8. THEOLOGY

 

The word Theology will be understood here in way different from its normal usage. We need a science which will deal with the whole of existence rather than with different parts or aspects of it. It must take into consideration both subjective and objective things as well as experiences. It should deal with matter, mind and consciousness, facts, meanings and values.

It can be noticed by all that we see and name a multitude of separate things but that they interact and change into one another so that there must be an overall unity. The word Universe is applied to the physical aspect of this. But there may be a great number of Universes, and we must also include life and consciousness. Indeed, science itself is something which exists in the mind and its truths are not given to the senses, its laws are not physical entities. We must, therefore, deal with a much greater unity than the term Universe implies. The name God, Absolute or Allah is given to this.

This should not imply that we already know what its nature is or can ever know this fully. As a science it should not pre-suppose any particular idea of God. What we can study is the relationship of this Absolute with the world of phenomena. Like other sciences where knowledge progresses, we can only hope for progressive approximation to the Truth.   

 

There are seven aspects to this science:-

(1) It must examine the assumptions underlying all the sciences such as the principles of conservation and causation.

(2) It should extract the features and discoveries common to all the sciences or the relationship between them.

(3) It should deal with the principles governing perception, motives and applications underlying science.

(4) It must deal with the function of science and all human activities and institutions in the general scheme of things.

(5) The function of science is not only the gathering of data, but also of interpreting and organising it.

(6) It should study all phenomena, normal or paranormal, which do not normally fit into any particular science or which may require the expertise of several sciences. It cannot merely dismiss the corroborative experiences of countless Prophets, saints and other religious people. These have to be explained.

(7) It may have to create its own methodology and conceptual system.

 

We will call this science Theology. It is the quest for the Ultimate Truth.

 

But such an Ultimate Truth, from the Islamic point of view, must be the source not only of all the facts of existence, but also of meaning and values. There is no value in simply knowing what is, if it makes no difference to life. It must provide us with a framework by which we can interpret our experiences and govern our motives. The desire for knowledge is built into us by the fact that it enables us to adjust to the world, to survive, develop and fulfil ourselves. This implies that there are certain urges or pressures and potentialities which have to be actualised. Both being and becoming are facts of existence. These are part of the Ultimate Truth. Though values may depend on facts, it is also true that facts depend on values, otherwise we could not have created anything new, including science. And meanings depend on the relationship between facts and values. We interpret facts by our values. These relationships imply that there is a Unity beyond the three from which they derive.

 

Theology is not normally regarded as a science for the following reasons:-

(a) Many people believe that science differs from religion because the former is based on evidence while the latter is not. This is untrue. Though most people accept a religion as they do the sciences without evidence, the origin of religion depends as much on experiences as do the sciences, though these are not analytical but holistic or synthetic experiences. Science, and Logic and Mathematics on which it is based, all rest ultimately on certain assumptions which are themselves unproved but accepted on faith.

(b) Religious ideas come from inspiration or revelation rather than reason or experience. However, inspiration is found in other sciences and reason and experience through experiment are often applied afterwards. This can also be done in Theology.

(c) It is not possible to measure and apply mathematics in this field. There are, therefore, no exact results. But we have to deal with qualities and order as well as quantities and these others cannot be reduced to numbers. However, the measurements and the mathematics has already been done or can be done in the particular sciences. Some systems exist, such as those of Pythagoras, where numbers are used and given meanings in quite a different way than they are used in ordinary mathematics.

(d) Statements made in this field, particularly about God are unfalsifiable. It is thought that any statement what ever can be made in religion, and it is not possible to refute or confirm it by argument, experiment or calculation. This is not strictly true. Once we know that the word God applies to the ultimate reality, then if inferences made from these statements contradict existing realities or lead to maladaptation rather than development, then they must be false. Science adopts similar procedures with respect to its theories.

(e) The progress of humanity depends on science, scientific ideas are certain truths, and the progress of science takes place against the opposition of religion. This, too, is untrue. Not only is it the case that many religious people, even priests, have contributed to science in major ways, but the progress of science has also occurred, history shows, against the opposition of other scientists and commercial and political interests. The human mind is limited by previous conditioning, habit, prejudice and self-interest irrespective of the field in which it operates. Power, wealth, prestige and convention control what is sought and acceptable. Nor is it certain that a scientific idea is true. Science is a progressive thing, its theories and truths keep changing. It is not independent of the rest of life. Progress in it depends also on economic and political progress.

(f) There are, and have been, a great many frameworks of thought. The scientific framework has been the most useful and ought to replace all others. It could, however, be argued that science without ethics can be destructive. The pursuit of science itself is a matter of ethics and often of aesthetics and economics, and these require other frameworks of thought. There could, perhaps, in future, be an even more powerful and all comprehensive framework of thought which combines them all.

 

Much which should be included in this science has already been discussed in various parts of this book. Some of these ideas can be summarised.

(1) There is an ultimate, underlying, original, unitary Absolute reality.

(2) It is self-existent. That is, it is uncaused and the principle of conservation applies to it only. Other things change.

(3) Since the whole can never be described by the characteristics of the parts, it is not possible to describe the nature of the Absolute, but its effects or manifestations can be described.

(4) These manifestations include materiality, energy, order, law, intelligence, life and consciousness.

(5) The Universe appears to have arisen from nothing, by the separation of equal amounts of positive and negative, which would have annihilated each other but for an imbalance by removing part of one side of the equation. This requires a cause. It constitutes a mystery or a hidden Universe kept separate from this one by unknown causes. The idea that there random quantum fluctuations in Nothing is no explanation. If it exists then it is the ultimate Truth, the Absolute.

(6) There is a Principle of Causation. The Absolute is the cause of all things. Recent investigations show that events at the fundamental quantum level are unpredictable within a range of probabilities. We may, therefore, assume that the cause of these events lies at a still deeper level.  

(7) Though everything whatever is possible for the Absolute, He works through laws. The Laws should be regarded as restrictions or particular cases in a range of probabilities. But the probabilities are also restrictions of the range of all possibilities and impossibilities. These restrictions require a cause. An actualisation is a restriction of the laws.

(8) The whole of the Universe and all things and events in it derive from a single original impulse. There is a direction of development.

(9) All things in the Universe have a purpose. A purpose may be understood as the function which a part has with respect to the whole to which it belongs. This in its turn belongs to, and has a function with respect to, a still greater whole and so on. It arises because of this purpose and its nature, behaviour and fate depends on it.

(10) There is a hierarchy of many levels of organisation from the smallest unit to the ultimate whole.   

 

 

 

 

One way of explaining the limitations of science and, indeed, of any other system is to use the three “world model” which has been proposed and used by some philosophers and scientists. This idea will be adopted here because it is consistent with the rest of the thesis in this book, but in a radically modified way.

 

(0) There is an Absolute World A, which has no boundaries and cannot be described. It contains three circles denoting three worlds described as follows:-

(1) The Spiritual World, S, consists of conscious experiences, feelings, love, hope, faith, happiness, suffering, knowledge, images, colours, shapes, values such as truth, goodness, beauty etc.. This is the world dealt with by religion.

(2) The Mental or Platonic World, M, of forms, concepts, ideas, numbers and other mathematical entities. This is also a real world because the laws of the universe, though not physical things which can be seen, relationships such as 2+3=5 and E=MC² are objective, universal and eternal truths. This world is dealt with by Philosophy and mathematics.

(3) The Physical World, P, of material objects, events, and forces. This world is dealt with by Technology and Industry.

 

The three circles are inter-linked but do not coincide except in a small area at the centre, denoted by the number 7. Note that these three circles create 7 divisions. Since S, M and P arise from a Unity A, then the centre where they coincide is also A or a reflection of A, and that it exists within each of the circles. But this wholeness can never be computed or described logically. We could distinguish this centre from A by A’, in which case we have 8 divisions where the 8th is a reflection of the first - hence the word Octave.

                                                   

The pure forms which exist in the Mental World M are super-imposed on the Physical world but imperfectly. There are, for instance, no pure geometrical lines, circles or spheres in the Physical world but only in the Mental World. Thus science which deals with the interface between them must be imperfect. In the same way religion which deals with the interface between the Spiritual World and the Physical World can never achieve the perfection of the Spiritual World. But the model also shows that there is an interface between the Mental World and the Spiritual World which refers to Theology and mental models of spiritual realities. Here, too, we cannot have perfection.

According to some points of view S comes out of P, M comes out of S and P comes out of M. In other words the physical world gives rise to human beings who have conscious experiences, and some of these lead to the construction or discovery of the world of concepts. Some of these in their turn cause us to construct the physical world which is after all only part of our total experience.

From another point of view it is M which comes out of P and S comes out of M. A third point of view requires that M should come out of S, and P from M. A fourth requires that both S and P come out of M. A fifth believes that both M and P come out of S. A sixth thinks that both M and S come out of P. A seventh insists that both S and P arise from M, that the distinction between the physical and spiritual is only made by the mind. We will leave the reader to interpret all these various points of view. The diagram, however, shows that all of these points of view are included in it and that the whole truth must, therefore, refer to something which combines them all. We can also understand the diagram either as a physical reality, or as a mental construct or as a metaphysical, mystical symbol.

There is a connection between this model and the Metaphysical diagram given in two other chapters of this book which will, no doubt, be obvious to some readers.

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Seven questions may be asked about a Religion or Theology:-

(1) What is its theory?

(2) What evidence have we? How can these teachings be justified or how consistent are they in themselves and with the rest of existence and experience?

(3) What is its Model? How can it be formulated?.

(4) What implications does it have?

(5) How does it originate?

(6) What are its effects?

(7) How can it be applied?

 The Theory

Theology we have defined as the quest for the ultimate Truth. We can all agree that there must be something which is ultimate and self-existing, though different people may disagree about its exact nature. There are certainly a great number of scientific theories about this, but none can be tested to decide between them. But this may well be something which is integral to the ultimate Reality - many alternative views are possible, each of which is a different aspect of the same thing. There is an ultimate uncertainty at the bottom of all things. This could be either because of our limited knowledge, our limited mental capacities, or because of inherent uncertainties.

 

We know the following:-

0. We know that we or anything else exists only if we are conscious. But to be conscious already implies that a distinction as well as a relationship has been made between us as (a) subject or observer, (b) the environment of which we are conscious or things in it, and (c) the interaction, relationship, experience or knowledge. Owing to this relationship there is a wholeness beyond these three. This whole remains beyond experience, but it is known by its manifestations. We call this the Absolute.

1. We cannot know anything without consciousness. But consciousness has certain inbuilt categories by means of which we see and interpret our sensations. These are said to be things such as quality, quantity, relationships including causation, purpose, modes such as existence, possibility, certainty. truth, goodness, beauty, usefulness, justice etc.. There is some doubt whether space, time and intensity or mass are also categories. The function of consciousness is to organise data and create an awareness of the wholeness, to provide consistency and unity, and this depends on the degree of integration of the observer. From the Islamic point of view the categories are the Attributes of Allah, the Names taught to Adam. This makes Islamic Epistemology different from the Western one.

2. We apply reason to our experiences in the form of logic and mathematics, and also by as yet an unsystemised method of pattern formation. But these system are based on certain assumptions or axioms regarded as self-evident. They are unproved and accepted on faith. They derive from the categories of consciousness. They have to be consistent with each other and no conclusions containing more information are allowed by the process of reasoning which are not contained in these axioms. Thus reason connects things together to provide understanding. Some of the Axioms are sometimes found to be independent or inconsistent.  

3. We obtain data through our external senses about the environment, the world we live in. But we also have physiological senses about our body such as pain and pleasure, and we have inner senses in so far as we are aware of thoughts, images, and feelings. This constitutes our world which, because events in it come and go without our volition, is regarded as objective, existing independent of ourselves. But we abstract certain elements from our experiences to invent concepts and then we use these concepts to describe and identify experiences.

It appears to be obvious, therefore, that we are unlikely to find the Ultimate Truth by knowledge of the external world only, especially if it is merely verbal. But as far as descriptive knowledge of the ultimate truth is concerned, we cannot find it without also considering the nature of consciousness.  

 

Thus, there appear to be four candidates for the Ultimate Self-existing Truth:-

(1) The Total Super-Universe. The word Super-Universe is used because several theories exist in Physics which predict either many Parallel Universes, the birth of many Universes out of others, or a Universe in imaginary Time so that our present Universe is only a small part of the Totality. These ideas overcome Pantheism. This observable Universe is in any case only a part of the Universe owing to the fact that the speed of light creates a boundary. The Universe is expanding at a rate increasing with the distance from us. The boundary is created where this speed of expansion equals the speed of light so that no light can reach us from beyond it. It could be that there is no beginning or end and we could regard this totality as a sphere where any point could be the beginning or end or a new beginning for another Universe. This Universe would have to be, or to create, the Laws, Conditions and Constants by which any physical system is described.

(2) The Laws regulating the Universe or the Logical and Mathematical Necessity by which these Laws are described. Apart from the description, most scientists believe the description refers to an objective fact.

(3) The Mind or Consciousness. Whereas knowledge, not being a physical thing, is certainly in the consciousness of the individual, all human knowledge is in their collective Consciousness. But if we regard such knowledge as being objective, then it must exist in a Universal Consciousness. Logic and Mathematics can be regarded as a creation of consciousness and existing in it.

(4) A Unitary Reality which transcends all these and gives rise to them, named God, Allah or the Absolute. This is the religious view. Science remains agnostic because as the definition itself shows the idea cannot be tested by scientific methods designed for physical or sensory data. But it also uses reason and the consciousness of Truth, Beauty, Goodness and Usefulness which transcend reason. But these all fall into the first three categories.         

 

These four possibilities are regarded by some people as equal in status because there is no way of proving any of them right or wrong. They are equally based on faith. But we may doubt this. Consciousness transcends Logic and Mathematics. These are only a part of the functions the mind is capable of. These systems in turn transcend the world of sensory or physical data, since these have no meaning apart from the search, perception, interpretation and organisation of this data done by these systems. Consciousness has limits and there are constraints upon it. We cannot freely invent images. Things pass in and out of it without our volition. There is, therefore, something which transcends the mind but in so far as it does we cannot know it.

It is necessary to understand that from the scientific point of view a God who initially creates the Universe but takes no further part in it is quite admissible though unprovable. There is also an opening for the role of God and human free will in the existence of random events at the Quantum and Chaos levels, but this would still be undetectable, for if we do not know God we cannot know that He is the cause.

The Islamic view is that Allah is creator, former, maintainer, guider, and is all pervasive and continually creating and recreating. He is transcendent, imminent as well as personal. He is involved in all things. He is the ultimate Subject and Object, the origin of causes and purposes, the Absolute Unity. All the above three notions are combined. He can do as He Wills but He is also the author of the Laws and forces and of Ordinances. This includes randomness, causal forces which create regularity, and organisation. It is probably correct to say that Allah creates and contains Consciousness (Spirit) besides other things, this creates and contains the Laws besides other things, and this creates and contains the Universe. Thus Allah is capable of directly affecting consciousness in the form of insight, inspiration or revelation.

Note that Consciousness (C), the Laws or Mathematical Necessity or Logic (L) and Universe (U) correspond to the distinction between Spirit, Mind and Matter.

 These ideas can be represented by concentric circles, so that U is a subset of L and L is a subset of C. Some people might suppose that Universal Consciousness is God. But from the Islamic and the Hebrew point of view no images should be made of God. Therefore, God, Allah or the Absolute (A) will be regarded as existing outside this scheme, and the scheme itself is the manifestation of God.

It is, however, possible to arrange these circles in a different order to give different views of the Ultimate Truth or different concepts of God.

CLU, CUL, LCU, LUC, UCL, ULC, X,

where X means they are combined or identical.

We could also suppose that any two of them are identical or that one or two of them do not exist. But if so we can still retain the circles but consider them to be empty.

CUL means that the Universe is the creation of Consciousness and that the Laws are created by the Universe. Thus there is more in consciousness than the physical Universe and there is more in the Universe than the Laws. LCU means that the Laws give rise to Consciousness but more than this, and Consciousness gives rise to the Universe, but more than this. i.e. the Universe is then described as what we see, not what it is in-itself apart from our perception of it which we cannot know. UCL means that the Universe brings about consciousness among other things, and that consciousness constructs the Laws among other things. ULC means that the Universe creates Laws and these create Conscious. X means that Consciousness, the Laws and the Universe are one and the same thing. The interpretation of the other possibilities is left to the reader.

 

2. Evidence  

It is pointed out by some people that the basic fact about the exact sciences is mathematical truth. The fact that 6 is divisible by 3 and by 2 is not merely a question of words but is a fact about apples and people or anything else. It is inconceivable by us that it can be otherwise. The question is : can God make it otherwise? If everything flows necessarily from mathematical consistency, then, it is argued, God Himself must conform to this and it is this, not God, which is the ultimate power. Indeed, mathematical theoreticians often prefer mathematical consistency over experiment and observation because experiments can be defective and the observers cannot interpret the data they observe unless they have a theory with which to do so. In fact often they cannot even see such data. Thus, some people, like Plato, regarded it as a sublime truth in the world of eternal and Perfect Forms of which the world is an imperfect reflection. Its truths, therefore transcend the Physical World and Mathematics has the same status as God.  

However, there are several objections to the idea that Mathematical consistency is an ultimate reality. Aristotle regarded Physics, Mathematics and Metaphysics as independent disciplines having their own concepts, methods and objects. Mathematical objects arose by abstraction from physical objects, and Metaphysical objects were abstracted from Mathematical objects. There were no really separate things. However, we have to describe our experiences, where there are things both separate and related.

Others believe that it is a purely human invention like a tool which can be used for descriptive purposes, but having no truth value. It has arisen like any other faculty through natural selection because it enables survival and dominance. But human evolution did not necessitate dealing with quantum and cosmological matters, though it may be argued that evolution produces generalised adaptable faculties which can be used for purposes other than those which necessitated their development. It may also be argued that human faculties arise by means of the forces and laws of the Universe, in adaptation to it, and must, therefore, possess the same truth value.

Still others regard Mathematics as an invention like a game based on certain logical axioms and rules of inference. But we have seen in the chapter on Logic that Gödel proved what he called the Incompleteness Theorem. There are mathematical propositions involving large numbers and addition and multiplication which even if we can see that they are true, cannot be proved mathematically. There may well also be many other truths which we cannot see, and many truths which we can neither prove or disprove mathematically. Mathematics itself is ultimately based on certain unproved assumptions, hence on faith. The position is no different here than trying to prove the existence of God. There is obviously a part of consciousness which is beyond mathematics, and mathematics is merely one of many systems it can create.

Owing to this difficulty and those concerned with the application of infinities in physics, the view of mathematics has been restricted. It is to be confined within the limits of understanding. It is required not to deal with infinities which cannot be understood, and to confine the interpretation of mathematical theories within certain limits, not to stretch them, as that of Einstein, for instance, was stretched to the Big Bang where it ceased to apply. If the temperature is steadily changed, then water at some point turns to ice or steam, and the laws of liquids ceases to apply, but other laws begin to apply. This could have happened to the Universe and the speculations based on Einstein’s theory would be false. It seems, therefore, that what is regarded as ‘Truth’ depends entirely on how Mathematics is viewed.

Other objections are as follows:-

It is possible to take a set of facts and arrange them in many different ways. Several different mathematical models can be made to describe the same facts and we cannot decide between them. This is what is being done in science today. There are a number of equations which give more than one solution and we select between these according to some other non-mathematical criteria.

