

The concept of the second coming really cannot be separated from the prophecy of the Messiah (Mashiach in Hebrew) in the pre-Christian Bible, because, based on a number of specific statements made by Jesus, he declared himself, in fact, to be the fulfillment of that prophecy. Here are two scriptural verses identifying him as the Messiah:

Once when Jesus was praying with his disciples, he asked them, “Who do they say I am?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others say that one of the prophets reincarnated”. “But what about you? he asked. “Who do you say I am?” Peter answered, “God’s Messiah.”

 Jesus admonished them not to tell this to anyone. 

“The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life.” - Luke 9:18-21

So Jesus confirmed Peter’s answer that he was indeed the Messiah, but commanded the disciples to tell no one, because the ancient prophecies were not yet fulfilled.

Another time, when Jesus and his disciples were passing through Samaria on their way from Judea to Galilee, he encountered a Samaritan woman at a well, and after he revealed knowledge of things no ordinary person could not have known, she said to him:

“Sir, I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.”

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. … a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is Spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.”

The woman said, “I know that Messiah is coming. When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Then Jesus declared, “I, the one speaking to you—I am he.” John 4:5-26

Except for his disciples and a small following however, the majority of the Jewish people of the time, down to the present time as well, have not thought that Jesus was the Messiah for a number of reasons, but primarily because they expected the Messiah to be a Warrior-King in the lineage of King David, who would defeat the Romans and all their enemies, rebuild King Soliman’s Temple, and rule the world from his capitol in Jerusalem. My purpose in this post is not to argue either side of this debate or present analysis of arguments about who may or may not be the Messiah, but rather to make the point that such arguments are irrelevant, based on a deeper understanding of the real nature of spiritual evolution and consciousness.

The source of most of the books of the Christian Bible is found in the writings of Origen of Alexandria, who translated most of the scrolls attributed to the disciples of Jesus from Aramaic into Greek around 200 AD. My research suggests that because of certain deletions and changes in the original works of Origen, forced upon the Catholic Church by Roman Emperor Justinian I for political reasons, statements about the second coming became confused with the End Time and Judgement Day predictions Jesus shared with his disciples.

The model of reality presented by TDVP with the application of the transcendental physics and the mathematical logic of the calculus of distinctions is a reflection of reality manifested by, of, for, and about consciousness. When the consciousness of an individual is temporarily expanded beyond the physical body and mind, as in NDEs or any other type of OBE, it glimpses the potential of Christ Consciousness. This is why Jesus called himself the “Way-shower, the truth and the light”. A glimpse of Christ Consciousness or Cosmic Consciousness is tantalizing and compelling, but real enlightenment is the direct experience of the higher states of consciousness.

In my opinion, the experience of human existence is for the sole purpose of the expansion of consciousness from the finite to the Infinite. There are many levels and types of awareness on the path to ultimate enlightenment, variously called insight, illumination, Transcendental awareness, Spiritual Ecstasy, Satori, Sabakalpa Samadhi, Nirbakalpa Samadhi, Transfiguration, Kutastha Chaitanya, Christ Consciousness, Ascension, Cosmic Consciousness, etc., … all the way to Absolute Oneness with God. Any sudden awakening to a level of awareness beyond your current state, whatever it may be, is an experience of enlightenment that may seem like the Ultimate experience. But the ultimate awareness of the holistic nature of reality is beyond the comprehension of most of us at this point in Earth’s planetary time cycle.

One Spiritual Master said it this way: “The experience of the Ultimate is not an experience at all – because the experiencer is lost. And when there is no experiencer what can be said about it? Who will say it? Who will relate the experience? … The knowledge is there, but the knower is not. That has been the problem for all mystics.” – Bagavan  Sri Rajneesh in Only One Sky.

Or, as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein put it: “That about which we cannot speak, we must remain silent.” But volumes can be communicated in the communion of silence. This is why those who are propelled on the spiritual path seek the company of Saints. The touch of the Master can enlighten, and even touching his garment can heal.

