This post deals with a specific part of one of my main arguments, TSM, specifically the material part. If you don't know of it, you should probably read it before this.
Originally I relied purely on the concept of infinity to point to the impossibility, naturally, of having an infinite number of particle layers below the atom. This still holds true, infinity is not a real number and cannot be dealt with by mathematics (and therefore science) directly, we need to use limits. However, a more detailed argument about the results of going on for infinity might help persuade the reader.
If you continue to break subatomic particles down into their parts, each successive particle is smaller in volume and has less mass. If you do this for infinity, or as you do this for infinity, the mass and volume of the particles (or whatever you happen to find down there) becomes zero. This is what philosophy (though it sounds like physics) calls a simple. Another definition or property of simples is that they cannot be divided. So we end up with a weird sort of situation where as we continue to divide particles, eventually (which we never reach), we get to simples which can't be divided. This does make sense to me, but it's a little funny. Anyway...
Beyond the indivisibility of simples, they can't really obey the laws of physics. We know that forces exist between particles, like the electrical force between electrons for instance. But if the world is composed of a quantifiable number of simples that have no mass and experience, therefore, a quantifiable force, then they experience infinite acceleration. As they reach the speed of light instantaneously we run into more problems as their mass cannot be increased (they have no mass), so they even muddle with Einsteins laws. On another point, that of mass, if we are composed of particles with no mass, then everything in the universe has no mass and is in effect kind of not existent.
I have absolutely no claim to have a deep understanding of these things, they're just fun to think about. And as I think about them, I am struck more and more with the fact that this universe and all that composes it, it help up in existence purely by the fiat power of God.
31 July 2012
truth and grace
I owe this post in large part to a friend of mine, Matt Richards, who I hope does not mind me putting him in a post.
Essentially it is this: when you are around people who are hurting, just being their friend or whatever, do not be afraid to challenge them, to say things strongly, to call them out on something. I'm sorry it's kind of hard to describe without getting into the lower categories. CAVEAT: only call Christians out with these principles. Non-Christians do not necessarily believe the underlying truths that support these challenges. We should never impose our beliefs on others, only offer it as tantalizing and true. Perhaps with non-Christians the best you can do is promise your support and care.
Essentially it is this: when you are around people who are hurting, just being their friend or whatever, do not be afraid to challenge them, to say things strongly, to call them out on something. I'm sorry it's kind of hard to describe without getting into the lower categories. CAVEAT: only call Christians out with these principles. Non-Christians do not necessarily believe the underlying truths that support these challenges. We should never impose our beliefs on others, only offer it as tantalizing and true. Perhaps with non-Christians the best you can do is promise your support and care.
1) Do not do everything to make them feel better, saying it isn't as bad as it seems, to make the world seem easier than it is. IT ISN'T! That's why, along with the devils lies, that they are down in the first place. Jesus says there will be pain in John 16:33 "“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” Speak instead that God is stronger than the world and will always give us that strength. Tell them (and yourself when you find yourself down) to rely on that strength. Romans 8:35-37 (quoting Psalm 44:22) "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: 'For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.' No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us."
2) Often they are believing lies. Call them out on this and ask them to fight against the lies. For women it is often 'I'm not valuable or loved.' for men it's like 'I'm not doing the right thing, I'm not strong enough' or for all of us 'Everyone hates me' and 'There is nothing to life beyond this pain, it's inescapable.' Tell them that they are believing these lies, they aren't true, and they should reject and fight them.
3) Oftentimes hurting people having coping mechanisms, things they do or say or think in order to retreat behind a wall or reach out for what they need so desperately. Most of the time these things are wrong and should not be allowed to continue. God gives us pain in order to make us more dependent on him, so dependence on something other than God CANNOT be tolerated. It is a lie and should be demolished. You may thing that denying this person this coping behavior may hurt them. Don't be afraid, it probably will. But the surgeons knife also hurts, God's trials to prove and refine our faith hurt. Hurting is good sometimes.