Many phenomena are described not by exact laws but by Statistics. This means that there are a number of alternative probabilities. Indeed, anything at all is possible though the probability of their occurrence diminishes from a maximum certainty to a vanishing point. Though Quantum mechanics described the behaviour of the basic particles as uncertain, Einstein would not accept this and thought that this uncertainty was due to difficulties in measurement. Alain Aspect conducted experiments to determine whether events at the Quantum level were truly uncertain and found that this was so. But other scientists dismissed this interpretation of the same experiment by assuming that the speed of light was not constant and finite. Interactions could, therefore, take place at great distances at speeds greater than light. Things seem to occur uncaused in space only if we suppose that there are no speeds fast enough. Experiments do not, therefore, determine the ultimate truth. This is because we have to interpret them and we do so by the relationship between different concepts. In fact, these alternative ideas may not be mutually exclusive. We can take one view or the other, but not both at the same time. This is a limitation of the rational mind. Mathematics and Logic bridge the gap between the objective and subjective worlds in that they are both done in the mind and yet regarded as objective studies - numbers are certainly derived from the experience of discrete objects. But more than these Mathematical equations about the world must include certain Constants which can only be derived from observation. The Objective World also contains more than numbers and numerical relationships, otherwise we would need no Physics, Biology and the other sciences.

 

There is also a difficulty with language. The fact that two or more scientists agree that some object is, say, an apple, does not mean that they experience it the same way or that they know what the object is, but only that they have agreed to apply the same word to the different experiences of that object. The same applies to axioms, methods and measuring devices. It is said that all electrons are similar and differ from other particles. But the fact is that the electron has been defined by a small number of characteristics while others which might also exist have been ignored. Thus if a changed electron is found it will be given another name or it will be supposed that it has changed to something else.

If Mathematical necessity was the supreme reality then the Universe can be compared to a Computer where its structure represents the hardware and the laws or mathematical descriptions are the software. But if this model is to be taken seriously then we must also have a programmer who constructs the software and uses it for some purpose. This computer model is conditioned by the times. In the past the Universe was regarded like a State with a King, Clockwork, a Steam Engine and so on. A model is not the same thing as that of which it is a model. A computer has well known limits. Not all equations are computable, nor can it deal with such notions as truth, beauty, justice etc.. The computer would have to compare a statement given to it with some reality outside it. Or one would have to supply it with all instances of truth, beauty etc.. Yet these notions, truth, beauty, economy etc., are certainly used in scientific judgements. Indeed, the computer model makes ‘truth’ obsolete. It has become the practice in some circles not to ask whether something is true, but whether it is computable or consistent with certain arbitrary axioms.

We may argue that it is not a question of whether God or Mathematics is supreme. Mathematical consistency is one of the forms in which God reveals himself. The Islamic view is that God created all things by measure. This implies that the world consists of discrete units and their relationships can, therefore, be described by numbers. It implies also that this applies to both the physical world and the mind, so that there is a parallelism and interaction between the two. Therefore, the world can be described by Mathematics.

What is a number any way? What does it mean that 2+2=4? A number could be regarded as the ultimate abstraction derived from the fact that we notice that there are separate things which are nevertheless related. There is no material things called 2 or 4 which are related by + and =. The mathematical formula is a purely mental thing. If we regard it as an objective thing, then we must suppose that it exists in the mind of God.

                                                                                  

Theology must be able to explain (a) The material Universe (b) Life (in particular the urges) and (c) Consciousness.

The material Universe is explained by means of three basic factors, a trinity, namely

(a) The Laws (b) The Initial conditions on which the laws operate (c) The Constants of nature such as the Gravitational Constant.

The Islamic view is given in the exhortation: “Say not three. Allah is only One” (Quran 4:171). The implication is that we ought to seek the Unity beyond the trinity, that which gives rise to the three. A Unified Field Theory must explain all three.

Scientists want to get rid of the Initial conditions also because their existence can only be explained by some previous Initial Conditions, and so on ad infinitum, or by God also considered Infinite and who can do anything He likes. This is not a scientific explanation. The Initial conditions and Constants can be done away with by supposing that in the beginning there was complete chaos so that every sort of condition and all kinds of Constants existed. This Universe arose only where our particular Constants exist. This Universe is, therefore, only a small part of total Reality. Another theory supposes that a point expands to form the Universe. A point in this expands to form another Universe. And so on. Since we cannot exist or know the other parts of this whole, being entirely dependant on the Constants operating in this Universe, it would be impossible to create a Unified Field Theory. But this Initial Randomness is compatible with the notion of God who can do anything He likes, including all kinds Constants and the Laws.

The Inflation theory was invented to overcome the following difficulty:- If we calculate the size of the Universe backwards in time then we find that when the Universe was 10^-35 seconds old its size would be one metre across. But light can only travel 3x10^-25 in that time. As, according to theory, no force can travel faster than this, there would be nothing holding the Universe together. There would be an enormous number of separate expanding Universes. Instead we see that the observed Universe appears to be uniform in all directions. It was, therefore, necessary to suppose that there were certain particles with negative tension which were able to turn Gravity into a force of repulsion for a very brief period causing accelerated expansion from a much smaller size. Thus, we see that the constancy of the Law of Gravity had to be sacrificed to maintain the Assumption of Unity. There is a juggling with categories of thought. In fact we do not know if the Universe is a Unity since we can only see up to the boundary created by the speed of light, about 15,000,000,000 light years away in all directions. The Universe may be Infinite and chaotic beyond this boundary. No forces from one side can reach the other to maintain an over all order. The Inflation theory, therefore, only accounts for the uniformity in our region of the Universe. There is, of course, no explanation for why the universe is expanding or how gravity could become repulsive. Yet the galaxies near the boundary are presumably close to others beyond it and interact with them. It may not be necessary that the extreme ends should be in causal contact.

According to Quantum Theory space-time cannot be empty because position and velocity cannot both be zero. There is a fluctuation. The Cosmological Constant is a measure of this energy and it should be, in the whole universe, an enormous amount. But if it is slightly negative the Universe would collapse, and if it is slightly positive the Universe would expand to a degree where no galaxies could form. Neither is the observed case. The Cosmological Constant should, therefore, be near zero. How can this contradiction be explained? The solution appears to be that a Universe gives rise to Baby Universes which expand absorbing this energy and growing. There may, therefore, be a great number of Universes of various sizes and durations. These Universes are linked by means of tiny wormholes, and various parts of this Universe may also be linked by wormholes. The wormholes appear because of the random quantum effects. Particles can pass through these wormholes from one universe to another and, therefore, randomly appear out of nothing and disappear into nothing in ours. Thus, on the larger view, the conservation principle is preserved. This Super-Universe, consisting of all the Universes, may itself be a small part of a still greater system. And so on ad infinitum. We cannot know these other Universes. But note that the notion of God refers to something which transcends the Universe and is Infinite. Note also that though creatures of flesh and blood like us cannot arise, exist or survive in by far the greatest part of this Super-Universe, it may still contain or admit beings or entities which are organisations of sub-atomic substances or materials under different Laws and Constants.

Another theory put forward by Stephen Hawking and James Hartle is that as we go backwards in Time, it turns into a fourth dimension of space near where the Big Bang is supposed to have taken place. This makes the Universe without boundaries like the surface of a sphere so that any point can be regarded as the beginning, and there are no Initial conditions or boundaries. The theory required the invention of the notion of Imaginary Time. But apart from the fact that there is no proof for it, the question remains:-

“What is the cause of this strange structure of the Universe or of the Equations which brought it about.”

All these problem and their solutions refer to concepts, in this case, Time. It is obviously these which are being manipulated and need to be studied. In order to explain how one state becomes another certain Laws or Transformation equations (T) are required. But if we start with nothing then there is nothing which can be transformed into something. 0xT=0. We have to get rid of the category of Causation. Causation, however, is a mental necessity without which no understanding is possible. There is no difference between accepting a scientific suggestion which cannot be understood and accepting a religious one which cannot be understood. At least religion provides us with a cause.  

Another suggestion arises as follows:- Space-time is said to be filled with an ocean of energy, the Higg’s Field, in which all things swim like fish. There are waves in it which form the Higg’s particles. It is this field which gives things mass. It is thought that this field may also explain the various Constants. It could be that the other four forces of Physics differentiate out of it by changes in phase as the Universe develops. May be that a Biological and Psychic force are further developments. Though no such forces are recognised by science at the moment, there is reason to believe that they exist. It is, for instance, impossible to explain evolution without an urge for self-preservation, reproduction and self-assertion, or to explain the arising of cultures without some kind of organising urge. There are what might be called Psychons, bundles of ideas, organised to various degrees flowing through the cultures of societies affecting people to various degrees. The Higg’s force is remarkably close to what is meant by the Spirit or Logos, the Word of God, in religion. It is also an all pervasive force from which all things arise. (John 1:1-5 and Quran 24:35)

In order to make sense of the world of change, we need something constant underlying all changes, by which we can predict how one state turns into another. For religion this is the Eternal unchanging God. In ordinary life we have Standards which are also constants, for measuring and comparing everything from weights, sizes, volumes and even manufactured goods, political and commercial practices, intellectual performance, beauty, personal behaviour and morality. From the psychological point of view we must have a stable and constant consciousness otherwise the variations in experiences could be due to variations in the observer rather than in the things experienced. In science, the first natural Constant was that of Newton, the Gravitational Constant, G. Consider his formula F=GmM/R². This means that force, F acting between a body and the earth equals G times m (the mass of the body) times M (the mass of the earth) divided by R (the distance between their centres) squared. Since all these quantities are measured by units which scientists have invented, it would be remarkable indeed if the equation held true, but for the fact that G establishes the proportionality between them. From the formula we see that G= FR²/Mm. Thus, the constant simply establishes the relationship between concepts. Notice another thing about these formulae and the way they are manipulated. There is no way of telling which of these terms is prior or the cause of the others. It is this fact which leads to a great amount of confusion in Science. Perhaps if the units by which we make the measurements were defined in terms of something real, then we could get rid of them. This is only partially achieved because science requires accurate measuring devices which do not vary from place to place if comparable results are to be obtained. This is done by linking them to natural constants. As it is their existence reminds us that the Universe does not conform entirely to our rational mind, and we cannot construct a purely rational system which will explain the Universe as the Philosophers wished to do. We have to observe nature and discover these constants. Reality is richer than reason. Nevertheless, attempts have been made to derive them logically from something else - by Eddington and Einstein among others. These attempts have failed. The reason for this seems to be obvious - we already know that all systems of reason have limits and cannot give us more information than is contained in the axioms and premises. It is a mistake made by the Philosophers of the past, and the reason why science replaced Philosophy.

Since there is no logical necessity that these natural laws or constants should exist and have the values they have, then we are left with either of two explanations - Randomness or Will. Randomness cannot exist unless there are already particles and they are in motion and restricted in space. Even then there must be no homogenous distribution. Randomness or chaos can only be understood relative to order. Order degenerates into randomness not the other way round. Some kind of information must be introduced to create order. This must consist of a contrast. Homogeneity cannot be perceived. Perhaps there is some unknown fundamental force which determines this. It should also be evident that order is a concept in consciousness, not a material thing.

These constants of nature are so finely tuned with respect to each other that even a minute change would destroy the Universe as we know it, and certainly make life impossible. The existence of the different things from protons, to atoms, man, planets, stars, the galaxy and the Universe itself depends on the balance between the fine structure constant (which has a value of 1/137) and the gravitational-structure constant (which has a value of 6x10^-19), the one maintaining extension and the other trying to collapse it. Life, the DNA molecule, depends on the existence of carbon, but this is produced in the sun by what appear to be remarkable coincidences. It requires two step - the combination of helium nuclei to form beryllium, and then the addition of a third helium nucleus. A fourth step would have added another helium nucleus to form oxygen. Each of these steps requires particular conditions determined by the constants. The conditions in the star are just right to allow sufficient of each to form. These coincidences could, perhaps, be explained by the same process as Natural Selection in Biology. However, there can be no selection without some selecting principle. God experiments and that which is successful survives and develops to the next step.

However, there appears to be some evidence that these Constants can slowly change over long periods. The Gravitational Constant is thought to be changing by a minute fraction over millions of years.

 

The concept of Law is connected with force, e.g. Gravity and Electro-magnetism, and these are said to be carried by particles, e.g. gravitons and photons, which are exchanged between the material particles. Each of the four forces recognised in physics has its own particles. This appears to be an anthropomorphic attitude - The Law is enforced by policemen, and created by a King or Government. Newton thought that the Law of Gravity was made by God not that it was inherent in matter. This, of course, is also the Religious attitude, where God makes the Laws and angels carry it out. Both models derive from the Social conditions. This probably had to be the case in order to make things understandable.

But Einstein’s Theories produced a radical change. There was no force of Gravity. Masses made dents in Space-time and this caused changes in the motion of bodies. It is a question of the underlying geometry of Space-time. Attempts are now being made, through String Theory, to unite all the forces in a single model of this type. The Quran does not speak of Laws when pointing to the motion of celestial bodies but of Ordinances, how things are arranged. It would probably be more compatible with the religious point of view if it is the geometry of Space-time which determines the physical events, as magnetic fields affect iron filings in well known demonstrations. The changes in this geometry would then be caused by Time, as vibrations or waves in the sea do.

A Unified Field Theory of this kind combines Law, Initial Conditions and Constants in a single System, but its existence still requires a description, a cause and a purpose which ultimately cannot be explained but by the notion of God, particularly as this includes not merely the objective world, but also the subjective world and the relationship between them - the observer, the object and the experience. There is no point in explaining what the world is like without explaining how we know it and why. 

Explanations are of three kinds:- (a) the structure or consistency of things (b) the causes of things (c) the purposes.

The fact that we know the causes and consistency is not a sufficient explanation. Take an aeroplane. We can explain what it is made of, its structure and how it flies. We can also explain the causes by the process of design, finance, management, gathering of materials, labour and machinery and the operations by which it is manufactured. But we can also explain its existence by pointing to the fact that people want to travel from place to place and that others, wanting to make a profit, supply this need. One explanation does not exclude the others. Some scientists and others tell us that there is no purpose in the natural world. The answer to this is: How do you know? Have you investigated? We certainly have purpose, the organs and behaviour of animals have purpose, that of self-preservation and reproduction. And where does our purposiveness come from? Indeed, the Anthropic Principle may be interpreted as a kind of purpose. It disallows fiddling with the Laws or Constants in such a way that conscious observers cannot arise. The Universe is as it is because we see it so. This is because we arise in it, are formed by and depend on its materials, laws and forces. It suits our purpose by enabling survival and prosperity. It also suits the Universe because it is as it is because of our activity, at least in this part of it. But all parts of the Universe are as they are because of the activity of all the particles and entities in it. Purpose arises from the urge to adjust, to find equilibrium, which is a universal purpose. Perhaps the notion of purpose is misunderstood. When we have an intention to find food, it is because we are hungry. The hunger is a cause. It is an urge no different from that of any other force. But our action is designed to produce an effect in the future, The future, therefore, appears to produce an effect in the present. There are several particles known to physics which do just this. This should not be surprising if time is a reversible dimension. Purpose can be understood as the function which a part has with respect to the whole to which it belongs, like the organs in our bodies. There are feed back mechanisms within us and throughout the Universe so that cause and effect form a loop. The cause produces the effect and and the effect produces the cause.

It seems, however, that the question “why” is beginning to be tackled in what are called Gauge Theories which deal in symmetries. These may explain why there are just so many forces and particles, for instance, why there are just so many elements, only three kinds of neutrino and no more, only one kind of photon, and just so many quarks. Unfortunately, however, there are also asymmetries such as the single direction of Time and magnetic forces, while most Laws in Physics are stated as time-symmetrical (working equally well both ways). If two forces are equal and in opposite directions then a state of balance is created and nothing can ever happen. A pencil, standing upright will remain so. For a change to take place only a minute force is required and this produces a great change - the pencil falls down. This fact leads to the notion of instability. But the pencil can fall only in one of many directions, it produces asymmetry. An element of randomness is also introduced which leads to the notion of chaos when large numbers are involved. The number and distribution of planets, stars and galaxies cannot be explained by Laws or symmetries. The Universe cannot exist by Laws alone. Indeed, there seems to be more chaos than order. One of the most important asymmetries is the fact that though in the Laboratory matter and antimatter are always produced in equal amounts, there is no sign of antimatter in the Universe. If there were, the two would annihilate each other and there would be no Universe. This asymmetry is explained by the fact that there is a difference in the rate of decay between these opposite particles which is itself inexplicable and could be regarded as a Constant.

 Both symmetry and asymmetry have to be explained and it is unlikely that they can be explained in terms of any thing else. It is Consciousness which requires the Laws, their regularity and symmetries in order that the world can be understood, predicted and adjusted to. Perhaps disorder is not a property of the Universe either but of the limits of our minds - things are too minute or complex for us to see the causes or make exact calculations. Chaos and Order are relative terms. The dice do fall in certain ways because of complex forces we cannot determine, and this is, therefore, regarded as chance. Recent studies indicate that even our minds contain random quantum events from which it is likely that order arises by Natural Selection. This, of course, requires a purpose. When we want to solve a problem then there is a very rapid trial and error procedure in the mind. It has also been pointed out by several people that many methods involving chance were used to communicate with God - e.g. the I Ching and Tarot Cards. They were probably meant originally as psychological aids. This method of divining the mind of God is forbidden in higher religions because of misuse, and replaced with prayer, meditation, knowledge seeking and self-development.

An important difference between Laws and Chaotic systems is this:- The Laws are described by simple linear equations and we can understand a small part of a system by means them. This is fortunate, otherwise science could not have begun and developed by continually adding little bits of truth. The strength of the forces diminishes with distance so that they are weak at points far from their source and can be ignored for practical purposes where only approximations are required. The exact motion of the planets, for instance, does not, owing to mutual perturbations, follow Newton’s Laws. But chaotic systems are described by non-linear equations and can only be understood as wholes, not as sums of their parts. They are also extremely sensitive to initial conditions. The parts, as in natural selection, must adjust themselves to the whole system, and this cannot be done unless they possess impulses to do so. These restrict the probabilities. Both Order and Disorder arise from this, and this can only be studied by another branch of Mathematics, Statistics. The Universe is such a whole, and it must have been specially so at the beginning when conditions were very hot (heat is random motion). Yet cooling down, as in iron, allows symmetry to be broken and magnetism to appear. This cooling down, however, is the result of the expansion of the Universe. What impulse causes it to expand? This too is an asymmetry. Is it the Law of Thermodynamics which also gives direction to Time? Or is it Time which creates this Law? Classical science ignored chaos and created symmetrical Laws which describe changes as if Time did not exist - the Laws were Eternal. But from the religious point of view, God is manifest in History. The modern trend of examining Chaotic systems make time essential. 

Since the Universe is ordered there is less entropy in it than there could be. It has been calculated that though entropy (disorder) steadily increases, it may still lag further and further behind the maximum. This allows the possibility that things will continue to evolve. But this also seems to mean that the expansion is not caused by thermodynamics. There is some other force of expansion and both evolution and involution (increasing entropy) are result of this. Perhaps it is the introduction of Information which is responsible. But how are Information and Time related? the Islamic position is that God is truth and time.

Asymmetry is also found in mathematics. We can predict that 4+6 = 10. But we cannot retrodict that 10 = 4+6 since it may be 1+9, 2+8, 3+7 etc.. The fact that mathematics allows both these statements to be equivalent is not realistic.

Information or order is important in understanding the Universe. There are levels of organisation from quarks, protons, atoms, molecules, cells, living organisms, communities, planets, stars, galaxies, the Universe, the super-universe. If we increase the number of parts, then the number of relationships between them increases even faster. Two objects A and B are related in one way if we ignore symmetry (that is AB is regarded the same as BA, otherwise we have two relationships). Three objects A, B,C can be related in three ways (AB, AC, BC). Four objects A,B,C,D can be related in six ways (AB, AC, AD, BC, BD, CD. And so on. But there are also many As, Bs and Cs etc.. But even so this would make the Universe a single complex system. It would not explain the various levels of things. This can only be explained if the parts together form an overall stable wholeness which is more than the sum of the parts. And conversely, a wholeness exerts some influence which allows the formation of sub-systems. Something associated with the part merges to create this whole or conversely something about the whole produces the parts. The later must be the case if the Universe began as a single thing. This whole cannot be explained by means of a study of the parts because it refers to the pattern of the whole and this is neither matter not energy. The awareness of pattern is what we call Truth or knowledge. It follows logically that this is introduced at each level from above, from the whole, not from the parts. The fact that we can create things from parts which have characteristics not existing in nature, e.g. machines and computers, does not destroy the argument because they have been introduced by the patterns which we have created owing to our higher level potentialities which exist in the electronics or quantum levels of our brain, These organising principles are not like laws and could be what is meant by angels.  