So who was Jesus, what is Christ Consciousness, and when is the Second Coming? In my opinion, to answer these questions, one must first understand the nature of consciousness in its various forms.

I agree with physicist Erwin Schrӧdinger, who said in What is Life? his book of thoughtful essays, that consciousness has no plural. As sentient individual manifestations of consciousness experiencing reality by identifying with sense-limited organic life forms, we are all connected at the deepest level of our existence with the all-pervasive field of Primary Consciousness. Most of the current consciousness research, including mine, suggests that consciousness is a fundamental, if not primary, aspect of reality, linking all sentient beings. It is in consciousness research and the analysis of belief systems, that science and spirituality really come together to reveal what consciousness is, and how human beings relate to it.

As explained in previous posts, ultimately, Primary Consciousness is the only Reality. Its form is multi-dimensional, self-referential, and infinite, expanding out and convolving back in upon itself, like a nine-dimensional Mobius strip. It is the ultimate logical system in which all forms arise from the conscious process of the drawing of distinctions. My understanding, arrived at through the development of the Triadic Dimensional Vortical Paradigm with application of the Calculus of Dimensional Distinctions to the vortical combinations of quanta, is that in order to put the basic concepts of the existence, appearance, and Second Coming of Christ into the proper perspective, the primary assumptions of human belief systems, the concept of spiritual advancement as a species and as individuals, and the expansion of individual consciousness are important factors that must be considered.

The existence of Primary Consciousness is what makes our physical reality possible. Without the organizing action of Primary Consciousness through the non-physical effects of gimmel, there could be no physical universe to begin with, and without the continuous action of Primary Consciousness in finite form, the parity expressed by Newton’s third law and the entropic nature of matter expressed by the second law of thermodynamics, would cause any quantized physical structure, accidentally formed, to decay as radiant energy and expand to infinity and a state of maximum entropy almost immediately. So the obvious existence of conscious beings in the expanding universe and the law of conservation of mass/energy, implies the impossibility of absolute nothingness. In plain English, there is no such thing as nothing.

Consciousness, as we experience it on this planet, is evolving from the first spark of simple awareness to Cosmic Consciousness, which includes complete awareness of all things. Christ Consciousness manifests when human consciousness combines with God’s Holy Spirit to become a bridge between finite human consciousness and the Infinite. Jesus of Nazareth spoke as the embodiment of Christ Consciousness when he said: “I and the Father are One.” And “I am the Way-shower, the truth and the light” and “No one comes to the Father except through me.”

The first coming of Christ Consciousness occurred just before the darkest time in the dark age of Kali Yuga, with the birth of Jesus as a fully enlightened Son of God. So what is the Second Coming? Because there is no plurality in Consciousness except for its temporary partial confinement in finite physical forms, the Second Coming happens when Christ Consciousness enters and expands the consciousness of a sentient being. This is why Jesus, his disciples, and others, like the Apostle Paul, told people who chose the spiritual path in those times, that some of them would see the Second Coming during their lifetimes.

A second coming happened when Jesus appeared to his followers after being crucified. The Bible says that Jesus returned multiple times after His death, appearing to a number of people over a forty-day period. The Bible specifically says that on Easter Sunday Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, as well as the women who came to his tomb (Mary the Mother of James, Salome, and Joanna), Peter, and two other disciples on the Emmaus road. He even invited the disciple Thomas to touch his wounds, to prove that he was real. Some of the Biblical references to Jesus coming in the clouds could be describing the way believers experience his coming into their consciousness.