Proverbs 9:8
"Do not rebuke mockers or they will hate you; rebuke the wise and they will love you."
qualia again
I highly encourage you to read the wiki on qualia, it is quite excellent in presenting definitions and arguments for and against the non-physical world. What I'll explain here is very brief.
The definition of qualia is a little complicated. However, essentially the only qualia ever discussed is color, so when I saw qualia, just think of color. In long discussions with an atheist friend of mine in college, he seemed to say that color is an illusion, something that our brain conjures up in order for us to think about what we see - it's a filtration or a language. Here is the thought that inspired this post: when he describes our brain communicating color to us, why is he separating us from our brains? He is, in effect, creating two characters. For a language is only created in the context of at least two independent entities. By describing it this way, he is saying that we are not our brains, we are something deeper. What is this? I have no idea what to call it. Labeling it 'soul' might be a little odd, 'will' seems a little off topic. Anyway, I hope you get the idea.
If we did not have this soul, we would not have the perception of thought, of color, or of anything for that matter. We would simply be an incredibly complicated chemical machine that has no consciousness of its own.
You think of yourself, atheist, to be your body. Yet you yourself are one, distinct perceptual entity, and your body is simply a continuous array of matter, only distinct from the matter around it by an illusion in our brains. What part of that matter makes you who you are? How much of your body could we cut away and still have you? If we switched your brain with someone else's, would you wake up in their body or in your own? If we somehow hooked up a second brain to your nervous system, would you have two thoughts going on at once, would you be in mental conversation with that poor other fellow, or just be a whole lot smarter? What if we took only your left brain and switched it? Your right? Your spinal column with basic motor functions? Your other singular brain parts such as the hypothalamus?
Who ARE you? or perhaps as you might say, WHAT are you?
The color we see, the sensation of fabric you're wearing, the feeling of gravity underneath your feet, sound, taste, even thought itself, all testifies to a deeper you, and to the one who created you.
Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
Psalm 19:1-4, Psalm 97:6 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night and night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is no heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the earth."
P.S. you may say that animals see color, so do we claim they have souls? No, think as you would explain it. All of their physical functions may work without having a consciousness. I don't know if they have one...I'm not going to even make a guess.
The definition of qualia is a little complicated. However, essentially the only qualia ever discussed is color, so when I saw qualia, just think of color. In long discussions with an atheist friend of mine in college, he seemed to say that color is an illusion, something that our brain conjures up in order for us to think about what we see - it's a filtration or a language. Here is the thought that inspired this post: when he describes our brain communicating color to us, why is he separating us from our brains? He is, in effect, creating two characters. For a language is only created in the context of at least two independent entities. By describing it this way, he is saying that we are not our brains, we are something deeper. What is this? I have no idea what to call it. Labeling it 'soul' might be a little odd, 'will' seems a little off topic. Anyway, I hope you get the idea.
If we did not have this soul, we would not have the perception of thought, of color, or of anything for that matter. We would simply be an incredibly complicated chemical machine that has no consciousness of its own.
You think of yourself, atheist, to be your body. Yet you yourself are one, distinct perceptual entity, and your body is simply a continuous array of matter, only distinct from the matter around it by an illusion in our brains. What part of that matter makes you who you are? How much of your body could we cut away and still have you? If we switched your brain with someone else's, would you wake up in their body or in your own? If we somehow hooked up a second brain to your nervous system, would you have two thoughts going on at once, would you be in mental conversation with that poor other fellow, or just be a whole lot smarter? What if we took only your left brain and switched it? Your right? Your spinal column with basic motor functions? Your other singular brain parts such as the hypothalamus?
Who ARE you? or perhaps as you might say, WHAT are you?
The color we see, the sensation of fabric you're wearing, the feeling of gravity underneath your feet, sound, taste, even thought itself, all testifies to a deeper you, and to the one who created you.
Romans 1:20 "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse."
Psalm 19:1-4, Psalm 97:6 "The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night and night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is no heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the earth."
P.S. you may say that animals see color, so do we claim they have souls? No, think as you would explain it. All of their physical functions may work without having a consciousness. I don't know if they have one...I'm not going to even make a guess.
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