 

Causes may be classified as (a) Laws (b) Will and (c) Randomness.

Some scientists believe that since everything is determined by the Forces and Laws and mathematical necessity then there is no room for the intervention of God. But this is based on a misunderstanding. These also require a cause. Other people believe that He is the personification of the Laws of Nature. The religious view is that these Laws are not God but the Will or Command of God. But not only the Laws, God operates through all the above causes. Whatever happens, happens either by

(a) The Ordinances or (b) the Will or (c) the Permission of God.

These three correspond to the three causes above. Will may be thought of as forces or urges while laws refer to regularities of relationships which this causes, Ordinances refer to the way things are arranged and ordered, e.g. the existence and motions of the planets. Permission refers to a degree of freedom, not that there are no causes but that alternatives are possible.

We have seen that there cannot be any empty space-time since by quantum theory we cannot simultaneously know the position in space and the velocity in time of a particle. If we consider a gravitational or electromagnetic field, if then there were any empty Space-time the position and velocity of the particles would both be zero. This, being something definite, cannot be so. This follows from the idea that Space-time is integral part of matter. There is a fluctuation around zero, between a positive and a negative value. By Einstein’s equation if energy increases or decreases then mass must also increase or decrease. These masses would attract each other by gravity and create the material Universe, causing Space-time to curve. This does not flout the conservation law because gravity is negative energy equal to the positive energy. Thus the material Universe arises spontaneously from space-time. The Universe so created could expand until it became so thin that Space-time flattened out. Then the same process could begin all over again. No intervention by God is necessary. This could go on for ever. But this requires that there was some Space-time before the Big Bang. It cannot be a self-sufficient system. Perhaps there is a negative side to Reality, a Realm of potentialities from which this process is introduced. The mystery still remains - How did such a process come about? We couuld think of these fluctuations in space-time as the Mind of God.

Attempts have been made to explain the arising of Space-time itself. If all Space-time is occupied then new particles, it is thought, must produce new Space-time. But this a circular argument since it is the Space-time which is supposed to produce particles. It does not explain why the universe should have a beginning and the process is not Eternal. It could be that the arising of one particle means the disappearance of another elsewhere. Or it might mean that there is some fundamental Reality even beyond Space-time from which the particle comes. Unpredictable cannot mean uncaused. If they did they would surely interfere with the regularity and order of the Universe. Anything could happen at anytime. Would this not be a miracle? Spontaneous arising of particles is no different from saying that God has created them. Indeed, it is no different from saying that an idea arises in the conscious mind from the unconscious mind, because what is in our unconsciousness is inaccessible to us.

The fact remains that we are dealing, at this level, in thoughts and with consciousness, which lies even beyond thought. We must then consider the fact that thoughts vary and there are many levels of consciousness. Perhaps at a higher level we could perceive forces beyond electromagnetic ones faster than the speed of light. There are a great number of conceptual systems among human beings. If there were other beings elsewhere in the Universe they may have quite different ways of thinking and seeing, and different kinds of sciences. All these possibilities must also be taken into account. Science is not the only system of thought. It cannot, therefore, be said that the Physical Universe described by Science is the true Universe. It is only a small part of it.

If we examine the notion of randomness we find that it refers to the inability to find regularity or order. If we throw dice with six faces, then it will land with one of these faces uppermost. We cannot calculate all the forces acting on it which cause it to fall in any particular way. But we know that it can only fall in one of the six ways. If it had ten faces, then it would have one in ten chances of falling with a particular face up. It follows that the number of alternatives which exist are determined by the number of faces it has. There is, therefore, a combination of determinism and chance in the behaviour of things. It is this fact which allows will to work. It increases or decreases one of these factors. Conversely, it is will which divides randomness from determinism. Things are, therefore, relatively more determined or random than others. There is no notion of determinism or chance in the Islamic or any other religious system. We only need to look around us to see that there is randomness and variety. We seldom see the regularities which science describes since they are abstractions made from a selected type of phenomena.

The human mind is said to have arisen by the process of random mutation and natural selection over a long period of time. Indeed, the mind, even the scientific mind and science collectively, works by producing variety and selection, by trial and error. Nature creates a great number of organisms and plants create a great number of seeds, all this to ensure that the chances of some evolving and growing increase. The others, however, are not lost but act as fertilizers.

It is likely that this process also applies to all other things and the fundamental particles. God may be said to experiment, to conduct trial and error. He constantly creates a great number of particles and these form all kinds of patterns and adjustments to each other, and selection takes place according to success and failure with respect to some purpose, a Grand Design. Randomness is not, therefore, without purpose. This randomness cannot be explained by the notion of cause, nor can randomness create causes. The causes exist in the forces of nature. But forces simply mean urges which determine the selection. They define purpose. If science discovers a Unified Field Theory which describes all phenomena, then to say that all things are caused by it is the same as saying that all things have an inherent purpose to conform to it.

Quantum Theory, we have seen, tells us that a particle is really a bundle of probabilities which collapses into an actual particle, but there are no laws which determine this. It follows that there are a great many possible futures so that it is not, in fact, determined by the present. The implication is that the present cannot be determined by the past either. We must suppose that the present is created at every instant. The future is, therefore, determined not by mechanical laws but by Will. The Real world, therefore, is a world of potentialities. The seen world is an illusion where only one of many possibilities is actualised by the actions, motives or perceptions of the observer. It is his limitations, his expectations, conceptual systems, interests which narrow down his consciousness and produce this world. It follows that if these are changed then the world he sees will also change. These human faculties are restrictions of a Universal Consciousness which creates the Real World. The past, of course, is not fixed either since it can be changed by selection and interpretation.

 

 

When making theological judgements the following factors should be considered:-

 (1) The Laws of Nature are flexible as can be seen by the fact that Gravity though universal is different on different planets and stars.

 (2) Though Gravity requires things to fall to earth, flying is still possible because of other Laws. We must, therefore, not suppose that things cannot take place which apparently break the known natural Laws.

 (3) We can will to walk south instead of north or not at all and do numerous alternative things without breaking any laws. There seems to be no Law which determines how many apples will grow on a particular tree or how many babies will be born in a particular community, though there is probably one which determines the overall quantity in so far as the amount of negentropy or information is fixed.

(4) The Laws appear to be statistical in nature. This means that though some events are most probable, there can be deviations, and probability diminishes the further the deviation is from the norm. There is a certain amount of flexibility or tolerance. We can, therefore flout a law to a certain extent and obtain forgiveness but only if we repent, that is, cease to flout the law.

(5) There are many levels. We can be influenced by mechanical, physical, chemical, electrical, quantum and spiritual forces and can communicate and interact with the environment at all these levels. God can, therefore, affect us and the rest of the world, through these forces. He can affect us physically and through our senses, feelings, thoughts and consciousness and still break no Laws.

(6) Events can happen because of forces or laws we do not know or have misunderstood. A miracle is an event taking place at a familiar level by means of forces or laws operating at a higher unfamiliar level. A radio or television, for instance, is miraculous for those who do not know about electronics and electro-magnetics. An Aeroplane is miraculous to primitive people for another reason - they apparently break the Law of Gravity by means of other Laws.

(7) Even if all these are known situations may be too complex for us to understand or calculate.

(8) It is not sufficient to look at Laws, but there are Constants independent of Laws and unpredictable by Mathematicians. There are also the Initial conditions on which the Laws operate to produce final conditions. Neither of which may be known by us fully.

(9) We can only look at and see a limited area which is nevertheless affected by a greater environment. We cannot know what factors from the area of ignorance may impinge on the area under consideration and upset all our calculations, predictions and intentions.

(10) Some scientists have tried to prove that chance alone is sufficient to bring about the direction of evolution. To do this they have used a computer which is fed with a random selection of letters. The computer is required to mimic random mutation and selection by continuously copying the series of letters with occasional mistakes. When it produces a meaningful sentence the programmer fixes it while the computer goes on doing the same thing until another meaningful sentence is produced and so on. Later all these sentences are fed into the computer which must create random combinations. The programmer then selects the paragraph or chapter which makes best sense. Lastly he compiles a whole book or Library, say the works of Shakespeare. Note, however, that it is the programmer who has programmed the machine and the selection is made by what is meaningful to him. Who is the programmer in nature? There are Laws working in the natural environment, and the environment is a complex system. Living things have instincts of self-preservation, reproduction and self-assertion which govern their activities. It is impossible to discover by examining the animal or plant alone that a human breeder has intervened both in the process of mutation and selection. To see this we have to look at a higher level than Bio-chemistry.

 (11) When we come to man we have consciousness and this refers to awareness of the inter-connection between things, the ability to form images and new patterns and to deliberately control physical action. The changes so brought about introduce something new into the Universe. This creativity resembles that found in the Universe itself, but is usually an imitation of nature, and only a small dependant part of it.

(12) One of the great problems in science is the nature of Time. Time was an Absolute in which all events took place in Newton’s Theory. In Einstein’s Theory it is a dimension of Space-time. It is negative in other theories. Most of the Laws in Physics are Time symmetrical, like space - events could go forward or backwards. In other words Time was a redundant concept. This probably led to atheism. But when attention came to complex systems then it assumed importance. Its direction is given by the Law of Thermodynamics and could be seen as reversed by Evolution. The reason is that time was identified with motion, that of a clock or the planet. It is motion which determines time rather than time being the measure of motion. Is this a logically consistent view?

The Islamic idea that God is Time implies that all things which ever happened or will happen coexist for Him and in Him. Thus he has full knowledge and power. This applies to Space from when it was a point to when it reaches maximum expansion. However, Time is hierarchical. It has parts, each of which have parts and so on. An instant of time for man is the period of one percept, perhaps a tenth of a second, which is taken as a unit. We see the flow of time as the movement of this instant, like the line traced by a moving point. We can speed up cinematographically any event having a great duration so that it occupies only a tenth of a second and we will see it as a single item. The whole year when speeded up to our level would be a single object. The same would happen if, conversely, we could expand our instant of perception to one year. Perhaps, there are beings for whom this is so. Perhaps the earth or sun experiences the year as an instant. What is an object to us is from another point of view the very rapid motion of a great number of particles, for which an instant may be a millionth of a second. Thus Time has both objective and subjective elements. It is the relationship between the observing consciousness and the object observed. It may be possible for an individual to mentally move upwards from a part to the greater whole. There is no Time or Space outside God.

 In Einstein’s General Relativity Theory there could be an infinite number of Times, depending on the frame of reference of the observer, If an observer went backwards towards the beginning of Creation, then, we are told, Time slows down until it becomes zero at the Big Bang. In fact it is the speed of particles which accelerate due to compression, causing events on it to slow down. The observer would not notice the difference. But the external world he sees will change. The difference arises only when we compare his clock with ours. It could be that what he considers one second is equal to many years to us. Religions tell us that what is an instant to God could be thousands of years for us. If, then, we draw a vertical line from the present to the beginning of the Universe and call this Absolute Time, there are a great number of parallel Space-times, each measured by the instruments of beings at various points on this line, running horizontally. The interesting thing about these Space-times is that they can begin or end suddenly. And this is exactly what we are told in the scriptures.

There is, however, another difficulty with dimensions. The description of the behaviour of the elementary particles requires more than three dimensions - as many as 25. For some unknown reason only three of these have expanded to form our Universe. Indeed, at an earlier stage, or at a more fundamental level, there may be a great many more. This cannot be incorporated into any theory which is conceivable by man. It could be that it is the human mind which has reduced them to three to protect itself from being overwhelmed by complexity. This reduction, like the filtering of other information, has evolutionary advantages in allowing man to cope. On the other hand it could be that the dimensions are seen relative to the nature of the observing or affected particle. They may all be equivalent to each other. And this same Universe can be seen in many different ways. The fact remains that there is a hidden world beyond the one man can see. These other dimensions may account for the inner mental life.

(13) The Universe may be regarded as constructed like a hierarchy, from maximum integration or Unity to maximum multiplicity through several levels. The combination of unity and multiplicity produces the notion of organisation at various levels. The word complexity applies to this organisation. There is simplicity of different kinds at the two ends of the series.

(14) The Theories of Chaos and Complexity show that things are not as determined as was formerly thought. Both randomness (freedom and unpredictability) and determinism exist and we must reconcile these opposite ideas. It is this randomness which allows new things to arise, i.e. mutations. It allows the intervention of Will, either human or divine.

(15) Some very minute changes in one place and time can bring about very large scale changes in that or some other place and time. This is like the diverging arms of an angle, or like the work of a switch, or a weak push which can topple an upright column in any direction, or things which are in an unstable state, or like the catalytic action of minute traces of some chemical. It can happen by recursion, the continuous feeding of the results of a process into the process. A stray bullet may have killed a grandparent of Newton or Einstein and changed the world - but we would not have known how the world could be different. However, this means that in order to predict the future final state great precision is required in describing the initial state and the Laws operating on it. This great precision may be quite impossible for human beings. This is specially so when we are dealing with the whole of the Universe. We must know all details of it in the present and all its laws in order to retrodict its initial state. Human beings cannot do it. But the Universe, or something greater, because it consists of all these details, must be able to predict and retrodict accurately. They are omniscient. When we throw dice we cannot predict which way up they will land, but the forces acting on them must be regarded as knowing this full well (if we define knowledge in terms of affects).

(16) But Quantum as well as Chaos theories tell us that there are true random events, and yet predictable order comes out of them. Mutation, though random, evolution still has a definite direction. God is understood as having a purpose and that this purpose would be fulfilled. This implies not only all present knowledge but also all foreknowledge. He not only knows the end result but also all the details. If man has freedom to act randomly, that is unpredictably, how can God know what he will do? Free Will cannot then play a part in the Universe and randomness cannot mean that things are uncaused, but only that we do not know the causes. The fact is that even human beings have been able to devise methods of calculating probabilities in both the Quantum and Chaos fields. Although we know the point from which a moving particle starts and the point where it ends we do not know its exact route. But we must suppose that the Space-time through which it travels knows this because it is affected by, and affects, the particle. When water flows with a certain speed and direction, the various particles in it may have greater or less speed and different directions. An object may have a rigid shape but the particles in it may be moving and vibrating in all sorts of ways. The particles are not independent but are affected by and produce an average. There is certainly a direction to the process of evolution though the individual creatures have a certain freedom of behaviour and development. There are constraints on freedom. We must suppose, however, that reality consists not merely of actualities but also of a field of potentialities. The fact that a dice has six faces and can fall with any of them uppermost defines the field of potentialities for it. The Omniscient Being knows the field of potentialities. In so far as we know it we have the freedom to create new actualities.   

(17) The Quran and other scriptures speak of similitudes. The implication is that the multiplicity of the world can be reduced to a smaller number of classes or sets which can be described by means of a small number of notions. These, in turn, can be arranged in a still smaller number of classes or sets, and so on until we come to a final unity. But in doing this the concepts become internally more comprehensive. Outer meanings or denotations are converted into inner meanings or connotations. It takes time and effort to understand the terms. This process is called Compression. Things are said to be random or chaotic when no compression can be achieved. Compression is possible by selecting some particular characteristic common to things. A characteristic is part of a phenomenon and depends on how we analyse that phenomena. We then put together these characteristics to produce super-concepts. This process is called Synthesis. Indeed, this is how language works. There are fewer words than there are phenomena. Newton chose the properties called motion and mass and constructed his entire system on these. But objects have other properties, e.g. shape and colour. The study of these produces other systems. The same set of things can be classified in numerous ways according to which characteristics we choose because different objects can be defined by different sets of characteristics. Not all objects have the same characteristics. There are things which do not possess mass or colour or shape, for instance. Religions, scientists, businessmen, artists, politicians choose different characteristics. We choose what we think is significant, useful or interesting and this depends on our values. From the impersonal point of view there is no reason why one classification should be preferred over another. It is obvious also that by these processes we construct our world. The world we see is not the world-as-it-is. We can, however, define the world-as-it-is as the World which God constructs and sees. This world must contain all the different worlds constructed by all of us, and indeed, all creatures and things.

(18) Religious ideas cannot be always interpreted literally. They may be

 (a) Symbolic, meant to relate to some deeper unconscious level.

 (b) Meant to produce the correct psychological attitudes and framework of reference in which experiences can be interpreted.

(c) Formulated in the manner understandable by the people of the times in which the ideas were taught. In which case the culture, ideas, language, and idioms have to be taken into consideration. Some teachings are factual, but there are no facts which are not interpreted within a system and according to purpose. The differences in formulation must be distinguished from the ideas they refer to. It is not necessarily the case that the ideas of the past were wrong and less useful, or that modern ideas are true and more useful. Modern ideas when misunderstood are likely to be more false and harmful than those of the past which were more correctly understood.  

(d) Instructions, not only about behaviour but also about thoughts and feelings.

(e) Some teachings are compact or versatile and have multiple meanings or can be interpreted in a flexible manner. We must not expect exactitude. This should not be confused with vagueness, but it is the function of language to compress or synthesise the great multiplicity of experience into smaller portions so that the mind can deal with them without being overwhelmed and confused.

(f) The intellect is not the only faculty man has. he also has feelings and he acts. All three are sources of information. But information is not the only thing man requires. His life is described by motivation and behaviour as well as knowledge. These three interact and mutually support each other. The purpose of all human activity is self-fulfilment. This cannot be obtained without adjustment to Reality. Though correct knowledge is certainly an aid to it, it also requires correct motivation and action. These require also knowledge of different kinds such as ethics and techniques. In all cases it is not merely a question of having information but of understanding and consciousness, of being aware. The distinction between the three is almost too obvious to require explanation. There are many who know but do not understand what they know, and many who are quite unconscious that their behaviour contradicts what they profess to know.

(g) Some facts, or their significance, known only to the few, become generally available only much later, and can only be confirmed when the conceptual tools to do so are available or when interest in them has grown. For instance, the Quran tells us that man was made from clay. This may mean that he is an organism made from the same substances as the earth, or is part of it, or is dependant on it, or that he arises from the food he eats which grows in the ground, or that he has evolved from lower orders, or that his nature, physically and psychologically has properties which are also those of the earth such as inertia and the capacity to be moulded. It is interesting to note that Martin Luther, a Christian reformer, was of the same opinion. He wrote “If God consulted me I should have advised Him to continue the generation of the species by fashioning them of clay.” More recently a Scientist, Cairs-Smith has suggested that life may have begun in clay where crystals grow with occasional faults. They could incorporate carbon and other elements and provide the stability where the complex molecules of DNA could arise. The Quran also tells us that life came out water which may mean that it consists mainly of water, or that the embryo develops in a sack of liquid, or that it comes out of the sea, or water can be a symbol for purification, of the ocean of life or of psychological fluidity and adaptability.  In all cases we are being told something significant about our relationship with reality which is missing in a scientific description.     

 

For all these reasons the concept of God remains a necessity of thought and living. If it is a necessity then it is also true because that is how things are. And it has to be believed as a necessity otherwise we cannot act accordingly. And if we do not act accordingly, then we could destroy ourselves and the world also. In which case nothing which did not think and live according to this necessity would survive, leaving that which did.

We cannot, of course, deduce the existence of God since this a process which leads from a whole to a part, not from the part to the whole. We can have the experience of unity and God, though experiences can also be illusions or hallucinations. We can test the experiences by their consistency. What we can do is to cultivate the appropriate consciousness or assume that He exists, make the correct deductions, act according to them, and see if these lead to valuable, meaningful and factual results. If they do, then the assumption is correct. If not, then we have made a faulty assumption. It is not merely a question of ideas, but of life styles and psychological development. The fact that there have been great conflicts, malpractices, atrocities and superstitions in the various religions is not relevant. Those who professed the religion may well have misunderstood, ignored or misapplied their religion, or it could have been a false religion, a pseudo-religion or an obsolete one created for more primitive minds. This is so, of course, also in science, politics and business.