Although technically it should not be called a second coming, the Bible does predict an eventual return of Christ as a benevolent King to reign over a long period of peace on Earth. When will it happen? The Bible is pretty clear that no one can predict the date, because it will only happen when so many people have been deceived by the dark forces of evil, that Divine intervention is necessary to prevent us from completely destroying ourselves. Why should we have to go through all this confusion, pain and suffering? The main theme of the Bible, and Christ’s teaching is that it is all of our own making. As images of the Infinite, like Adam and Eve in the Biblical story, we were given free will to choose our own path through the dualities of physical existence. By learning to make the right choice, we eventually progress from mere sparks of awareness to Oneness with the Infinite,

ERC-July 2, 2021

 

BELIEF AND REALITY, MEANING AND PURPOSE

THE MEANING AND PURPOSE OF EXISTENCE

©Edward R. Close  2019

Disclaimer: What I have to say in this article, especially about the role of gimmel in Reality, meaning and purpose, is my opinion and mine alone. I make no claim as to who else may or may not share my views.

BELIEF AND REALITY

Your life is determined by what you believe. And for most people now inhabiting physical bodies on this planet, what you believe depends upon the amount of Reality you have experienced directly yourself, plus that which you accept as real from what others have told you. But that which others tell you may be true, partially true, or it may not be true at all. So be careful what you accept as true, accept nothing blindly, put it to the test of Reality as you know it. To the extent that what you believe is identical with Reality, your life will be what it is meant to be. When what you believe becomes 100% identical with Reality, you will have reached the Great Goal of Conscious Existence. But this is a rare condition for inhabitants of this planet at this point in time. One only reaches that level of consciousness when the time is right, and the Mind is ready. The process of reaching the state wherein you are capable of realizing that goal is called spiritual evolution. Thus it is of utmost importance to look often, and deeply, into what you believe. Your happiness, your well-being and your future depend upon it.

THE DISCOVERY OF GIMMEL

Why do I bring gimmel up in this context? Because it is a direct link to a major part of the universe that is not available to the physical senses. The vast majority of Reality is not available to us through our physical senses because it is composed of non-physical gimmel. A major part of Reality is, in this sense, hidden. This is not a flaw in the way the universe is created, it is a necessary limitation on the physical vehicles of evolving souls. I discovered gimmel in 2012, while in the process of developing a system of quantum mathematics and applying it to quantal descriptions of the combinations of the elementary particles that form the atomic elements that make up the universe we experience. I realized immediately that this was the first step necessary in putting consciousness into the equations of science, something I had been seeking to do since the 1970s when I wrote The Book of Atma.

QUANTUM REALITY: MASS, ENERGY AND GIMMEL

Stable Reality is made up of quanta of mass, energy and gimmel. There would be no stable atomic structure without gimmel. The precise combinations of quanta of the three forms of Reality, mass, energy and gimmel, that make up the physical reality of quarks, protons, neutrons, and atoms, are calculable fairly easily using the quantum math we call the calculus of dimensional distinctions. The paradigm shift from the current mainstream materialistic paradigm to the Reality of mass. energy and consciousness, that we call the Triadic Dimensional Vortical Paradigm (TDVP), is derived directly from the data of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) using mathematics available to anyone conversant with high school algebra and geometry. The derivation of the new scientific paradigm, including consciousness in the equations, has been published in several venues available to anyone, including this blog site. It has been validated by explaining paradoxes and experimental observations and data that are not explainable in the current mainstream paradigm.

REALITY IS A UNIVERSE OF MEANING AND PURPOSE

With the discovery and validation of gimmel, and its role in the evolution of the physical universe, we now know that the evolving universe is not the result of random processes, it is the purposeful and meaningful evolution of physical organisms to act as vehicles through which individualized manifestations of Spirit can experience physical reality. Consciousness, as the manifestation and expression of Primary Consciousness (traditionally called Spirit) in the physical universe, is primary, with gimmel as its agent, organizing stable structures of matter and energy in the continuing formation of the universe for the purpose of the spiritual evolution of individuals from the bare awareness of self from other-than self, to Cosmic Consciousness. The fact that the percentage of non-physical gimmel in the elements that make up the universe known to our current science is identical to the percentage of so-called dark matter and dark energy detected by the Hubble Probe, is evidence that the universe, not just this planet, is structured by Primary Consciousness for the purpose of the development of living organisms capable of being controlled by individualized consciousness for the purpose of spiritual evolution. (Calculation of the volumetric ratio of gimmel to Hadronic matter and energy, showing its correspondence to Hubble Probe data has also been published by Neppe and Close.)

TIME, SPACE AND CONSCIOUSNESS

Just as mass, energy and gimmel are the triad of variables of substance, or content of Reality, time, space and conscious imagery are the triad of variables of extent, in which the substance is contained as stable manifestations of the logic of Primary Consciousness. They are created by the stable existence of mass, energy and gimmel, and have no existence of their own. Thus Consciousness is Primary and omnipresent, as the ocean must seem to the fish who dwell deep within it; gimmel is secondary, as the organizer, and matter and energy are tertiary. All of this is describable with the Calculus of Dimensional Distinctions as nine dimensional domains nested within the infinity of Primary Consciousness.

 ER Close, 5/4/2019

AWAKE

 

CONCERNING THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE UNIVERSE

After my customary 5 or 6 hours of sleep, I follow a morning routine. It consists of a series of physical, mental and spiritual exercises. I believe this routine is what keeps me feeling young and healthy. I am not fanatic about it however, I vary the routine some from day to day and may skip parts of it, or even skip it altogether, if circumstances force me to. For example, it is difficult to do certain yogic exercises on an airliner flying from the US to the Middle East or Australia.

I am always working on one or more, sometimes several, math, logic and theoretical physics problems. I don’t see anything unusual about that, it’s just who I am. And there seems to be a part of me that continues working even when my body is asleep. It is not uncommon for me to wake from a deep sleep with the solution to a problem that I have been contemplating for days, fully completed in every detail in my head.

This morning, after about six hours of sleep, I did my routine and then began to write; longhand, pen and paper. I usually transfer such writing to my computer for documentation. This was no different, and now, I’m going to share this morning’s thoughts with you here.

BELIEF AND KNOWLEDGE

Belief is a two-faced trickster! A virtual Jekyll and Hyde: Belief can help you arrive at the truth, or it can totally keep you from knowing the truth. This is so because belief in something that is false can be just as strong as belief in something that is real and true.

How can we avail ourselves of the helpful Dr. Jekyll aspect of belief, and avoid the deception of the dark side of belief, the evil Mr. Hyde? We must start by looking at the nature of belief itself in a rational, pragmatic way: Given a certain belief, call it X, is there a way to test X? Is there a way to prove either that it is valid and true, or deceptive and false? The answer is yes, and such a test is the beginning of science.

But, you maybe surprised to find that even the idea that something can be tested, i.e., be proved true or false, -that very idea itself- depends on belief: the belief that there is an undeniable bona fide REALITY, against which any belief can be evaluated and tested. But, how do we know there is such an ultimate reality?

QUESTION: Can the belief that there is an ultimate, undeniable reality be tested? The question is, how can such a basic belief be tested? Against what?

But, wait! Surely this is just silly thinking. If I believe that I can fly by flapping my arms like a bird, I can certainly test that belief by jumping off the roof, out of a tree, or off a cliff. Which do you think I am going to decide is real: the belief that I can fly, or the broken bones and bloody pain I experience at ground zero at the bottom of the cliff?

What have we learned by this round of thinking about belief? I suggest that we have learned that there can be questions that appear to be perfectly reasonable questions to ask, that cannot be answered within the framework of the logic within which the question is asked. Questioning the existence of reality within the reality we can experience and know, is an infinite descent into absurdity, like trying to prove that reality does not exist.

But this realization is not new. A brilliant mathematician named Kurt Gӧdel proved this in1931! His proof is contained in the demonstration of the truth of two mathematical statements called the Incompleteness Theorems. The essence of the meaning of the proof is that logical questions can be asked that cannot be answered within the framework of the logic within which the question is allowed.

By asking a silly question, we have uncovered a deep truth: The truth or falsity of a belief can only be tested by direct experience. When I wake up on the ground in pain, I know that I can’t fly by flapping my arms like a bird in this reality. But mainstream science ignores direct experience, avoids it like the plague, as something subjective, and therefore unreal and untestable.