3. Formulation

We can change our perspective by creating a model or framework in which the ideas can be understood. This can be done by stating what we know and do not know as follows:-

(1) We define existence by the fact that we are conscious (C). If we were not then nothing can exist for us, not even ourselves.

(2) This shows us that we (M) are an entity within the world (W), part of it and interacting with it,

(3) We receive (a) information, (b) materials and (c) energy from the environment (E). This refers to W minus M.

(4) We process and transform this within ourselves (M), according to certain inherent needs. This includes (a) the three ingredients from the environment, E, (b) values, motives, urges. (c) action, behaviour.

(5) This processing modifies us (M)

(6) We produce an output into the environment (E).

(7) This modifies the environment (E).

(8) And this leads back to the third statement.

This forms a single whole system (W). which is a reflection of the first statement. This wholeness, therefore contains both the objective and subjective factors as well as the relationship between them.

All this can be illustrated as below in Fig.1, by a circle which connects two concentric circles (the world and ourselves within it).

                                          

Fig. 1                                                                           Fig. 2

1. We have discovered that there is more to Reality than we can ever know. In particular we cannot know things-as-they-are apart from our consciousness of them and if they are basically random (because we do not know the causes or the system is too complex), then all possibilities exist, and Reality is super-rational. We will call this the fundamental condition, the Absolute (A).

2. Reality has arranged everything suitable for the arising of Conscious Beings, (C). It is a fact that we exist. It is, therefore, a fact that all conditions suitable for our arising, existence and development exist, at least in our part of total Reality. Thus, A contains C, but also X, the environment, which also affects C.

3. These conscious beings construct an image of Reality called the Universe (U). C contains U, but also Y, other ideas which also affect U.

4. In this Universe there are human beings or observers (M), U contains M, but also Z, other things which also affects M.

This can be represented by four concentric circles in Fig.2 where

(1) the relationship A><C is reflected in C><U and this in U><M.

(2) A=C+X is reflected in C=U+M and this in U=M+Z.

(3) A><X is reflected in X><Y and this in Y><Z.

These relationships correspond to each other, and are connected by Fig.1. E in Fig.1 is part of Z in Fig.2.

This is all we know. It should not be too difficult for the reader to interpret this.

4. Implications

The Religious view is that God, the Ultimate Reality, A, created the Universe by His Will - that is, there is an original impulse, force or purpose which started the Universe. The Spirit of God is also within man. This can be interpreted as implying that the same force exists in man and they are agents through which this creativity takes place. Human beings create worlds in four ways -

(a) They construct the universe or parts of it in their imagination, and science is one way of doing this.

(b) They create societies which is certainly a part of the world

(c) They make physical inventions which were not there before and modify the environment.

(d) They also affect the world unconsciously through the various substances they absorb, transform and the radiations and excretions which they produce.

 

These are all facts and must be accounted for in any view of Reality. The diagram above shows that A includes C, C includes U which includes M. M is, therefore a dependant part of A. We can, therefore, substitute M for A to create a more restricted view. Or do the reverse to create a Universal view. This M will contain consciousness which will contain a universe, and M itself will refer to itself as “I”. This “I” is a bit of A. Thus, if he knows “I” he knows A, and if he knows A he knows “I”. In so far as he does not know “I” he does not know A, and if he does not know A, he does not know “I”. This is the first implication.

 

The second implication is this ;- All the “I”s are part of A. Since A is beyond consciousness no distinction can be made between them. Religious literature tells us that all souls were made from one. We could regard the soul as referring to organised spirit or Consciousness. It is this which gives unity to multiplicity. Multiplicity of souls may be regarded as a disintegration in consciousness. Things are seen as separate because we do not see the connecting forces. We could, therefore, speak of a Universal Consciousness in which all the separate consciousnesses can be represented by many circles, or subsets. Each of these will create its own image of the world. However, in so far as they interact with each other, they also see each other as being outside themselves (thus creating the distinction between outer and inner, objective and subjective) and form a complex and chaotic world.

Since this would make life or mutual adjustment difficult, particularly because each bit of consciousness is limited, then all kinds of rules and laws have to be constructed to provide some regularity. We will call a system so created a Formal System. This includes all sciences, political, legal, economic and civil systems. Now this could apply not just to man but the entire Universe if we identify consciousness with the quantum field from which the Universe is supposed to arise. An Organic System, on the other hand is one which arises when things according to their own nature form a higher system such as living things.

The third implication arises from the observation that there is evolution and it has a direction. It applies to the whole Universe. This may be understood as the motion of A to M or Z where Z represents not just man but all other things. Scientific Cosmology tells us how multiplicity arises from some single event. This could be regarded as Involution. Evolution, however, is marked by increasing unity - subatomic particles forming atoms which form molecules, cells, multi-cellular organisms, communities and so forth. Increasing consciousness also implies increasing inner integration or unification. This forms Integrated Systems. This is accompanied by greater flexibility and power, a release from the restrictions of rules and laws which apply at lower levels. There is an ascent from mechanical levels of functioning to chemical, to electronic, to electromagnetic, to the quantum level. There is, therefore, a movement up from M to A. This Fall from Unity and Ascension again is taught by Islam and all genuine religions.

It is for this reason that religions teach all those values which promote unity, namely love, compassion, generosity, tolerance, consideration, harmony. But they also teach the development of self-control, awareness, knowledge and responsibility in order to free man from the restrictions of the laws operating at lower levels. Evolution is not, therefore, a question of technological development or of physiological development, nor of merely formal social development. These may, however, be aids to it or external evidence of it. It is not at all necessary that this developing soul should remain confined to a gross visible physical body. It may return to A.

The fourth implication is that this scheme does not even require that the Super-Universe should have a beginning or end, but only that local worlds have a beginning and end and are replaced by others. It could be that there is an Absolute Centre from which forces emerge and to which they return simultaneously. A Black Hole or Singularity, owing to quantum effects, is now regarded as not just absorbing all things but also radiating. But even such a centre is not required. Some things move from A to M and Z and others from Z and M to A. The whole of this may also pulse, expanding and contracting alternately. Time is, therefore, Eternal in itself but flowing with reference to these processes.

5. Origin

Theology and religious teachings arise in the following manner:-

1. Initially they are an inspiration or revelation, an entry into the consciousness of someone who may be regarded as a Messiah, Prophet, Saint or Teacher whose life is transformed by this experience.

2. Other people then accept and follow him because (a) the direct influence of the Teacher who has charismatic characteristics and is able to transmit the transforming force to them. (b) the presence in them of similar though less intense experiences which they come to recognise and interpret in the same way. (c) Later the reports of others, either through word of mouth or the written scriptures; In the case of Islam, the record of revelation itself.

3. In subsequent generations a tradition is set up which becomes integral to the culture which forms their minds.

4. The application of reason in order to enable understanding, particularly among those who do not have direct experiences and are not satisfied with mere traditions. This, however, does not convince non-believers and is done mainly to systematise the ideas and reinforce the belief and understanding of the believer.

It should be noted that the experience of revelation requires the assumption that the experience is valid. It could be a hallucination or Illusion. This is usually why reason is also employed. Indeed, the Prophet Muhammad was greatly distressed by his first experience. A period of assimilation was needed to achieve certainty. After some time consistency of experience was achieved and the agitation, which represents conflict, subsided and his mission began. It seems that all the other founders of religions had similar periods of withdrawal.

The problem for people living long after the death of the founder is as follows:-

(a) On what grounds can they believe the Teacher?

(b) Can those who report his teachings be trusted to give an accurate account and did they understand him?

(c) Have the scriptures been interfered with, distorted, added to or subtracted from?

(d) Can the teaching be understood in these days when it was given in another culture, time and place? The language, the conceptual framework, grammar, idiom and figures of speech have changed.

(e) What was the context and intention of the teacher or those who reported the teachings? Did he speak to only particular people in particular situations or in general? Was he giving factual information or speaking in metaphors and allegories, and what do these mean? Or was he trying to produce motives or some other psychological effect? Or did he have a cultural, political or some other purpose?

 

Most of these problems are solved when the follower has experiences which he can recognise in the scriptures or when the scriptures themselves arouse the appropriate experiences. But then they also have to assess their own motives. It may be some of their prejudices are confirmed or they are seeking some kind of comfort and re-assurance or other kinds of ego, social, political or commercial advantages. Most people, however, merely adhere to tradition from habit and understand or apply little, and are in no different a position from those who ignore religion or have prejudices against it and deny it without examination. 

6. Effects

A Religion consists of a triad, theology, practices and institutions. These mutually reinforce each other. We cannot regard one as being the reason for the others. The Theology does not exist for itself, nor does the religion. It arises in a situation or context, has causes and produces consequences. Religion must be understood with respect to these. There are three effects:- (a) on the culture and civilisation (b) on the world historical process. (c) on individuals,

It is supposed in the West that the assumptions on which science is based are derived from Christianity, namely, ideas such as the Unity of the Universe and its conformity to Law and Order. These ideas certainly derive from Monotheism. A Polytheistic religion could not have given rise to these assumptions. There is no supreme reality there, only a number of different gods or forces which act independently often contradicting each other. They explain both the regularities and the chaos which people found in the world. They also created a society containing several independent centres of power, kings and kingdoms. Western Civilisation also claims to derive from Greece and Rome from which it obtained the rational tradition and notions of organisation. Here existence was explained by a number of gods each having a different function. The relationship between them is one of rivalry, quarrelling, intrigue, argument, negotiation and sport. There is no supreme Law-giver. The gods are, however, aloof and superior to mankind. This attitude reflected and reinforced their social system which combined slavery with the Democracy of the masters and was conducive to the arising of dialectics and rational arguments, but also of regimentation, coercion, formal legalism, and the divorce between intellectual pursuits and physical work, since the latter was done by slaves. A separation of work and pleasure (sport and entertainment) was another result of slavery. The dichotomy between mind and matter can probably be traced to this also.  

But Christianity became Trinitarian, not strictly Monotheistic, and its god was identified as a human person, Jesus. This produced an authoritarian organised Church which was regarded as the mediator, the third factor between man and God. This Human organisation was God on earth, the successor to Jesus, containing the Holy Spirit, and its head, the Pope was the Father. Therefore, all Practice, Law and Doctrine was legitimately under its control, and it had the sole right to pronounce what was true, good and beautiful. It is this attitude which justified the persecution and annihilation of Heresies, other religions as well as Science, and brought about the Dark Ages. It lost touch with its Monotheistic Hebrew roots as well as with the Greek tradition. Both these were restored to the West only through contact with Islam.

The fact that the main characteristic of Science is an interest in truth, knowledge and its practical application, in nature and the universe, in investigation, observation, pondering, experiment, discussion, consultation and consensus, and the use of Mathematics, has also been ignored. These are inherently Islamic characteristics, though respect for numbers and Mathematics can also be traced to Pythagoras and beyond him. Christian scriptures, unlike the Quran, make little mention of these, but concentrate on social relationships and personal ethics based on love. This emphasis was probably necessary because the greco-roman system under which Jesus taught had squeezed the humanity out of the institutions of life. It must not, however, be forgotten that many Christian priests have contributed to Science. And this can be regarded as the result of assuming that it is a right of human beings to construct a description of the Universe, cause alterations in nature and make inventions, a right and freedom derived from the notion that man is made in the image of God (Hebrewism) or that God incarnated as a human (Christianity and Hinduism) or that man is a Vicegerent with the Spirit of God in him (Islam). In the last case this is a duty in that it is restricted and made obligatory by the requirement to serve only God.

The reaction to a religious teaching is either enthusiastic and committed acceptance, or it is superficial acceptance and mild interest, indifference, opposition or intense opposition. This last occurs in those who have a vested interest in another faith which they hold emotionally or those in whom the new faith arouses guilt feelings which they try to get rid of by attacking the supposed source. These attacks lead the believers to defend themselves. And this defence may take the form of preventative attack. This opposition and defence may take the form of military, social (political and economic) or ideological campaigns, This affects the History of the Planet. The conflicts create situations which lead to the modification and deterioration of the religion. But as its introduction has transformed the world, we may suppose that the energy in it has merely been used up.

Among the adherents, there appear to be three types. Those who are merely conditioned and habituated by the traditions, and may possess varying degrees of knowledge. They will just as easily become conditioned to any other cultural influences which may arise accidentally; those who actually understand and make efforts according to the teaching; and those whom it transforms. There are three kinds of transformation. Two opposite ones as the Quran warns.

On the one hand it creates better people, happier, more integrated, generous, courageous, tolerant, compassionate, gentle, responsible, humble, creative, purposive, self-controlled and aware. It promotes development.

On the other hand it creates the fanatic, hypocrite and bigot, depressed, obsessed and full of resentment, hatred and violence. It appears the devil targets the religious specially. These appear to be people with little knowledge or understanding about their religion but great emotional attachment. It may be that they have severe doubts, and by their attitude and actions, they have to convince themselves that they are believers. Or they make religion an excuse for some political or commercial motive.

The third set is usually one where the transformation is intellectual and in the personality rather than in their being and essence. Their outer actions change but not their inner feelings. But they do produce social changes.

It is necessary to point out that transformation can be achieved by beliefs in any religion, in things other than God, and even in complete falsehoods. Some of these may be to the good or to evil or both in different proportions. It all depends on how the focus of attention is understood - not, of course, on the name.

7. Application

There are three questions with respect to the application of Theology.

(a) What are its applications? (b) How, when and where is it to be applied? (c) What other side-effects will this have in the general scheme of things and how can these be controlled?.

We have already dealt with the purpose of religion. It is growth, development or evolution. However, theology, the systematised ideas do not appeal to, and cannot be understood by all. It does not convince many people, and even if it does, mere ideas are not useful for life. Its use is mainly to aid understanding and so reinforce faith. It can, therefore, be applied to those who seek understanding. These people in turn can present it to others in forms which they can understand. They can also transform or modify the intellectual, cultural, social and even the political and economic conditions which will also affect the development of others.

The side-effects of Theology arise mainly from misunderstanding. This is the result of either prejudice, inappropriate mental sets or habits, or partial understanding mixed with fantasies. The only action which can be taken is to get rid of these causes as far as possible and deepen understanding. But this is not always possible. The Founders of the Religions knew full well that conflicts and abuses would arise and predicted degeneration, and yet they thought that the advantages of introducing these ideas outweighed the disadvantages. Indeed, nothing has come into this world which did not meet opposition and produced some distress. There would have been no progress whatever if consideration of the disadvantages became paramount. Present happiness and unhappiness are not the criteria on which Nature or God works.

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When biological evolution produced self-conscious man, he must have begun to wonder about himself, the nature of the Cosmos he was living in and his relationship with it. The answer to these questions is religion. The nature of consciousness itself implies that religion is an integral part of man. Thinking, feeling and action are integrated and coordinated in it, and the information comes from the environment as well as from within himself in so far as man is composed of the same materials, forces and laws which operate in the Universe.

As knowledge increased with experience and life became more complex a differentiation occurred between these three modes of functioning. Specialisation separated Philosophy, Social organisation and Industry in which different sets of people became experts. Further elaboration caused further splitting up of each of these into separate departments. Science, originally a branch of Philosophy, separated out of it in this way.

Though changes in form take place as time goes on and conditions change, and human beings had distributed themselves over the whole planet, groups losing contact with each other, there is still evidence that human history is a continuous process and influences from one area affected the others. Religion, too is a continuous development.

In the days before logical procedures and technical language was invented, religious teachings were given in the form of myths. These were meant to transmit an experience and no distinction was made between thinking, feeling and action, and between purely factual concepts, values and instructions. It is unlikely that modern minds understand them in the same way they were understood in the past.

 

All our Religions come from the past, that is, from towards our origins, but they are reformulated from time to time as conditions change in order that they may be understood in the new era. They also tend to introduce a new consciousness, new attitudes and modes of behaviour which create the new era. Much has been written to show how influences from these religions are responsible for the arising of science, capitalism, democracy and other institutions.

The main points of these teachings are (a) That there is a supreme Reality, God. (b) That Humanity will be judged. They have been nearly destroyed once in the past and will be destroyed again in the future. (c) that it is possible to gain immortality.

The past, history, is reconstructed on the following evidence:- (1) Structural remains. (2) Records (3) Devices. These will be examined in turn.

(1) Structural remains. Many of these in both Egypt and elsewhere in Asia and the Americas show a great amount of scientific, technical and organisational skills.

Consider the most famous of these, the Great Pyramid at Giza. It was constructed before 4500 B.C. It is the largest building ever constructed by man, occupying more than 13 acres. It weights 16 million tons, being constructed from 2.3 million blocks each weighing between 2.5 and 15 tons placed on top of one another with great precision. It is aligned to the four points of the compass within .015%., and almost precisely on Latitude 30 degrees north and Longitude 30 degrees east. The four sides are each 755 ft long within .1%, the corners are 90 degrees within .1%., and its slope is exactly 52 degrees. This gives us a height of 481.3949 ft and a perimeter of 3023.16 ft. If we divide the perimeter by the height we get the transcendental number Pi= 3.14159...., the ratio of the circumference of the circle to the diameter, a quantity which was supposed to have been discovered by Pythagoras much later. It, therefore, represents the whole of the Northern Hemisphere of the earth, the apex= North Pole, and perimeter = Equator. Each face of the Pyramid, therefore, represents one quadrant of the hemisphere in a triangular form which allows mapping, and there are such maps. It is a model scaled to 1:43,200. The ratio of the earth’s equatorial length to polar radius is almost the same as the ratio of the Pyramid’s perimeter to its height, i.e. 6.3 and 6.28, a difference of 1%.. The spherical nature of earth was not supposed to have been known until recently. This Pyramid is positioned at the apex of the Nile Delta so that two lines can be drawn from it at equal but opposite angles which will just enclose the delta, forming a sector of a circle, or nearly a two dimensional pyramid.

It contains several large chambers, shafts, and corridors which slope at an angle of 26 degrees, i.e. half the slope of the pyramid. Some of the openings were aligned to various stars, one at 32 degrees would have been aimed at Alpha Draconis in 2500 BC, another at 45 degrees at Zeta Orion. All these chambers were found to be completely empty, and without any decorations or inscriptions as one usually finds on Egyptian artefacts, except for a supposed coffin, or sarcophagus. This was made out of one rectangular block of granite, measuring 7’ 5.2” x 3’ 2.5” and 3’ 5.31” deep, too large to go through the doors. Into this a perfect concavity was carved out, measuring 6’ 6.6” x 2’ 2.81” by 2’ 10.42” in depth . Its internal volume was exactly half its external volume. It was so perfectly cut that the question as to how and by what instruments it could have been produced is still a mystery. The King’s Chamber which exists in the middle of the Pyramid has the following dimensions:- The floor 34’ 4” x 17’ 2” i.e. the length is double the width. This makes a diagonal of 38’ 2”. The height is 19’ 1”, i.e. half the diagonal.

None of this precision can be accidental, but it shows great scientific knowledge, technical skill, organising ability, and above all strong purposiveness. It would have been much simpler to construct without such accuracy. There is no previous history of the development of the capabilities which could have produced such a construction, nor are there any indications that these were applied or developed further later in history - in fact degeneration appears to have taken place, and it is impossible for modern technology to reproduce.

The exact purpose of the Pyramid is also a mystery. There are three suggestions which may all be true since they are inter-dependent:-

(a) That the Pyramids were burial places for the Pharaohs - This does not require such precision.

(b) That it was an instrument for observing, determining and calculating astronomical data - this requires precision, but does not require so many Pyramids, unless each was meant to measure different things.

(c) That it was a place for religious practices. Certainly, the Egyptians had the notion of soul and resurrection, and their myths do connect the Pharaoh, Astronomy and Religion. The Pharaoh was regarded as god on earth, who ruled and represented the people, and was resurrected as a star in heaven from whence he came. The welfare of the people was, therefore, connected with his guidance and obedience to him. Note that in Christianity as in ancient Egypt, salvation is to be obtained through the resurrection of Jesus. The whole religious system saw the individual as part of the communities, and humanity as part of the Cosmic process which had to be studied objectively and copied on earth to retain harmony. It is not difficult to see that we need only substitute the word Christ, Prophet or his righteous representative, a Pope, a Head of the Community, an Imam or Amir to describe other religions. However, the Egyptians did not abide by their religion. It degenerated and the whole civilisation collapsed. Their world came to an end. The same considerations apply to the Pyramids and other structures in Central America.

 

 (2) Records are of three kinds:- (a) history of people (b) their ideas (c) Myths and legends.

There are many kinds of myths and many theories about them.

(a) Unexplained object or events cause awe and a number of ideas grow up around them based on fantasy. Exaggerations and fantasies also grow up around people regarded as heroes. They may arise from the need for Hero figures in an uncertain and dangerous world, or the need for importance by association.

(b) They may be Archetypes - that is certain basic patterns connected with the way the mind is constructed.

(c) They may be like dreams which describe subconscious fears and insecurities or other states which affect masses of people in common.

(d) They may be created to produce certain psychological or social conditions, frameworks of reference, attitudes, mental set. Some myths are meant to produce courage for hunting and war or instil cooperation.

(e) They may be inventions designed to consolidate the position of a political regime. Myths were used to sustain not just the rulers but the whole political system in ancient Egypt, India, China, Greece, Rome and they are still manufactured to sustain modern states, even commercial firms and religions.

(f) They may be designed to create an identity for a community or group such as a nation, class, religion or race. The most vicious form of this is the myths which sustain nationalism. This consists of exaggeration and fantasies about certain historical personalities and events which distort and replace the truths of history. They hide the misdeeds and atrocities by suppressing or glamorizing them. They are responsible for most of the evil and stupidity which human history consists of. It is necessary here to distinguish between sublime myths which have a developmental effect and diabolical ones, the effect of which is the reverse. 

(g) Some are connected with Magic - that is, designed to justify certain activities to control the forces of nature, or give rise to rituals designed to do so.

(h) The mind tends to synthesise, merge or compress experiences. A myth may encapsulate the ultimate or near ultimate synthesis of all experiences inner and outer.

(i) They may mark social conditions and changes. The conflict between the sons of Adam, Cain and Able, may be seen as a conflict between the nomadic and agricultural stages of history.

(j) They may contain racial memories of great traumatic past events. These may have altered in the way they are told or formulated gradually over the years.

(k) They may be Explanatory devices by which people tried to make sense of the world. These personify natural forces and the relationship between them describes events and the laws of nature. They provide a framework of reference by means of which the events of life can be interpreted, and thought, motives and actions can be controlled. The difference between the Greek gods and the Monotheistic God lies in the fact that the former paints a picture of the universe which is disintegrated into several independent forces, the relationship between which is capricious, chaotic and anthropomorphic, while the latter creates a picture which is unified, harmonious and governed by laws at a more transcendental level. These two attitudes obviously create two distinct types of behaviour and civilisations. The Greek gods produce a Democracy, but lying above ordinary human beings, thus creating two classes, masters and slaves, while the Monotheistic idea of God creates a transcendental Autocracy, but one under which there is a human democracy since all men are equal.

(l) They may be teaching stories like fables. Though these may be based on historical events, it is not the facts of history which are important but the significance.

(m) They may be symbolic in their use of physical or outer images to describe psychological processes.

(n) They may be Codes. Some people with considerable skill and knowledge have encoded their knowledge in story form. This could be done for three reasons:- (i) They are formulae for systematising and compressing knowledge similar to modern scientific formulae. (ii) They are designed to hide the knowledge from common people who could corrupt it through misunderstanding or misuse. (iii) To enable this knowledge to be transmitted over the ages in a form which had greater social stability and did not require the understanding of the human vehicles or medium, and which was more permanent than paper.

 

Some people believe that these myths were deliberately coded by the people of a past prehistoric civilisation, one which may have been destroyed by the last Ice Age and knew this destruction was imminent. They did this in order to transmit their knowledge down to our own age, stimulate the re-development of civilisation and act as a warning about the cosmic mechanisms which cause these cataclysms. The problem with this theory is that civilisation would have to develop first to allow people to understand the code; the new civilisation may have a different coding system; time and effort could be better spent in investigating nature than investigating the code; attention to the code itself leads to superstitions; people do not take heed of warnings unless other proofs can be supplied. They may, however, be stimulants to produce psychological effects, draw attention, produce questions and lead to thought and investigation.

Coding can be done in several ways:-

(a) Symbols where one thing is used to represent something else, particularly material things to represent spiritual things such as light, water, fire, air, earth, mountains, the sea, vessels such as boats, arks; emblems which represent complex ideas such as crosses, swastikas, wheels; The qualities, processes or functions of creatures represent psychological ones such as snakes, lions, horses etc.. Water represents the spiritual world in which the fish swims. Fire is the transforming principle which also causes suffering. Boats carry one across the turbulent seas of chaos and trouble. And so on.

(b) An object or system is given a name e.g. the Constellations have names such the Bull, Ram, Fish, Twins, Scorpion etc.. Orion is the Hunter who has a dog, and Sirius is the Dog Star. The Egyptians had a god Anubis, a Jackal which belongs to the dog family, and ministered to Osiris, the founder of their civilisation, who was killed, resurrected, and raised to heaven where he became Orion, the Hunter. His wife Isis, as well as the dog are identified with Sirius, the Dog star. The Zodiac is represented by a wheel and the Milky Way by a Churn. Taurus, the Bull was a symbol in the Minoan and Egyptian religions. The Ram occurs repeatedly in the Old Testament, probably because it was the Astrological Age of Aries, the Ram. The Fish was a symbol of Christianity, not the Cross, because it was the Age of Pisces, the Fish. We may speculate that if the series is to be continued Islam should be associated with Aquarius, the Water Carrier, and interpret that.

(c) Certain numbers occur in myths all over the world - Human beings have always had certain reguular experiences in relation to the world, such as the day, year and other cycles. One of the most ancient myth current in ancient Egypt was that of Osiris. The numbers 360, 72, 30 and 12 occur in this myth. We are told that there were 12 months of 30 days each in a year which in the time of Osiris consisted of 360 days. It was noticed that events on earth were connected with events in heaven, e.g. the motion of the sun, moon and stars. These stars move across the sky during the night and return the next night, but they also shift slightly from night to night through the year, making a cycle. It was, therefore possible to represent the sky as a great circle, and this could be divided into distinguishable parts according to the constellation which existed there. What could be more logical than to divide this circle into the same 360, 12 and 30 parts as the year. Thus we have 360 degrees representing the days in a year and 12 sections or houses, each consisting of 30 degrees. The number 72, however, seemed puzzling until it was discovered that this was equal to the number of days it took the recession of the equinoxes through one degree. That is, if you look at the sky on succeeding equinoxes (when day and night are equal as on June 20 and September 22) then you find that the stars are shifting slightly at a steady rate in the opposite direction - their arrival has been retarded. This we now know is due to the fact that the earths axis itself rotates in the opposite direction to the earth’s rotation.

Another number which recurs is 4 which the number of cardinal points, North, South, East and West. Multiples of these numbers, specially multiples of 10 also have significance. 72x5=360= a year; 36=1/2 degree of precession; 72x30=2160= the number of years for the sun to pass through one constellation of 30 degrees; 2160x12=25,920= the Great Year, the number of years for the sun to go through all the constellations and return to its first position. Additions such as 72+36=108, and divisions 108/2=54 also exist. Thus Osiris is said to have been killed by Set, his brother, using 72 conspirators. The Hebrew Kabalah is said to be governed by 72 angels. The book of revelations mentions 144,000 (72x2000) righteous men in heaven, these being made up of 12,000 from each of the 12 tribes of Israel. In Central America the Maya Calendar has Tun= 360 days, Kitun= 7200 days, 5 Baktun=72,000 days, 6 Katuns=43,200 days. In India the Purana speak of Yugas (Divine Periods). There are four: Krita Yuga= 4800 years, Treta Yuga= 3600 years, Davpara Yuga= 3600 years and Kali Yuga =1200 years. This is our own age of depravity. Maha Yuga, the Great Age=the total of the previous ages is 12000 years. One year of God = 360 human years. Therefore, the Maha Yuga= 360x12000=4,320,000 years. One thousand of these make one Kalpa, a Day of Brahma, in other words the age of this Universe= 4,320 million years. The Pyramid was built on the scale 1:4,3200 (72x6x100). an indication of the significant attached to this number. The number 72 also occurs in Islam and refers to the number of sects which will go to hell.

However, other numbers also occur in myths which need to be accounted for. Of special significance are 1, 3, 7 and 8, and their multiples and additions. These can be found in Islam and also in many other cultures. There are for instance, 3 dimensions of space or factors in relativity (the two relata and the relating factor) and 7 heavens. 7 or its multiples and its half, 3.5, occur in the books of Daniel and Revelations. Allah is denoted by 1 or 0 because all other numbers arise from the addition of 1 to itself, and the addition of 0 raises a number to the next level, e.g. 2 to 20 to 200 etc.. These levels represent greater cycles. Note also that 8=7+1, that 3+7=10, that 7-3=4. 10/3 = 3.333333... 7/3 = 2.33333... 4/3 = 1.33333... 3 is also an approximation to Pi. If we divide 4 by 7 we get .571428571428571428..., that is the same 6 numbers in the same sequence to infinity. If we create a circle with 9 points and connect the points in the sequence above we get a symmetrical figure which leaves out the numbers 3, 6 and 9 (3x1, 3x2, 3x3). If we connect these we get a triangle separate but yet connected and intersecting the other. This system is not an astronomical, but a logical or Psychological one.

There is a question with regard to the Osiris Myth:- Even if we admit the rationality of 360 - that it represents the number of days in a year before some catastrophe hit the earth and changed its rotation or orbit - the question is why has the number 12 been chosen? The answer could be that because this number is divisible by 4, the cardinal points (East, west, North, South). 12=4x3. In order to yield 12 we need not only the cardinal points but also the number 3, the dimensions or points required for stability. There is a third dimension, up and down, which connects heaven to earth and this is also important in myths. If we add these two directions to the cardinal points then we get the number 6 which is half of 12. Notice that this number is involved in 4320 (72x6), that 360=3x12x10, and 72=3x12x2=12x6=3x3x8 = 3x3x2x2x2 = (3^2)x(2^3). It is, therefore, not necessary to suppose that it has anything to do with the recession of the equinoxes.

(d) Numbers can be assigned to the letters. The value of the letters of a name can then be added, and the resulting number divided in a different way to yield other letters. The name so formed is a code for the first name. This coding is used in Islamic Sufi circles. This allows symbolic poetry and literature to be written which ordinary people can appreciate without the danger of controversies and corruption. Those who know the code can decipher this document. Unfortunately, people have become superstitious and suppose that any name or words can be deciphered in the same way even if they have not been coded in this way.

(e) Names may also be codes. Water, Fire, Air etc. have symbolic meanings. Spirit means the breath of life. It does not seem to be an accident that the mothers of Moses, Jesus and Buddha begin with an M. This letter also appears in words connected with the sea, mare. The implication seems to be that these Prophets came out of the Spiritual sea. Thus the word “fish” is also associated with Jesus. The Latin name Ichthys means fish but its letters stand for the Latin spelling of Jesus Christ, Son of God. In the case of Buddha, his mother’s name refers to the sea of illusion.

 

Many myths are held in common throughout the world, in ancient Egypt, Greece, Central and South America, India, China, the East Indies. These myths speak of (a) a golden age of high civilization in the far past, (b) a major disaster, a great flood, which wiped out all mankind except for a few survivors, (c) mysterious strangers who restarted the climb to civilization and were regarded as gods, such as Osiris in Egypt and Quetzalcoatl in Central America, (d) predict another major calamity in the future which will destroy mankind. According to Hindu Scriptures there have been 5 Mankinds in the past and we are the 6th which will be destroyed and replaced by a 7th. American Indian traditions tell us that there have been 4 Suns or Ages of Man in the past, and we are living in the 5th which is to be destroyed around the year 2012 AD, to be followed by the 6th Age which will be the last.

The origin of these myths is lost in the mists of pre-history. There is little doubt that some of these same myths with slight variations have been incorporated in the Old and New Testaments and are also adapted in the Quran as teaching stories. They are not new. Though the names and details have been changed the Noah story is to be found all over the world. The myths connected with the birth of Jesus are almost similar to those connected with Moses and Buddha and Krishna and others. This cannot be accidental. The Jesus story is associated with Quetzalcoatl in Central America and Osiris, in Ancient Egypt. Both were regarded as gods. Osiris was a person who came down from heaven, brought the Egyptians out of barbarity by teaching them the arts agriculture and of civilisation. He was gentle person who never forced anyone but tried to persuade them with reason. He left Egypt and wandered all over the world doing the same elsewhere. But he was expected to return and did so. But he was killed by Seth (Satan), after which he was resurrected and went up to heaven. In the case of Egypt the forces of evil did not win because the kingship was taken over by his son Horus, also regarded as a god, the son of god. Indeed, he is regarded as Osiris incarnating himself through his mother Isis. In the case of Central America, he was still expected to return and the American Indians mistook the Spanish Invaders for him with disastrous results. They were treacherously slaughtered and their civilisation destroyed. Herein lies a lesson for modern Christians who are also expecting the return of Jesus.

The problem is this: we have seen that myths can be interpreted in several ways - they could refer to psychological, social or physical events, or all three at once. We notice that no distinction was made by these ancient people between these three elements, the subjective or psychological, the sociological and objective or physical. This distinction is made only by modern Western man whose attitude is aloofness and separate from his environment - and this is a purely psychological attitude which is unjustifiable. This unitary element is only retained in the concept of God, a concept rejected by those who are unable to perceive that they are essentially a dependant part of the Cosmic process. This attitude not only has consequences for thought, but also for their motives and actions, and alters ideologies, social relations as well as the environment.

One of the mysteries myths try to explain is suffering and joy, something of which there is no notion in science. There is certainly suffering in the world. Most religions explain suffering as an expulsion from heaven. Some ancient ones tell us that the universe was created by the disintegration of the Deity. Suffering, therefore, is the result of the conflict or disharmony between the parts whereas joy is the result of the re-integration. These are the processes of death and resurrection. The disintegration and re-integration, analysis and re-synthesis, is, therefore, a creation for a purpose - the end result is not the same as the beginning. It may be regarded as an illusion caused by seeing time as a unidirectional flow. The Buddhist doctrine is that suffering is the result of desires or attachment to things. and this can be overcome by cultivating non-attachment. In other words, giving up desires for these discrete objects. Here Mythology has been removed. From the Islamic point of view nothing can be done without a desire, therefore, the desire for the Unity, Allah, should be cultivated. There is a purpose for the Universe, it is not a meaningless cycle, and man has a function within it. According to Christian doctrine God loved human beings so much that he descended into the world as his own son to suffer with them and show them a way out and attain the final triumph by resurrection. This event is said to be forecast by Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice his son. We are back with ancient myths. The sacrifice of Abraham is also an important part of Islam. The Islamic view is that Allah loved mankind and, therefore, sent them Messengers to guide them. They were willing to suffer in their mission to show them how they may attain release from suffering. Suffering is man’s own fault, his perversion and stupidity (which can hardly be doubted) since he has the capacity to overcome most causes of suffering. It is these capacities lying dormant in him which he must develop and use. The sacrifice of Abraham, therefore, teaches the willingness to sacrifice or control the lower or worldly or biological desires in favour of the awareness and desire for Unity. It is an ascent of consciousness. The mythology has been removed.

 

(3) Devices - There are things like Tarot Cards, the I Ching, Astrological Charts, and Alchemy. Their popularity and survival depends on the human characteristic of insecurity and curiosity which demands knowledge, in this case of the future. Other things are games, perhaps even Chess, concepts, dances, rituals, institutions, modes of formulating, numbering, recording and calculation. Certain designs or ways of doing things recur in different places. There are various mysteries such as the line drawings in Central South America which are so large that they can only be recognised from Aeroplanes. 

Many of these devices show a great amount of psychological knowledge and sophistication in skill, and yet they come down to us from very remote times. Myths of only recent origin have collected around them. It is unlikely that their purpose was originally the same as it is today. Crosses, Stars and Swastikas are devices containing a wealth of meaning - a type of formula. They are found in many parts of the word and predate Hebrewism and Christianity. According to one theory a 7 stage series can be constructed as follows:-

First there is a dot, an Absolute. This expands into a circle representing the Universe; then a horizontal line appear in it which divides it into Heaven and Earth (solid matter). Then a vertical line appears dividing it into positive and negative sides, and the whole figure into quarters. The circle then splits to become a swastika which loses its arms to become a pure cross. Eventually a man is shown crucified on this cross. This implies that human beings must suffer because of the tension between these lines within themselves in order to restore the circle and re-absorb it into the dot. This describes the function of man in the Universe. Originally, it had nothing to do with the crucifixion of Jesus, but like so many other ideas, it was adopted in Christianity from other sources.

 

An explanation is required for three facts (1) The evidence (all three forms) now available regarding the resemblances and differences between Ancient Egyptian and Ancient American civilisations. (2) That these civilisations of the past show a great amount of scientific (particularly Astronomical, Mathematical and Geographical), technical and organisational skills, though they were supposed to be primitive, having just emerged from the hunting-gathering stage; (3) there is no indication of a previous history of gradual development nor of continued development - they apparently spring out of a vacuum and disappear into it. (4) The purposes of these immense and wondrous works do not appear to conform to modern ideas of purpose, and are unknown.

There are three possible explanations:-

(1) That there was a still earlier world civilisation somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic or elsewhere, which was destroyed by a colossal geophysical disaster by sinking into the sea or flooding due to rising sea levels. This idea comes from Plato who reported a conversation Solon had with an Egyptian Priest. But surveys of the Atlantic Ocean do not appear to support the existence of such a submerged continent.

Since the formation of the crust, the earth is regarded as having undergone 3 Eras, called the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cainozoic. The Cainozoic is divided into 7 Epochs, of which we are living in the last, the Holocene, now about 10,000 years old. According to fossil records, humanity in its present form, Homo Sapiens Sapiens, are thought to have been in existence since about an estimated 115, 000 to 50,000 years ago. Recorded history goes back to about 6000 years ago, or 4000 BC. The missing 4000 years in our Epoch could be accounted for by a slow prehistoric development at a steady rate. But we have to account for a period of 5 to 11 times as much. There appears to be sufficient time for several Civilisations to have developed from basics. The previous Epoch, the Pleistocene, began about 2.5 million years ago. It is during this time that mankind is said to have developed. It is a period marked by 4 Ice Ages lasting several thousand years alternating with milder conditions. This freezing and melting was accompanied by earthquakes, volcanic activity, floods and earth movements. Large scale extinction of animal and plant species occurred followed by multiplication and arising of many new species.

The last Ice Age occurred about 17000 years ago and lasted 7000 years. It could have destroyed mankind except for a few survivors. The freezing covered large areas of land up to great depths. It must have occurred sometimes so suddenly that extinct animals have been found preserved in the ice with grass and plants still in their mouths and stomachs, and trees complete with fruit. The melting of this enormous quantity of ice would have raised sea levels to great heights and drowned much land, while other parts, relieved of the weight of ice began to rise. Some of this melting must have taken place suddenly or there must have been torrential rains. Huge graveyards have been found in various parts of the world containing the mutilated skeletons of many different animals, herbivores and carnivores alike which would not normally live together in such a congested manner. They must have been herded together by rising waters which eventually drowned them and covered them in mud. Earth movements are indicated by the fact that animals and plants found buried in the ice in Siberia would have lived much further south in warmer places. Also sea shells can be found on mountains and the skeletons of sea creatures such as whales far inland.