Mainstream science is based for the most part, on a firm belief in physicalism, better known as the doctrine of materialism, which says that everything can be explained as the result of matter and energy interacting in space and time, or in Minkowski space-time as updated by the theory of relativity. This belief system, a virtual religion for some, holds that consciousness is an epiphenomenon of matter and energy, and that without the existence of certain complex physical structures, consciousness simply does not exist. But this is a belief that is not provable within the physicalist paradigm, because a universe without consciousness cannot be investigated without consciousness. Because of this, materialism is unscientific, because for a hypothesis to be scientific, it must be falsifiable, and reality without consciousness cannot be verified without the existence of consciousness.

Let’s see if we can learn anything by asking another silly question:

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

When one decides to study science, as I did, one is told about the scientific method (something that almost no scientist actually uses). We are taught how to observe, weigh, measure and question in a way that insures that we will be led to find what the instructors want us to find. If we find something different, we have to do the experiment over until we get the desired results.

But, this observing, measuring and questioning involves standing apart from that which we observe and measure. It is this forced separation, which is mistaken for and conflated with objectivity, that makes it so difficult for us to actually know anything! It is this imagined objectivity that leads us to ask such an absurd question as “What is Consciousness?” It is this pseudo-scientific method that causes us to believe that if we have a name for something, we actually know what it is! But having a word for consciousness does not mean that we know what it is. To begin with, consciousness is not a what.

When I entered the academic world in the 1950s, as a physics major, I was taught that real science consisted of the mathematically exact discipline of physics and maybe, somewhat peripherally, its less exact stepchild, chemistry. This teaching was not overt, but it was implied. Real science involved objectively observing, weighing and measuring real things, activities that required the use of mathematical tools such as algebra, trigonometry and integral and differential calculus.

Less demanding, and more logically vague disciplines like geology and biology involved little or no knowledge of complex mathematics, just the observation and labeling of things. From the viewpoint of physics, they were not real sciences, they were more or less hobbies, like collecting stamps or butterflies. Psychology was a pseudo-science with ramblings about vague things like feelings and emotions, things that could not be weighed or measured with any exactitude. And parapsychology, ostensibly invented by some wacky Englishmen, and just being introduced in the US by J.B. Rhine at Duke University, should be dismissed as fantasy, bordering on lunacy. ---Some scientists still see things this way.

So, as a budding physicist, I knew that I had to have a working knowledge of mathematics. But when I turned to the serious study of mathematics, by the time I had earned a degree in the subject, I realized that applied mathematics, the handy tool for dealing with the quantification of things, actually depends on real mathematics: Underlying applied math is a mathematical logic more basic than the counting numbers, rational fractions and transcendental numbers, and the fundamental operations of arithmetic. I found that real mathematics was far more interesting than the simple tools that scientists were using for solving quantifiable problems like the balancing of chemical equations or determining the parabolic flight-path of a rocket. I was excited that there was a deeper form of mathematics that depends upon finite distinctions drawn by conscious beings. I realized that at the root of real science lay the undeniably real functioning of consciousness. The reality we experience, is a world created by the conscious drawing of distinctions.

Once you realize that consciousness is, as Max Planck declared, the reality from which all things arise, including matter, energy, space and time, you know that the question “What is consciousness?”- A seemingly straight-forward reasonable question, is one of Gӧdel’s ‘unanswerable’ questions; that is, it is a question that cannot be answered within the framework of the logical system within which it is asked. So, does this mean that it can never be answered? No, we cannot jump that conclusion, because there may be another logical framework, expanded beyond the simple calculus of applied mathematics, a different paradigm, within the question can be answered.

In the prevalent materialistic paradigm, consciousness can have no meaning or independent existence of its own. If matter and energy, time and space are all there is, then the existence of life and consciousness are complete mysteries because there is no mechanism by which matter can become conscious, and even if there were, consciousness could not exist without a physical vehicle. But, I have direct evidence that this is not true.