When things settle down and climate becomes mild again then the surviving human beings begin to prosper and multiply. They must also have lost contact with each other, and different civilisations began to develop in different areas but based on common traditions from the past.

The cause of these ice ages is not fully known. But it could be the fact that the under the crust of the earth we find magma, hot molten rock. We know that the earth is affected by the gravity of the planets which varies according to their different sizes and alters because their different motions constantly change their relative positions. This may affect the magma and the crust floating on it. When planets become aligned on one side of the earth this gravitational affect must be at its maximum. These changes can, therefore, cause great changes on the earth. Volcanic activity caused by these forces can throw up an enormous amount of material in the form of lava onto the ground and smoke into the atmosphere. This obscures the sun, causing darkness and falling temperatures. It is also likely that the sun itself undergoes changes and its radiations of heat and light bring climatic changes to the earth. Another possibility is that the sun in its travels through the galaxy enters into areas where there is more gas. This may interfere with the radiations reaching us or cause it to absorb more of these gases and become hotter. Another possibility is the impact of a comet or large meteor, probably from the Asteroid belt. It is possible that the cause or the effect may have been the slowing down of the orbit of the earth, or the acceleration of its rotation, to change the year from 360 to 365 days.  

It has also been suggested that ice ages can occur when the earth is at its maximum distance from the sun and the tilt of the earth is minimum and precession changes the alignment of the equinoxes in the Zodiac. The result is that the sun is not warm enough to melt the winter snow and it continues to accumulate. If this is so then it is a cyclic phenomena which must recur. Whatever the cause the fact remains that it comes from outside the earth (heaven, and by its laws) and is, therefore, regarded as an act of God.

However, another theory has been advanced recently by Charles Hapgood, endorsed by Einstein no less, that changes in the gravitational pull exerted by the planets could cause the whole of the earth’s crust to be displace owing to the fact that it floats on a molten interior and has irregular features such as mountains. The growth of mountains due to tectonic movement, and the ever increasing weight of ice in Antarctica could also lead to a critical point where the earth, owing to centrifugal forces set up by its rotation, could re-adjust the distribution of masses. This could take place suddenly bringing about global catastrophe. It would push the hitherto warmer areas into the arctic circle and freeze them while shifting the Antarctic land mass into warmer climates. A civilisation could well have developed here in the 10,000 or more years for which this state of affairs lasted. Another similar shift would cause the defreezing of the northern continents and the refreezing of the southern ones, burying this civilisation except for its works elsewhere on the planet. The evidence that the Antarctic was once ice free comes from the discovery of some ancient maps which appear to be accurate and show that this was so. Fossils of trees and other plants have been found in Antarctic mountains where nothing now grows; coal beds have been found near the South pole. Similar finds have occurred near the North Pole. The masses of mild climate animals which suddenly died found in Siberia have already been mentioned.  The earth’s magnetic Poles are not situated at the geographical poles and are known to be moving and to have reversed. The last one took place about 12,000 years ago, a date also associated with large scale extinctions. Another reversal is expected about 2030 AD.

The conclusion must be that:- (a) Humanity was nearly destroyed in the past as religious literature tells us. (b) Almost certainly this has happened several times before. (c) It is likely that it will be destroyed again by a similar disaster. (d) This is due to cosmic events and laws. Planetary conditions are now different from what they were before. We must regard this as a renewal, similar to the yearly cycle, a new experiment with new opportunities. The old earth, as the scriptures tell us, was destroyed and a new earth created in its stead. And this is to take place again. The Heavens are also different both in the sense that the movement of the earth has changed the configuration of the Zodiac, but also in the sense that new Ideas have also arisen.

However religious teachings and myths tell us that the destruction of humanity is due to their own wickedness. This wickedness is said to arise from the search for Knowledge, i.e. science, and the technology which results from this, without an equivalent sense of responsibility or conformity to the inherent cosmic values. They disobeyed and partook of the fruits of the Tree of Knowledge which was forbidden them. Note that the temptation to do this came from Satan, represented as a Serpent, who promised them immortality (Genesis 3). Knowledge and immortality were equated. The Serpent is also a symbol of wisdom in the myths of most people, both in ancient Egypt and ancient America, and even in the Bible. It is involved in the contest between Moses and the Sorcerers of Pharaoh. Moses was required by God to make and carry the image of a Serpent on his staff which would give immortality to anyone who was bitten by it. (Numbers 21:8, John 3:14). But the symbol itself began to be worshipped by the Israelites so that it had to be destroyed by King Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:4). The serpent, Kundalani. is also found in Hindu scriptures where it is depicted as being coiled at the bottom of the series of 7 Chakras in the human body, the lowest being the sexual centre. This may represent the Tree of Life and the serpent may be a phallic symbol. It is the uncoiling of this serpent and its rising to the top where the fruits are which leads to enlightenment, but merely has reproductive or cyclic birth and death effects at the bottom.

All this could be interpreted as meaning that these very ancient Civilisations caused the geophysical disasters by means of their population expansion or their science and technology, in a way similar to that which is being done today.

 But there is another interpretation. When Adam and Eve ate of the Tree, then, we are told:-

“And the Lord God said: Behold the man has become as one of Us, to know good and evil: and now lest he put forth his hand and take also of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever, therefore the Lord sent him forth from the Garden of Eden to till the ground from whence he was taken. So He drove out the man.” (Genesis 3:22-24)        

This verse rejects the idea that man is immortal. This is also the Islamic position. Immortality is something to be earned by obedience or identification with the Will or Laws of God which are Eternal.

To know good and evil implies having discrimination, values or a purpose of one’s own, to separate oneself from the cosmic process, and this could not be allowed because it would conflict with the Divine purpose and cause disruption in Heaven. Man was expelled to the earth or material existence to prevent him from becoming immortal and disrupting the order of Heaven. We must suppose that the term Heaven refers to the order produced by the Laws of the Universe, while Earth represents the material world on which the Laws operate, but also chaos. The earth is still in the process of transformation, of becoming. The punishment which natural disasters imply refers to his mortality. These punishments must continue until man learns to conform to the Laws of God, re-enters paradise and becomes immortal. This refers, therefore, to a change of attitude, a psychological transformation. The catastrophes are not good or evil in themselves but are merely interpreted to be so by man subjectively, because of his desires and fantasies. It is his own subjectivity which causes his suffering.

 

(2) It is supposed by some people on the grounds of myths and legends which tell us that the sciences, technologies, organisation and culture of civilisations were introduced by mysterious strangers or gods, that these must have come from Outer Space, particularly from Orion or Sirius. This, however, seems unlikely since there does not seem to be a good reason why they should then depart and never contact us again. Others claim that they have not departed and still exist among us or contact us through various means including, in modern times, through UFOs. It could be that the notion of Jinn in Islam, from which the word Genius is derived, refer to such persons.

However, it is also likely that “coming from outer space” is a misinterpretation of “descending from heaven” - a spiritual event is given a material interpretation. It ought to mean coming down from a higher more universal conscious level to a lower conscious level - to that of the surrounding people. They have to be guided, taught and given rules because their level of consciousness is too low, and they cannot perceive the facts, meanings and values required to live at a higher level of existence.

Another possibility is that the local people even in ancient times were primitive, but members from the High Civilisation came among them for various commercial or scientific reasons, built their factories and instruments and influenced the local society and culture. This would be similar to the more recent Western influence on primitive tribes in Africa, South America and Pacific Islands.

There is also a strong tradition in Esoteric circles that the knowledge which had been achieved in this lost Civilisation was preserved by a group of people and transmitted within this group. This group guides the re-creation of High Civilisation by gradually releasing this knowledge or introducing new influences into societies. The Biblical Ark is said to be a symbol for such a society. This knowledge had to remain hidden in order to prevent its corruption by undeveloped people who would misuse it or could not understand it. The religions themselves are said to arise from teachers sent out by this group. There does seem to be some evidence for this theory. A number of new movements and ideas appear to have a mysterious origin. They arose when those to whom their origin is attributed travelled to certain places or met certain people who had connections with mysterious organisations. Newton and others are said to have such mysterious connections. It is not suggested that the discovery of Electricity or the Theory of Relativity, for instance, came directly from these sources, but that they required a certain mental set which was introduced directly or indirectly by such groups. The centre of this group, it is claimed by some people, is somewhere in the Himalayas, though sub-groups may exist in many other places throughout the world.

Such a Secret Society which held custody of the secret wisdom are said to have existed in Egypt. The Bible tells us that Moses learnt all the Wisdom of the Egyptians (Acts 7:22), which he no doubt passed on to the Israelites. He may have learnt from Jethro, the priest of Midian, an Ishmaelite, a predecessor of Muhammad. (see Exodus 3:1, 4:18, 18:5 and Quran 18:61-83). Jesus appears to have had connections with the Essene Sect, some of whose documents were recently unearthed at Qumran. Plato tells us in the Timeaus that Solon had learnt about Atlantis from an Egyptian Priest who also told him that the Greeks were children as to history compared to the Egyptian Priests who retained a far larger record of the distant past. Egyptian priests were also consulted by the Greeks. Herodotus in the fifth century BC and Diodorus in the first century BC. Pythagoras, the Philosopher, Scientist and mystic, is said to have studied under the Egyptian Priests as well as under Zoroaster and formed a School which later influenced Aristotle, Plato, Ptolemy and Archimedes. The word “Philosophy” and the phrase “The Music of the Spheres” is attributed to him, as is the Mathematical description of Music, the Cosmos and Humanity, and their interactions. He discovered that the most harmonious sounds bore exact numerical ratios and devised the musical scale. The Greek word for ratio is logos which also means Word, which in Christian theology is associated with Jesus (John 1:1), showing where the idea comes from.

 

(3) The third theory is that the same general situation can be perceived directly and independently by different people according to the level of their consciousness, and if the laws and processes governing these are perceive then the past can be retrodicted and future predicted intuitively. These perceptions may be verbally formulated in different ways, but in so far as there is something which human beings have in common by virtue of being human, then there will also be similarities. Thus the origin of the stimulus for development comes from the Great Teachers, called Prophets, who receive direct inspiration owing to heightened consciousness. They also establish these Esoteric Groups, though they may be associated with them, may come out of them or even be sent out by them. Most religions have such esoteric or mystic groups associated with them. Such Prophets have arisen throughout the world at various times and there is no part of the world, the distinctive culture of which, is not traceable to them. This seems reasonable in view of the fact that we know full well that human progress depends on the inspiration of the few scientists, inventors, statesmen, entrepreneurs, saints who periodically add something new to civilisation.

 

Consider this planet. It is part of, exists in, and interacts with other bodies in, the Solar system. This Solar system has a structured Space-time. There are three levels of interaction - by virtue of its own motion round the sun, the motion of the moon around it, and the various complex motions of the other planets. The earth is 24, 902 miles in circumference at the equator, 24,860 in the polar direction, and average of 93,000 miles from the sun. It rotates at 1000 mph completing one cycle in a day and revolves round the sun at 66,600 mph, completing a cycle in 365.2422 days, both in an anticlockwise direction. Its axis of rotation is inclined to its orbit by 23.5 degrees from the upright at the moment but oscillates between from 22.1 to 24.5 degrees, and this cycle takes about 41,000 years. This gives us the seasons of the year and also a greater cycle of changes. Like a spinning top which is disturbed from the upright position, it has a motion of precession in the opposite clockwise direction. This cycle takes 25,776 years.

The other planets have various distances, sizes and motions of their own. Since these motions are regular there is a cycle described by a certain configuration of the planets until they return to the same configuration. There are, therefore, many cycles each having their own Time. The combined effect of all these motions is very complex and affects the structure of Space-time.

The Solar System is a whole, not the sum of its parts. What would it look like considered as a Quantum Field?

These bodies are connected by means of gravitational, magnetic and electrical fields, and by electromagnetic radiations, including heat and light, and by ionised gases or dust. Thus the effect of the complex motions of these planets exerts complex effects on the earth. This causes its motions to vary. The earth has a crust under which there is a hot molten magma. The motion of the moon round the earth is known to cause the tides. It also affects this magma. The earths own rotation sets up centrifugal forces which has caused the bulging at the equator. The earth is said to attract nearly 15 tons of cosmic dust per year. It attracts and absorbs some radiations, reflects some and emits others. It has a structured atmosphere, a layer known as the ionosphere protects us from certain radiations which it transforms, reflects others outwards or back to earth, thereby retaining them. The magnetic field can attract or deflect ionised material coming from the sun or elsewhere. There are feedback mechanisms which tend to cause compensatory processes to retain a balance. It does not, therefore, function differently from other organisms in that it has some control on what happens to it because of its own nature which it also maintains and enhances. The radiations and materials coming from the Solar system, for instance, are used to produce life and its evolution. There is an intelligence associated with it.

The thing to observe about all this is that though all these changes are regular and smooth, their various combinations do produce unique or catastrophic events, and in so far as the complexity is incalculable by us, chaotic events. Since the sun also moves through the galaxy which also moves, nothing, in fact, repeats itself exactly. There is a direction of development. The cycles are really spirals - spirals when compressed are seen as cycles.

We also know that:-

(a) Human beings contain water, and this is in ionised form, which is very sensitive, that their nervous system and brain is an electronic device, that it is very sensitive to, and emits, electromagnetic forces; human beings, like other organisms also contain Bio-rhythms which are attuned to the various cycles of nature, though we are unconscious of this; that they can synthesise the data of experience to reproduce the patterns of nature in their minds.

(b) Consciousness is variable and can be enhanced. If this were not so there could not have been an evolution of it from the lower animals to man.

(c) There are certain phenomena relevant to this discussion, about how things are related. One of these is Resonance by which a pattern existing in one medium can be reproduced in another medium. The second is the phenomena of Fractals where patterns at a higher level are reproduced at lower levels. The third is Holographs (holo=whole). The saying “As above so below” is well known. It comes from a time when all phenomena at every lower or particular level were regarded as reflections of phenomena at a higher or more universal level. Thus the Solar System could be seen in the atom. It would, therefore, be possible to reverse the process of creation by ascending in knowledge from the particular to the Universal.

(d) There are a great number of people who claim, or have claimed, such inspiration. But they may be lying or deluded. The claim can only be admitted if it is proved by an enhancement of behaviour, capability and achievement. This combination can be corroborated by other similar cases. There are many such cases.

 

These considerations lead one to the conclusion that religious inspiration is possible and valid.

 

The evidence for the existence of a Civilisation before the Egyptian, which is normally regarded as the oldest one, and the Central American ones are as follows:-

(1) The legends or myths in Egypt tells us that the Pyramids were not created by the Egyptians but were already old, having been created in their pre-history by the gods. The same is said about the Central American Civilisation.

(2) The research evidence shows that the scientific and technical skill used by these civilisations was far in advance of what they could developed and appears to have disappeared.

(3) More recently John Anthony West, whose conclusions were confirmed by a number of Geologists, discovered signs of weathering by water on the Sphinx and other monuments and concluded that this could only have taken place at the end of the Ice Age, and revised the date for the construction of the Pyramids to around 10,000 BC. Similar conclusions have been reached by investigators in Central America.

(4) An Astronomer Robert Bauval showed that if the shafts in the Pyramid were meant to be aligned with the stars then a date of 10, 450 BC would be more appropriate. The three Pyramids at Giza would then be aligned exactly with the 3 stars in Orion, and the Nile could represent the Milky Way. The recession of the equinoxes causes Orion to have a cycle of 26000 years (13000 years ascending and 13,000 years descending) and it would have been at its lowest point then. In fact the arrangement of the whole complex of structures was such that the precession of the equinoxes was also taken into consideration. Around 2500 BC, the southern shaft in the King’s Chamber would have shown Sirius. The interesting thing about Sirius is that it was venerated by the Dogon tribe in West Africa (see “The Sirius Mystery” by Robert Temple), who knew that it was a double star and that the period of Sirius B around Sirius A was 50 years, though it is invisible and was not discovered until 1862. Sirius rises just before dawn in the east. The period between one and the next rising is called the Sothic Cycle and is almost precisely 365.25 days, like the solar year. The Egyptians appear to have known about it in that they identified it with Isis, the wife of Osiris (also his dog), Sirius is also mentioned in the Quran (53:49) where we are reminded that Allah is also Lord of Sirius.  

(5) There is a myth of special interest connected with Heliopolis, The City of the Sun, known in the Old Testament as On. The Cosmology taught here goes as follows:- There was first the waters of Nothingness called Nun (Chaos, which may well refer to the Floods or the Ice Age). From this emerged the self-created god, Anu (sometimes Ra). As he was lonely he created, by masturbation, the twins Shu (Dryness) and Tefnut (Moisture). When these two matured, they copulated and produced their offsprings Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). These two also mated and created Osiris, Isis, Set and Nepthys. These nine gods, Neturu, constitute the Ennead, the godhead or heaven which ruled Egypt. This creates the nine pointed circle mentioned earlier. They are supposed to have come from a far away land called Ta Neturu (The abode of the gods, which could refer to Heaven, some planet in outer space, or to Atlantis). This could only be reached, by selected people, by a boat or vehicle. Hence, the religious ceremonies connected with the death of Pharaoh. The Temple at Heliopolis was also called the Mansion of the Phoenix. The Phoenix is described as a bird which when burnt renews itself. This symbolism should be obvious now. Osiris and Isis produced Horus who ruled after them, and was succeeded by Thoth, the inventor of Mathematics, Astronomy and Engineering on which the ancient civilisation was based.

The reader may like to compare this system with the Hebrew Kabalah by exchanging names. This should alert us to the fact that apart from the outer description of the various antics and relationships between these entities which was meant for the common people, there was also an esoteric or hidden, much more serious, side to the myths which were preserved by the Priesthood and which has travelled down to our own day. The reason for mentioning this here, however, is the fact that it is Osiris who is said to be the founder of the Egyptian Civilisation. But he occurs only at the fifth level. It is interesting to note that Osiris is the sun god who descends to the earth and then ascends to heaven becoming Orion, while Isis is the moon god, also descends to earth and ascends to become Sirius. The Egyptians knew that events on earth were controlled by the sun and moon, but also that man is a product of the radiations coming from the sun and that he could further evolve to enter the greater Cosmos.

Central American myths are not very much different and they, too have led to esoteric systems and societies. The books of Carlos Castaneda appear to describe his encounter with one of its members.

(6) A priest of Heliopolis, Maneth, recorded the History of Egypt. He tells us that there was a First Time or golden age of peace, prosperity and order, Zep Tepi (Paradise perhaps), lasting 13,900 years during which the gods, Neteru, ruled Egypt. This was followed by a period of 1255 years ruled by demigods or Watchers, Urshu. After this a number of Kings ruled for 1817 years, followed by another 30 kings for 1790 years, and a series of 10 kings for 350 years. The Spirit of the Dead then reigned for 5813 years. This makes a total of 24,925 years in the pre-history of Egypt. The Dynasties known to Egyptologists come only after this, and constitute a seventh age. The Egyptologists, however, only select the names and periods of rule of the later Kings, ignoring all periods which do not fit into their theories. Since the history of Egypt is said by them to have begun about 3500 BC, then we have a date of 28,425 BC, which still leaves plenty of time in which the lost civilisation could have developed.

We need not take the described history literally since these gods, though described as having magical powers also possess human passions and are mortal. It should be remembered that in Egypt and elsewhere kings or persons of power were identified with gods, as also in Christianity. We may, therefore, take the rule of the gods to mean that Egypt was ruled by beings who were much more highly developed compared to the local people or that the Ennead dominated their thinking and behaviour.  To be ruled by the Spirit of the Dead could mean that the dominating force was some kind of ancestor worship, perhaps involving spiritualism, or that not persons but ideas reigned.

This history shows a steady degeneration of Egyptian civilisation. Eventually it was destroyed and the wisdom and knowledge protected over the centuries by the Egyptian Priesthood passed through Moses to the Israelites. The influence which these people had on the ancient Persian and Greek civilisations, though partially known, should not be under-estimated. Note, however, that the concept of God had undergone a transformation - He is no longer identified with the sun or human beings, but transcends them and is One. This seems to imply that the Egyptian priests knew at one time that their myths symbolised a much more universal truth.

But Israel too degenerated as their bible affirms. The ancient Wisdom was preserved in some esoteric circles such as the Essenes and later transmitted to Christianity. There is some evidence that John the Baptist as well as Jesus had connections with such groups. Certainly Christian Theology reverted back to the Egyptian as we have seen. Christianity, however, also degenerated. A renewal took place in Islam where a considerable amount of demythologising and reinterpretation of the same myths to suit the new age is evident. The Quran tells us (e.g. 2:25-26) that much of the imagery is symbolic and restores the concept of God as a Unity which transcends human beings.

 

These Myths are telling us:-

(1) that there was a high Civilisation in the past, which could be identified with or symbolise paradise.

(2) that it is possible to achieve the same again. That is, resurrection can be achieved.

(3) They also describe the nature of this Civilisation. It is one in which Heaven or the gods reign - that is,

                (a) They must be ruled by persons of high spiritual development;

                (b) Who have a high degree of Cosmic knowledge

                (c) And integrate it into the social system so that it reflects the Cosmic Order on earth.

                (d) The destruction of the earth will take place again, at least once more.

                (e) Escape from this destruction is only possible by evolving to a higher level.

                (f) That this evolution is not a physical or social but a psychological one.

 

The question is: Does this destruction and resurrection refer to (a) great Social upheavals, the fall of the Egyptian Civilisation for instance, or does it refer to (b) the regeneration of mankind and its civilisation after a major geo-physical disaster, or does it refer to (c) a type of metamorphosis to another mode of existence. They could refer to all three.

These myths show that these gods, or highly developed people, are resurrected and become part of heaven. That is, of the controlling forces in the Universe. There does not seem to be much sense in cycles of destruction and regeneration which again leads to destruction. It is not what happens in nature. Elements from the past are preserved and introduced into the new stage which, therefore, does not start from the same initial conditions. The planet as it cools down will presumably become less turbulent and more stable. When this happens there will be no more global catastrophes which can wipe out humanity and a golden age of continuous progress in the future could well be established. This is certainly predicted in the Book of Revelations and the American Indian scriptures. But this cooling down may itself make the earth uninhabitable unless progress in knowledge, technology and organisation allows mankind to take counter measures. This, of course requires psychological progress also. Mankind would then be an immortal organism, though not the individuals in it. The individuals, like the cells in the body, achieve immortality by identifying themselves with the whole of humanity, and humanity with the Cosmic process, at least of this Solar system.

The forecasts regarding the future made by Jesus (Matthew 24) shows that he was speaking of social and psychological revolutions, though accompanied by some geophysical events such as earthquakes, Man would deteriorate spiritually. after which a Prophet (Son of Man) would return. This could be regarded as a general process. The Hindu Scriptures tell us that there are spiritual cycles of development and degeneration in human affairs and an Avatar (Spiritual leader) always arrives to revive mankind when they have degenerated. This is also confirmed in the Quran. Jesus’ forecast relates to a time after the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Romans which did, indeed, take place in A.D. 70. This could refer to the persecution of Christianity until Constantine made it into the official religion of the Roman Empire. The description in the Book of Revelations appears to refer to great psychological changes (events in heaven) associated with the coming of the Son of Man. This could refer to the times connected with the coming of Muhammad. There was a dark age throughout the world, and the coming of Muhammad created a new spiritual awareness and a new Civilisation and Empire. This Dark Age was not removed from Europe until the impact of Islam on it. It is necessary to realise that all Prophets or Messengers are aspects of one single phenomena, namely Prophethood - their spiritual function is identical (Quran 4:151), being agents of the same God. The prophethood could, therefore, be regarded as reincarnating. We are told that “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” (Revelations 19:10). Thus it is not necessary that it should be the same individual or even that individual in the flesh - it could refer to his spiritual influence on the age. Jesus did forecast the coming of the Comforter or Spirit of Truth (John 14:16-17, 16:7, 12-15) who would speak not of himself, but what he spiritually heard, confirm the mission of Jesus and guide people into all truth - truths which Jesus’ disciples were not able to bear. All this certainly fits the Prophet Muhammad. The forecasts regarding the future found in the Quran (Chapters 77, 81, 82, 84), speaks of a major geophysical disaster unconnected with the arrival of a Prophet. These two forecasts do not, therefore, refer to the same events - the Quranic event is later than the New Testament one.

On the other hand it may not require technology at all. Suppose that the whole thing is symbolic of something much more fundamental, something taking place in the Spiritual or Quantum world. We have seen that the whole Solar System can be regarded as a Being so that its Space-time structure or quantum field can be regarded as its mind. The same would apply to the Universe as a whole. It is a system in which any change in one place would affect other parts, and the whole would control what happened in any part. The parts would be required to adjust to the system as a whole. The events taking place at this level will then produce the events on earth and in all the various organisms, including man. These organisms would have some kind of function with respect to the whole - they would affect the Space-time or quantum field around them. And though they died physically these changes would persist. The purpose of the organism could then be regarded as being just this transformation. Human beings may develop sufficiently to influence, through their collective electromagnetic or other fields, the whole of the planetary field and beyond. We could speak of an organism as having descended or incarnated from this field and returning to it. Is this a far fetched idea? Or is it merely a change in the point of view from the horizontal to the vertical? This view of human beings as a centre of control within a field is obviously quite different from the ordinary view, but that does not make it invalid. The reader should satisfy himself that this view provides an explanation for all the teachings of the religions which come down to us from genuine Prophets. These ideas are integral to the notion of Vicegerency. It is not merely a question of spiritual development for its own sake, there it has a cosmic purpose.

 

The myths passed down to us from the past show a deficiency in comparison with the Hebrew and Islamic teaching, though the Hebrew God, at the popular level, was for a long time only a tribal deity more powerful than those of other nations. The notion of Allah transcends their notions of gods. He is not the Sun, Ra or Sirius, or a person, but their Lord, and that of the rest of the Universe. Identification is to be achieved with His purpose. The intelligences associated with these lesser bodies may be regarded as angels or arch-angels, and being dependant and limited, not to be idolised by man. He had greater potentialities and a higher destiny. The self-image of man was to be raised. Perhaps, human beings are required eventually to provide stability to the rest of the Universe also, and this is a built-in potentiality or plan in the Universe.

 

The significance of the Pyramids lies in this that it shows us a completely different kind of mathematical thinking coming down to us from prehistoric times. Though mathematics has always been connected with Astronomy even to this day, both were connected in the past with human development. Numbers had meanings and qualities and did not merely stand for quantities and were not used only to impersonally count and measure. This dimension has been lost. In the present era the earliest philosopher-mystic who describes such a mathematical system was Pythagoras who might have obtained it from the legendary Egyptian, Hermes Trismegistus (the Thrice-blessed), about whom nothing certain is known. He appears to have been a most venerated teacher of an esoteric school. The work attributed to him is almost certainly the interpretations of the Neo-platonic school, also a mystical secret society which incorporated or adapted Plato’s philosophy. Little is known about the teachings of Pythagoras because the school he founded was also a secret Society. However, some of his ideas have been leaked out and made available through Plato and others, and had a great influence on the development of thinking for many centuries. But they are incomplete, obscure and almost certainly misunderstood, leading to much speculation. However, a short summary of what is available will be given to convey the flavour. (See “The Music of the Spheres” by Jamie James)

He assigns the following meaning to numbers:- 1 = Unity, identity, equality, conservation. 2= 1 + 1 = dichotomy, the mutability of things, one thing changes into another. 3 = things having a beginning, middle and end, probably also stability as in a stool with three legs, relationships (the two relata and the relating factor). 4 = the number of points in a pyramid, the simplest and most perfect solid. These four numbers form the Tetractys as in the diagram. Here we see how the 4 comes out of the 1 by three steps. The numbers 1+2+3+4 add up to 10, the perfect number which is also 1 at a higher level.

Pythagoras also describes the musical scale where an octave is formed by doubling the number through 7 steps such that the fourth and fifth are harmonic. We then get the following ratios 1:2 for the octave, 2:3 for the Fifth and 3:4 for the Fourth. There were three kinds of music which affected each other and could be used for human development:- instrumental, in the human soul, and cosmic (the harmony of the heavens). The ratio of the diameter to the circumference of the circle, Pi = 3.14159 is also attributed to him. Here the number in fractions is 22/7, which gives us 3 wholes and 1 divided by 7.

Pythagoras himself was assassinated and his secret school was persecuted, but there are enough signs in history to show that the Esoteric Tradition has continued to exist and influence thinking through the ages to our own times, though it undergoes a change of form as conditions change. There are signs of it in The Hebrew Cabalah and also in the Quran. Some Sufi ideas can be traced back to Neoplatonism. At the exoteric level Pythagoras’s ideas influenced Kepler and Newton. Kepler was probably the last thinker in the West in whom science and mysticism were harmoniously blended. He revived the heliocentric view of the Solar System which was well known in the past, and not only accurately described the motion of the planets mathematically, but also showed that, seen from the sun, the planets do undergo motions which conform to the harmonics of the musical scale. This allowed him to add the ratios 4:5 for the major Third and 5:6 the Sixth. However, these latter ideas are ignored in Science, and no mention is made about how Kepler came to his Laws of Planetary motion, nor how Newton to his ideas. But this is not the fault of Newton. The fact that Newton devoted a great amount of time to Alchemy and believed and was influenced by mysticism and the esoteric tradition has also been hushed up by lesser minds. He identified himself as a Pythagorian and firmly believed that he had merely rediscovered what was given as a revelation in ancient times. It can be stated with confidence that his Laws of Motion and Gravity could not have developed without these influences. His book on these subjects was never published.

Apart from the influences on the development of science, these esoteric schools have also had effects on the development of the arts and on institutional religions and cults associated with them. Unfortunately, each of these have gone their own way and the Unitary view has been lost. This disintegration has had the further consequence of separating technology, organisation and culture, each of which goes its own separate way, and the loss of human control over his own affairs owing to the fact that the coordinating power of consciousness has disintegrated.

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The ultimate aim of Science as of religion is to explain the whole of existence, Explanation requires causes - the thing explained, A, must be causally related, B to something else C which is taken for granted. Knowledge progresses when an increasing number of phenomena, including B and C takes the position of A and are explained by something else C2.

The notion of cause has the difficulty that if everything has a cause, then there is an infinite series of causes. Thus if we say that the cause of the universe is God, we may ask what is the cause of God. If we say that God is self-existent and requires no cause, then there is something which has no cause, and this may be the Universe itself rather than God. And there could be a great many other uncaused events. Things may be circular so that A causes B, which causes C, which causes D which causes A. But then we want to know what caused this circle and so on. The statement “every event has a cause” is unfalsifiable. It cannot be proved or disproved. It is an assumption, an article of faith. For if we come across something, as in quantum theory, for which we cannot find a cause then we can attribute it to human limitations. We do not accept the principle as being false. This is not, however, the way science proceeds. Therefore, science drops the principle. But this would make science impossible since anything could happen at any time. One way to overcome this is to say that events are restricted within a certain range of probabilities. But then, we need to explain what is the cause of this restriction. We could say that things happen without cause only at the most fundamental level. But then we need to know how determining causes arise from uncaused events. The fact is that thinking requires causation. We become conscious only when there is stimulus which consists of a contrast, and this activates us to restore the unity by means of an explanation. we always explain changes in terms of what is permanent, the laws and forces, for instance. Something has to be understood as self-existing with respect to which All other things are explained. The Universe and its laws have not always existed as we now know. They must, therefore, be explained in terms of something else which is self-existing. The relative must be explained in terms of the Absolute.

Generally speaking the word Absolute or God is assigned to X by religions, and is only known in relation to the relative world consisting of the factors A B C, a Trinity which mediates between God and the World. But the factor B has a double role. It is that which has caused the contrast and is also the explanatory device. It has the function which is denoted by the word spirit. It connects X with A and C. The factors A and C, the pair of opposite forces, Ying and Yang, produce the world. They are equal and opposite and therefore, reduce to zero. Conversely, they arise from zero. The interaction between them produces D, the observed phenomena. D is a reflection of B and B is a reflection of X. There are four levels including A C, and it is only the fourth level which is visible to us. The third level can be discerned by the intellect. Positive and Negative forces are known not only to science but appear in religious and mystical literature as well. The factor B appears to be available only at the spiritual level, to direct consciousness and has been called Spirit, Logos, Prana etc.. Creation is a descent from X to D while evolution is an ascent from D to X. This can also be interpreted as annihilation.

                            

Laboratory experiments show that equal amounts of matter and antimatter can be produced out of nothing. Therefore, the Universe could have arisen from nothing And can disappear into nothing. No God is required. But apart from pure speculation this idea has other difficulties:-

(1) There must be cause for such a separation.

(2) It is human intelligence which has set up the conditions in the Laboratory where this event took place.

(3) If there was in the beginning nothing, then the conditions in which something came out of nothing could not have existed.

(4) If something comes out of nothing spontaneously then this must be happening all the time and this would make everything unpredictable.

(5) The Big Bang requires not just one or two particles coming into existence simultaneously but a enormous number of them in a confined space in order to create the explosion.

(6) If matter and antimatter were created at the same time they would immediately annihilate each other.

(7) There is no sign of any antimatter in the Universe.

It is supposed that at the high temperatures in the beginning there could have been a slight asymmetry so that slightly more matter was created, one part in a billion. Thus mutual annihilation would leave a slight surplus. This annihilation would have created heat still detectable today which should be proportional to the amount of matter in the Universe. This, it is claimed, has been detected and calculations show remarkable agreement with the theory. And yet, we are also told that the gravitational attraction in the Universe to account for the slow down of its expansion requires much more mass than has so far been detected. Astronomers are looking for the missing dark matter, about 90% of the mass. However, let us suppose that it is true that Universe was created by an original asymmetry. There is no explanation for it. It is still a mystery and therefore, incorporated in the notion of God. It is also evident that asymmetry is exactly what is meant by information. The Universe is created by the introduction of information.

All Astronomical data points to the fact that this earth will not last forever. Though It is known that the universe began and expands, there is as yet insufficient Scientific evidence to decide whether it will continue to expand indefinitely, or whether it will reach a maximum size and then collapse again, ending in the Big Crunch. If the Universe expands for ever then things will get colder and colder destroying life as we know it. If it collapses then it will become hotter and hotter also destroying life as we know it.

The Laws of Thermodynamics, which require entropy or disorder to continually increase, must lead to the Heat Death of the Universe, if the original energy is finite. That is, the temperature in the Universe will even out and no energy can flow from one place to another since this depends on differences of temperature. This cannot, of course, happen if the original energy is infinite and the universe continues to expand.

 

The Evolution of the Sun enables us to predict that it will get hotter and hotter and grow in size until it engulfs the earth and destroys all life. Another kind of death for life on earth may result from the continuing cooling of the earth or from heat caused by changes in its orbit which may take it closer to the sun. The alignment of the planets with respect to earth continually changes and their collective gravitation may periodically disturb the earths orbit. It is also possible that a comet or meteor may collide with the earth or pass close enough to cause major turmoil, that geo-physical changes may cause major upheavals or some larger cosmic body may collide with or pass near the sun causing upheavals on it. The sun in its travels round the galaxy may come across dense gas clouds which obscure its radiation or increase it. Though the chances of these events happening are low, they are not nil. There have been several ice ages alternating with more congenial conditions for life.

It is clear, therefore, that life in its present form cannot continue for ever. In order to survive it will have to change. The almost complete extinction of life on earth has happened several times in the past, followed by a slow recovery, The kinds of species which proliferated after these events were different from those which lived before. Indeed, evolution itself appears to require such destruction. It is not only a fact that the birth and death of individuals, the replacement of one generation by another is required to ensure adaptation and evolution, but this applies to humanity and to the whole biosphere as well. The materials from which life on earth is created were themselves created in stars which have exploded long ago. Entire galaxies may be destroyed to be replaced by others. The Universe itself may have been created, wound up and recreated several times, each stage at a higher level than before.

There are many people who think that they can obtain immortality right here on earth by advances in biological science and medicine. But this is impossible because of the limits for adaptation, information processing, and the self-renewal capacity of the brain. Even if only life extension is sought the environmental, social and psychological problems this would create are enormous.

Religious scriptures also tell us that the Universe had a beginning which is compatible with the scientific theory that it began with a Big Bang. The Quran as well as other scriptures also predict that this world will be destroyed. This may refer to radical sociological, psychological, biological, or environmental changes, but also to actual geo-physical disasters. Indeed, we are told that the whole Universe will also be wound up. (3:137, 14:48, 99:1-2, 21:104, 55:26-27) But we are also told that human beings can be transformed (56:61) and move from level to level (84:16-19) and may even return to the ground state from which the Universe began (89: 27-30). These verses indicate that there is a possibility of development and evolution right until the return to the very source of existence.

 

The main theological ideas are God, human responsibility, Heaven and Immortality, and these are connected with ideas about Time.

The Christian view of Time is that it is linear, moving from primitive and barbaric times to spiritual perfection. This idea was reinforced by Darwin’s theory of Evolution. Indeed, modern Cosmology also confirms the idea that the Universe had a beginning and may continue to evolve for ever, or it may end in a Big Crunch. This poses a question of whether time is infinite or finite. If it is finite, then there is a beginning and an end. Nothing could bring it into existence since there could be no causes outside time. And what is the point of anything in it if it is to be destroyed. Thus, though we have a purpose and something to strive for now, is the end result worth striving for? If it is infinite the problem arises as to what God was doing before creation and what will He do after it? There could, of course, have been or can be other Universes. But this would be disallowed by the Christian view that the entry of God as Jesus into the world was a unique event. Having achieved the aim of life, Eternal Joy and self-fulfilment, there are no further goals. This state was already present in Paradise before the Fall. What then is the purpose of the Fall and life on earth? The linear idea of evolution contradicts the fact that things also degenerate and get worse. Though evolution was regarded as contradicting the second Law of thermodynamics, this difficulty has been removed by supposing that the expansion of the universe provides the fuel for development. However, theologians and philosophers since Plato have argued as to whether God was in Time or outside Time. If He was outside Time then, having created the Universe, it would evolve by its own laws and He would be aloof from it, taking no further part. Indeed, the Universe itself was regarded as being controlled by another spirit or intelligence sometimes identified with Satan. This, however, is not the Christian view, which requires that God is within Time. But if He is, then, it is argued, He would be subject to it and could not be omni-potent.   

Most of the ancient religions, Egyptian, Indian, Chinese and South and Central American doctrines see time as cyclic.. There is creation and destruction, birth and death, growth and decay, evolution and degeneration. This is supported by observation and also by scientific theories which regard the Universe as being finite. The Universe may collapse, end in a Big Crunch and then begin all over again. If the Universe consists of a finite number of particles, then they can combine in a finite number of ways requiring finite time. When all combinations are exhausted then the same combinations must take place again and again. This must have taken place an infinite number of times in the past and will take place an infinite number of times in the future. This is the doctrine of Eternal Recurrence, revived by Nietzsche. Its ancient symbol is the Swastika adopted by the Nazis. Existence then becomes meaningless and futile. We cannot even regard any point in the cycle as being higher or lower in value than any other. Indeed, it confirms the view of many scientists that the Universe is purposeless.

The result can only be either that we might as well commit suicide or that we place our attention on the present moment and try to achieve personal pleasure or dominance over others.