I have direct experience of evidence that consciousness does not depend on the existence of matter and energy alone. I have had, as have many other people, the direct experience of my consciousness and other forms of consciousness existing independent of physical bodies. Let me be clear: I have experienced being consciously outside of my physical body, observing, without the benefit of physical eyes, things that were verified after I returned to my body. Not only that, the application of the calculus of dimensional distinctions, as posted in this blog, as well as in a number of peer-reviewed publications, proves that consciousness is fundamental and primary. Some form of consciousness had to exist before any finite distinction, specifically particles emerging from the big bang, could ever become stable enough to form atoms and life-supporting chemical compounds.

The knowledge that consciousness is primary makes asking the question about what consciousness is, completely improper. Like a fish in water, we are immersed in consciousness, and in addition to that, since consciousness is primary, everything is derived from consciousness, and our essence is consciousness. As consciousness embedded in consciousness, we have nothing with which to compare consciousness because we have no direct experience of anything other than consciousness.

Is it not curious that materialist scientists see it as their primary purpose to prove that the universe has no purpose, and that materialist psychologists and philosophers think hard to prove that thoughts are not real, and believe firmly that beliefs are meaningless? When will they wake and realize that their own consciousness is real and that it is part of a Greater Consciousness: The Infinite Reality that is manifested finitely as the physical universe?

Ed  Close 06/18/2018

THE FLAT EARTH HYPOTHESIS: SEEING IS BELIEVING!,

THE FLAT EARTH HYPOTHESIS: SEEING IS BELIEVING!

Thanks to a Facebook friend, I am going to take this opportunity to make what I think are some very important points about seeing, believing, and the scientific paradigm of the mainstream establishment. People all too often don’t question the prevailing scientific paradigm, because, after all, it brought us television, computers, smart phones, etc., etc., …and mainstream scientists have spent virtually their entire adult lives studying science, so surely, they must know what they’re doing, right? Wrong! They are just as fallible as anyone, and because of academic specialization, they tend to have tunnel vision and are often not very open minded.

This Facebook friend deserves credit for bringing up the flat-earth hypothesis is spite of the ridicule he’s sure to get from people who think they know the Earth is round.  He deserves even more credit for having an inquiring mind, and not just accepting what the scientific establishment says, but wanting to see the truth for himself. It is very easy to just laugh at him and say, surely no one in this day and age really believes that the Earth is flat!  That’s been disproved ages ago! The Earth is just one of the planets orbiting the Sun. Hasn’t he seen Star Trek, or Star Wars?  Of course Star Trek, Star Wars, and other science fiction movies that show the Earth like a ball suspended in space, were not actually shot from outer space, those images are just special effects. And NASA could certainly produce such films and pass them off as real if they actually have not gone to the Moon, or sent an unmanned probe to Mars.

There may or may not be a massive conspiracy and cover-up going on; maybe we’ll get to that later, but first, let’s consider my FB friend’s position: He has taken the position that seeing is believing and has stated that the Earth looks flat from 100,000 feet up. Furthermore, he contends that the fact that no curvature can be seen in the horizon from that altitude proves that the Earth is actually flat because, he believes that if the surface of the Earth were curved as scientists say it is, you would be able see that curvature from 100,000 feet. But, is that true? The Flat-Earth people apparently believe it is, and it sounds right. But, if we’re going to reason this out, we can’t just accept it as true because it sounds right, we need to think of it as a hypothesis and actually prove it either true or false.

Seeing is Believing

The belief that, if the surface of the Earth is curved, then we should be able to see that curvature from 100,000 feet up is based on the idea that light always travels in a straight line, at a constant speed. It turns out that this is not always true. It is usually true in everyday circumstances, like looking across the room or down the street, but looking at the horizon which is a great distance from you, from 100,000 feet (18.9 miles) up, is different. There are several physical phenomena that cause light to slow down and follow a curved path and significantly affect what we see when looking at the horizon from 100,000 feet up. These phenomena are either too minor to be noticed over short distances, or non-existent in our normal environment. The most relevant one in this case is refraction.

Refraction is what makes a straight straw in a glass of water look bent. It happens because light moves more slowly in a dense medium. In our case, the atmosphere of the Earth is like the water in the glass, except the atmosphere is most dense at the surface of the Earth and thins out to nothing at about 327,360 feet. So, light coming to the eye of an observer at 100,000 feet from the horizon is curved as it passes through the atmosphere, making the horizon look even farther away than it really is. This makes the horizon look flat until you get high enough that, looking straight down, the Earth will look round regardless of which model is correct.

Why is this so? Imagine you are standing on a huge ball, a few miles in diameter. Depending on the actual size of the ball relative to your height, if you are tall enough, you will be able to see the curve of the ball. Now, suppose you are instead, standing at the center of a flat, circular disc shape, like the Flat-Earth model shown on the various Flat Earth Societies’ websites, with it horizontal diameter the same as the diameter of the ball. Because the surface of the disc is flat, you will have to be taller to see the curve of the edge of the disc than you had to be to see the curvature of the ball, but if you are tall enough, or you stand on something to gain enough altitude, you will see the curved edge, just like you did on the ball.

The fact that at a certain height above the surface, the Earth will look round regardless of which model is correct, means that to use this approach to prove which model is actually correct we will have to calculate the heights at which we can see the curved edge for both models and then go to those heights to see which one is real. But, different from standing on the ball or disc, to accurately determine those heights above the surface of the Earth, we will also have to calculate the proper adjustment for the curvature effect from the light passing through the Earth’s atmosphere for each observation, since the density of the atmosphere varies with height. As I mentioned above, the atmosphere thins out to nothing at about 327,360 feet. This has been determined two ways: both mathematically by calculating the effect of gravity on the gasses of the atmosphere, and by direct sampling with measuring devices called sondes, attached to balloons. Calculating the respective heights for observing the edge of the disc or the curvature of the sphere, and flying high enough to check them out would be a fun experiment and would give us an absolute proof positive answer. But before we try to get funds to do it, there are other less labor-intensive ways to approach the problem of determining which model is correct.

Perhaps the easiest one is the sunrise experiment I proposed in an earlier FB post. It doesn’t require funding or high-flying observations, just cooperation from a couple of friends or acquaintances. Just have someone in New York City and someone in Denver call you on the same day at dawn at their respective locations. If the Earth’s surface is flat, the calls will be virtually simultaneous because there are no mountains high enough between Denver and New York to block the line of sight. If the Earth surface is curved, the call from Denver will come in after the call from New York, because the sun will be hidden behind the curvature of the Earth until it reaches the height necessary for it to be seen in Denver. If the Earth is nearly spherical, the calls will be about 2 hours apart.

If you try this, you will find that the time between the calls will actually be about 2 hours, give or take a few minutes depending on exactly where your friends are located in the Denver and New York areas. I can say this with confidence because I have been in both Denver and New York City a number of times, and I have friends in both areas. It is always necessary to allow that same amount of time difference if you are in one area and want to connect by telephone or skype at a specific time with someone in the other area. If the Earth were flat, the sun would be seen to rise at the same time in Denver and New York, but would reach the zenith (straight overhead) about 2 hours apart in in the two locations, Denver 2 hours behind New York. So the diurnal time difference would vary during the day, making synchronizing watches for a given time to schedule a phone call between the two locations very difficult. Obviously this is not the case. Conclusion: the surface of the Earth is effectively the surface of a sphere.

BELIEF IN PREDESTINATION AND PROPHECY

There’s a great deal of interest in the End of Days prophecies now, and we have more than ever before, conditions indicating the approach of the end times events predicted in the Bible.  Interest or belief in Biblical prophecy suggests that certain things are actually predestined. So I posted a survey to see what those following my posts think about how much of our future is predestined and how much free will we have. Here are the results to date. All respondents agreed that some things are predictable with near complete certainty, but differed widely on the other questions.

1. Incompleteness and quantum uncertainty reduce scientific laws to statistics, and calculations of future events to probabilistic estimates 75% T, 25% F, 0% ? (Don’t Know)

2. Some things are predictable with almost complete certainty 100% T

3. What I believe affects physical reality 88% T, 12% F, 0% ?

4. Reality consists of much more than the physical universe 76% T, 12%, F, 12% ?

5. Reality is created by the accumulative effect of what everyone believes 75% T, 25% F, 0% ?

6. Time is an illusion 50% T, 38% F, 12% ?

7. What percentage of the events of life are predetermined by circumstances beyond our control?

Average:  89.5% Range: 50% to 100%

SEEKING CERTAINTY IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD FREEWILL VS DETERMINISM

FREEWILL VS DETERMINISM                        ?

It is the very nature of human beings, both individually, and through the disciplines of religion and science to try to seek complete knowledge and certainty. From a religious point of view, if God is all-knowing, then He knows the complete history of every atom and every soul from the beginning until the end of time. The Bible says that we can know much with certainty: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.” - John 16:13. But, how accurate are predictions? We also find: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” - Matthew 7:7. But, how much can we, as human beings, know?

As for science, there was a time when scientists believed that the goals of completeness and certainty were attainable. See, e.g., the writings of Descartes and Laplace. They believed that, given the initial conditions of the universe, the laws of physics would allow us to explain everything in the universe and predict the entire future in great detail. This deterministic point of view still exists among leading physicists like Stephen Hawking who embrace atheism and declare that a theory of everything is within our grasp. But, if everything can be known, it is pre-determined. Do we have no freewill?

The last post made the point that proof of Gӧdel’s incompleteness theorems changed the way we can see the world forever. We know now that science can explain any aspect of reality we are capable of conceiving of, but will never explain everything. We also have the fact that, at the quantum level, there is a very small, but finite amount of uncertainty. Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle has been validated as a basic fact of physical reality. But, even a tiny bit of uncertainty can allow outcomes that lead to vastly different futures. See, for example, discussions of the ‘Butterfly Effect’. Together, the incompleteness theorems and the uncertainty principle have put a limit on determinism. The atheist’s dream of a ‘theory of everything’ is unattainable, and the true believer can only know the truth in some perfect realm existing beyond the space and time of the physical universe.

The teachings of the past masters of both scientific and spiritual enlightenment suggest that, as human beings, we can change the world by changing our attitudes, by changing the way we think. It now appears that, at least to some degree, reality is what we choose to make of it. Millions attest to the fact that positive attitude and prayer work, and quantum physics suggests that the very nature of physical reality, and what we can say about it, depend upon conscious choices we make. Perhaps you’ve seen this in your own life. My wife and I have seen what many would call amazing miracles in our lives. We have defied the odds and the wisdom of mainstream medicine a number of times. The important question now becomes: how much do we actually change reality by what we believe and choose to do? If our belief is strong enough, can we bring about results that others might think impossible?

The last post, focused on incompleteness, was linked with two different headings for a purpose: the links were designed to get the attention of different types of thinkers. The response was good, indicating interest in this subject, with numerous shares and over 200 visits to the blog. That may be enough to allow me to conduct a small survey. Following up on these posts, I want to try to get some more feedback. Here are a few questions for those who would like to participate:

After reading the last two posts, please go back to the Facebook link, or message me and reply with ‘T, F or ?’ for ‘True’, ‘False’, or ‘I don’t know’, for each of the first six questions below, and provide a percentage for the seventh. I will publish the results within a few days.

1. Incompleteness and quantum uncertainty reduce scientific laws to statistics, and calculations of future events to probabilistic estimates

2. Some things are predictable with almost complete certainty

3. What I believe affects physical reality

4. Reality consists of much more than the physical universe

5. Reality is created by the accumulative effect of what everyone believes

6. Time is an illusion

7. What percentage of the events of life are predetermined by circumstances beyond our control?