The Hindu and Buddhist view, however, is that Time is nested. There are many levels, from Absolute Unity to Great Cycles each of which contain many smaller cycles which contain many still smaller cycles. It is possible to obtain release from these cycles, to achieve a state of permanence, mainly by transcending the pair of opposites between which the cycles are produced. Thus the ascent from the smallest cycles through the various levels to the ultimate unity can be regarded as a straight line. This Straight Path is also an Islamic idea. The various levels may be regarded as the various heavens.

The Islamic view is that God is Absolute Time and infinite. But along this line which is like a ladder, there are a number of cycles from the very small to the very large, creating different levels or planes which may be regarded as relative time. Each of them has its own speed and term, i.e. beginning and end. This could be represented as a cone.

Cause descends from the higher level to the lower, and does not exist at the same level prior in time to the effect. Space is created by Time. Moreover, it has both a subjective and an objective aspect since an entity experiences it in relation to its environment, each of which exists at different levels. The cycles could possibly be regarded as spirals such that they do not return to the same point. Thus though the earth does go round the sun every year, the motion of the sun through the galaxy prevents the earth from ever reaching the same exact point in the galaxy. Thus, the years are not alike. The spiral, becomes discernible if we change our point of reference. Even if the Universe alternately expands and contracts, it does not end at the same point. Indeed, the Universe may itself be a lesser cycle within a still greater Cosmos, ultimately in God. Another model could be that events travel as waves in time. There are greater waves containing smaller ones, each type having its own proper period and time. This appears to be compatible with the idea in Relativity Theory that Time is relative and changes with velocities.

 

The present scientific view is that Time began in the Big Bang. Since there was no time before that, then there could be no cause for it. This assumes that cause must be prior to effects in time, and that time is measured by the motion of bodies rather than that the motion of bodies is measured by time. In fact, however, Time was Eternal - infinite not zero.

In Physics we have Poncair’s Recurrence Theorem. The state of a particle can be described by 6 dimensions (called the phase space) which consists of its location in the 3 dimensions of space and 3 dimensions describing its momentum along these directions. Thus a system consisting of N particles has a phase space of 6N dimensions. Liouville’s Theorem states that if the Conservation of Energy is to be maintained then the volume of a system in phase space cannot change with time though its shape may. Thus if a finite system changes in phase space, it traces out a tube, and if it changes again, it will trace out another tube. These two tubes will have the same volume irrespective of the time involved so that each point in one will have an equivalence in the other. In short, this implies that given a finite number of particles and discrete steps in time, the self-same events will continually recur - their tubes will always have equal volume. Consider three states A, B and C, such that A could turn into B or C with equal likelihood, 1/2 and 1/2. B could turn into A or C also with equal probability 1/2 and 1/2. The same is the case with C turning into A or B. Thus starting with A and given sufficient time we will end up with A again and again. But if this happens in many different ways, then we have Chaotic System - e.g.. (1) A-B-C-B-A (2) A-B-C-A (3) A-B-A and so on. Newtonian mechanics produce chaotic systems. We get a wholly determined periodic system only if each step follows necessarily from another by some rule or law.

In case of the Einstein’s relativity world, space is finite but unbounded, like the surface of a sphere. But time begins at a singularity, the Big Bang and may end with a singularity, the Big Crunch. As the volume of the Universe approaches zero, the gravitation, and therefore, momentum increases. Thus the phase space approaches infinity. There cannot, therefore, be any recurrence since this requires a finite phase space. Time changes gradually from minus infinity to plus infinity. Time here means the rate of expansion divided by the radius of the universe.

In quantum mechanics particles are described as wave functions and it is impossible to distinguish between two very close states. Averages are taken. Thus the average of F(t) - F(t+N) can be made as small as we like for all times t, where F is the wave-function and N is proportional to the period. This cannot be chaotic since every small change is reproduced, but it is almost, but not quite periodic. This allows the kind of spirals spoken of above. The reason for this is that momentum also depends on the space co-ordinates - Planck’s constant equals momentum times the length. Thus phase space here has only 3 dimensions (ignoring the 3 for momentum) and there is no way of distinguishing between two particles in the same phase space. There is no question of differentiating between alternative configurations, but only between different states. This breaks the continuity into discrete parts each recognised by a different state. But this result contradicts Chaos Theory. Since all physical systems are fundamentally quantum systems which are almost but not quite periodic, they cannot be chaotic. Discreteness, Determinism and Chance, therefore, appears to arise from the limits of our ability to discriminate between small differences.

 

Science proceeds by painting a picture, as it were, on a canvass. The nature of the canvass affects the picture. In Newton’s physics this canvass was two dimensional, one giving time and the other space (having 3 dimensions). This canvas was regarded as Absolute, an attribute of God. It was uniform so that if a particle was defined by the co-ordinates (t1,s1) then nothing would change if we defined it by (t1+a, s1+b), where a and b are any constants. If this was not so then we could not be sure that a moving particle did not spontaneously change its motion. This is an assumption not a fact. The Law of conservation flows from this. The canvas itself has to be strictly defined. In Einstein’s physics, however, space and time are variables connected with the motion of the particle. Therefore, a new more fundamental canvas was required on which the Newtonian canvas was but one drawing. It could have a curvature and various dents, a structure of its own. This new canvas could be divided into independent sections. We could describe several possible Universes. We could describe a section beginning at time, t1 and ending at time, t2. Everything above and below this could be cut off, something impossible in Newton’s physics. We could describe another section as beginning at t3 and ending at t4, and so on. Since the speed of light has a limit all interactions could only take place within a certain area on this canvas and not outside it. This canvass can be regarded as a new concept of God.

In the case of Quantum physics a further step was taken when the the universe was described by including all probabilities. The Einstein canvas would be vibrating in another dimension. The canvas had to be placed still further back in order to allow it to contain pictures of all these different probable histories. There could be a great number of possible worlds, and the actual world would be only one of these. This canvas could be regarded as the basic reality and as the Mind of God. However, certain phenomena exist which point to the possibility that there are speeds greater than light and this should alert us to the possibility that there is a canvass even beyond this. In order to describe the world as we know it, it is necessary to establish certain boundaries which will restrict the possibilities. An obvious boundary comes from the Anthropic Principle. Nothing can be included in the picture of this universe which would make it impossible for life to exist and evolve, because, in fact, it does. Indeed, from the religious point of view, it should ensure that evolution continues and reaches perfection. Therefore, the canvass is restricted by the need that human beings should arise and evolve.

We note that:- (1) Life and consciousness are part of, and arise from the same materials and forces as the rest of the Universe. (2) It has an inner compulsion for self-preservation, reproduction and self-extension. (2) It adapts to its surrounds (3) It continually evolves to greater and greater knowledge, sophistication of motives and power. (4) It transforms its environment both directly through the forces contained in it and indirectly through its behaviour and technology. Therefore, the development and fate of the Universe cannot be thought of apart from life and consciousness.

 

The Mathematician, Professor Frank Tipler describes just such a Cosmology, called the Omega Point Theory (“The Physics of Immortality”). The theory goes as follows:-

He defines living things as encoded information produced by natural selection, life as information processing, and mind or soul as a computer program; the level of life is defined by the amount of complexity it contains which is proportional to its negentropy, the information contained in it; a moment of consciousness measures units of subjective time which varies with the amount of processing. To live forever means that there is infinite subjective time and this is equivalent to infinite amount of information processing. These definition do not require life to be carbon based and can apply to machines and computers. He points out that a computer program is not a physical thing, and, therefore, resembles the soul. It can be transferred to any physical device. He justifies his ideas by quoting Thomas Aquinas and Aristotle. Aquinas, for instance, distinguishes between two qualities of the soul, the ability to acquire concepts and the ability to use concepts. These, he thinks, are similar to the distinction between the computer’s central processor and the program contained in RAM (random access memory). Aquinas also distinguishes between material time, subjective time and divine time (Eternity). The word “information” derives from Aristotle’s idea about “Forms” as opposed to substances.

The life of any entity can be represented as a world line on a graph showing space in one direction and time in the other. A light cone can be drawn from a point on this line backwards (towards the past) representing the affect other entities can have on it, and forward (towards the future) representing the effects that entity can have on other things - the boundaries of this cone are produced by the speed of light beyond which there can be no interactions.

 

 The cone, therefore, represents its Universe. Thus two entities can only interact if their light cones overlap. If we have an entity with an infinite life span then its past cone will include all the light cones of all other entities in its universe. If there are several entities with infinite life spans then it could be that their points do not coincide. (i.e. there are several gods or godlike beings and several overlapping universes). Tipler’s Theory requires that they do coincide, and this point is called the Omega Point. Though the Omega Point is transcendent, i.e. lying outside Space-time (since the speed of light is not infinite), it is also imminent in every point in the light cone. There is no Space-time outside this cone,

Evolution has created life with a self-preservative urge and also intelligence and if this evolution continues for long enough - there are still millions of years left before the Universe collapses - living organisms will not only have the compulsion to, but will also develop the capacity to expand, populate and control the whole Universe. This process is inbuilt in life and is, therefore, also inbuilt in the matter of the Universe from which life is formed. Control could be achieved through the mechanisms of Chaos. Chaos refers to unstable systems where a small amount of energy can produce large scale differences over a period of time. When the Universe contracts it does so unevenly in different directions because the universe is so large that the limits of the speed of light prevent any causal connection between opposite sides. Contraction means that temperature increases and uneven contraction means that there will a temperature difference between different directions, allowing energy to flow and to be utilised to maintain the uneven contraction.

Tipler thinks that only sophisticated highly intelligent computerised Robots can survive in the conditions of the far future when the universe begins to contract, and these will have to replace human beings. He does not see any difference between human beings and intelligent robots. The progress in knowledge and technology can in the time left for the Universe advance so far that these future robots will be able to prevent the collapse of the Universe and stabilise it. The sophistication of computers will have grown so great that they will be able to gather the information from the light cones coming from the past, code it and produce a virtual reality complete with all past human beings. These resurrected virtual human beings would feel themselves and the virtual world they lived in, as being just as physically real as now because there would be no difference of substance between the world and themselves. This could be regarded as a spiritual body living in a spiritual world. These future computers would erase all defects which afflict mankind now, including death, thus creating the immortality and heaven spoken of by the religions. The Omega Point towards which the Universe converges is God who has the infinite information processing power required. It will obviously be Omniscient and Omnipresent. He identifies the Universal wave function constrained by these Boundary condition with the Spirit, since it guides all development. However, the Cosmology he describes requires that God is the end point of the evolution of Life and justifies this on the grounds that the Einstein and even Quantum equations are time reversible. Thus, the future drives the present, and though He has a purpose, there is no cause, or rather that the purpose is the cause. This God is himself subject to the Laws of Logic and is powerless to change them - He is not Omnipotent.

These ideas can be criticised from several points of view:-

It is true, of course, that in so far as a force produces a future effect than it must be the future, not the past which drives events. There must be a purpose. Time symmetry, however, implies that time is a dimension in which backward and forward motion is possible, and that future, present and past coexist. The fact that there is a Boundary condition implies something which restrains possibilities. This must be integral to the purpose. The Spirit must, therefore, be integral to God. This being the case He must be Omnipotent and able to create other boundary conditions. These boundary conditions must also create the program, he calls the soul. A program is not a program unless it is limited in some way, and is itself dependant on some information. No distinction has been made between various levels of information. A combination and arrangement of bits of information is, after all, also information but at another level. The soul, moreover is regarded as capable of growing in most religions which implies something more than a program which can alter it.

There does not seem to be any reason why such superior robots should recreate human beings whom they have replaced. A copy of a person, especially if he is altered is not really that person. The robots could also produce thousands of copies of the same selected individuals. If the conditions in the far future are such that computers and robots made of certain substances can exist and function, then there does not seem to be any reason why human patterns cannot be directly transferred to the same substances. No robots or computers will be required. If human beings are transferred together with their environments into the virtual reality created by computers then we have a case of merely repeating the same kind of life which is pointless. But if the conditions are radically different then it is impossible for the people of the past to adjust to the new conditions. It will be hell for them. No allowance is made for further human evolution. It is interesting to note, however, that it is an implicit assumption in his theory that all information, past, present and future, is preserved in the light cone and can be extracted to reconstitute the things of the past. This idea can also be found in Hindu and Islamic scriptures in the concepts of Akasha and the Heavenly Record (Quran 50:4). But it is doubtful whether ordinary electromagnetic forces have the capacity to retain an infinite amount of information. New information obscures the old. Or perhaps the super-imposition creates a resultant which can be analysed back into its constituents. But perhaps information is itself a substance and does not require to be transferred to any other substance whatever.

There appear to be three different meanings to the word “Identity”. (a) When things are completely similar. (b) When a thing is uniquely itself, and its characteristics and parts are integral to it. (c) When a thing is an integral part of something else and is recognised by its function with respect to it.

He argues that continuity is not required to establish identity. It has been pointed out by some people that when two vessels containing different gases are joined together then the diffusion of gases allows the extraction of energy. But if the two vessels contain the same gas then no energy can be extracted. This fact is a test of identity. It is impossible to distinguish between particles in the same quantum state. They are, therefore, regarded as identical. But we can count the number of particles and this means that they are not the same molecule. Clearly each occupies a different space at a given time. We cannot, therefore, argue that continuity is not required to establish identity. However, we go to sleep and wake up the same person. There is a discontinuity, but the continuity is retained in our memory, in subjective time. The notion of Resurrection has the same status. Nature, too, dies in winter and is resurrected in spring from the information retained in the seeds which are formed the previous year. A seed can, however lie dormant. Something else is necessary to awaken it into life and growth. The genetic information is not sufficient. The theory of reincarnation, however, is slightly different since the supposed reincarnated people do not remember their past. But it may refer to their function with respect to the community. Thus, Jesus told his listeners that John the Baptist was Elias returned, though John denied it. The teachings of Buddha show that he did not teach it in the form of a returning soul, though his followers appear to believe in it. The Dalai Lama, however, explains it as being something like the transfer of momentum from one ball when it strikes another.

The notion of Satan cannot be fitted into his system though human perversity certainly exists and could stop the evolution he predicts. Indeed, it would be reproduced if the future robots incorporated the program or soul into their computers. There is no room for Justice and Hell where the wicked who could destroy the perfection of Heaven could be banished. Nor is there any reason why resurrected virtual human beings cannot be produced directly, as they were produced in the first place, by the Universal mind in which all the necessary information must be regarded as existing. Though Tipler has distinguished between physical and mental things, he does not differentiate between mental and spiritual things. The soul, according to the religious definition is a spiritual not a mental thing. It requires a centre of integration and vitality. A sleeping person is not like one awake and active but presumably contains the same genetic information. Consciousness is not the same as thinking which is information processing and can be done automatically without awareness. The experience of colour, for instance, is not the same thing as the frequency of the electromagnetic waves which cause it, and cannot be compared to a computer program. Computer programs have to be activated. A motive is required. If consciousness, conscience and will are attributed to the complexity or unity of information, then certainly the Universe, like man, is also such a system and we must attribute the same qualities to it and this is what is meant by God, and it must have existed always. This organisation of information is a wholeness at quite another level of existence.

The Quran mentions three stages in the creation of man. The first stage describes his genetic and physical arising. The second stage describes his form and proportionality and includes his mental functioning. In the third stage the divine Spirit enters into him, and only then does he becomes truly human and he is addressed directly, as “you” rather than “him”, because it produces hearing, sight and feeling. The original Arabic words have a much more comprehensive meaning and can be better translated as understanding, insight, intelligence or consciousness, conscience, and will. (Quran 32:7-9) We are also told that the Universe will certainly be wound up and recreated (21:14), but that mankind will also be recreated in various states (89:27-30 and Chapter 83). Most people know the difference between behaviour which appears to be programmed and one that is conscious. The former requires no awareness and arises from training. It may be stated that a person who is not conscious, for him nothing can exist, not even himself. He is, indeed, a robot. It is this conscious entity which religions are interested in.

It is not at all necessary that evolution should mean increasing technology and the replacement of man by increasingly intelligent robots as he suggests. No religion requires this. Life could continually adapt and change its form. It is not necessary, of course, that it should remain carbon based. There does not seem to be any reason why it cannot be composed of photon-like or other quantum particles. There is some evidence that it began as crystals and these allowed the absorption and configuration of elements into protoplasm. It could well be that protoplasmic organisms such as ourselves are just the right environment in which other subtler structures can arise. The idea that a computer less than the Universe can emulate human beings exactly is probably also false.

His view of God is not, therefore, compatible with the religious view. A much more fundamental change in consciousness is required. There is another way of looking at things.

We learn from Relativity Theory that if the speed of a body is increased then time on it will slow down and its size will diminish. But for an observer sitting on that body nothing will have changed. Thus, though for an external observer thousands of years may have passed, only a year may have passed for the observer on that body. When speeds reach that of light time becomes Eternal. There are, therefore, a great many time frames. Time is measured by comparison with the motion of clocks or other physical processes. The external observer measures it by means of processes other than those which are used by the observer who is involved. All these time frames could be regarded as existing in still another time. We could, therefore distinguish between Absolute, External and Internal Time. External time is not the same thing as objective time since the observer measures it in terms of the processes in which he is involved. Internal and external time are both subjective. As the Universe contracts macro objects dissolve and matter returns through stages to the ground state from which it began, and information becomes more concentrated. It could well be that life can gradually adapt to these changing conditions. It is, therefore, a question of moving from level to level, from one time scale to another.

Instead of thinking in terms of materials or energy we could think in terms of order and this would change our view of existence.

The notion that a person is described by his genes is untrue, not only because he is also formed by his experiences, but also because it is not the genes individually but the pattern of genes which have their effects. The genes do not work independently. Suppose that a human being is not described by his genes, but that the genes, themselves are the product of some pattern in a more fundamental field. It is possible to reduce the whole of existence to a Fundamental Field within which there are patterns or structures, and patterns of patterns at various levels. This Fundamental Field is a sub-quantum field. The field of quantum particles cannot be the most fundamental since these particles are constantly created and destroyed in a time scale of 10-23 seconds, yet the Universe remains the same. This is similar to the human body in which cells are constantly dying and recreated. The information to do this must exist in the sub-quantum field. These particles constitute the limits of physical existence and do not possess permanence. The Physical Universe must, therefore, be regarded as being recreated at every instant. These particles are the first level structures. It is perfectly possible that there is a movement towards increasing organisation through various levels as well as a dissolution of organisation at the same time. The Universe may be expanding in one respect while contracting in another. Whereas the Universe is described by the expanding surface of a sphere, the forces to do this may be coming from its centre and other forces may be returning to the centre. It is possible that the Universe is like an Onion with several layers, where each layer has its own time scale. There is another, Absolute Time, at right angles to time as we experience it, which describes the motion from the surface to the centre, and from the centre to the surface.

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There are, in general three approaches to any subject:- (1) The analytical which takes the object of study apart in order to study its details and tends to be reductionist. (2) The relative, which studies the behaviour of the object and its relationship with other things. (3) The synthetic which studies the object in its relationship with its context, environment or greater system of which it is a part.

The first thing to notice is that nothing exists in isolation. An object cannot be known unless it is related to other objects and to the observer. The characteristics of a thing become manifest only in their relationship with other things and depend on these. If these relationships change then the characteristics also change. It follows that we need to see an object in a great many relationships to gain a better understanding.

The second thing is that all objects consists of parts but must be regarded as more than the sum of the parts. This is because the way they are organised affects the relationships between parts. Some characteristics are stimulated and others restricted, and there is a resultant. All objects are systems which contain parts which are also systems, and exist in a larger system. Thus a more complete study of any system requires it to be the middle term of three systems, where the others are the higher and the lower system. Ultimately, of course, they must have a relation to Allah.

The third thing is that if characteristics become manifest only in their relationships then they are unmanifest when those relationships do not exist. They also have potentialities. We cannot describe reality as consisting of merely that which exists, but also by what potentialities exist in it. This is because the Universe is not static but is continuously developing. There are also many uncertainties in it which we do not know. The organisation of elements creates what are called emergent phenomena. They are potentialities until actualised. The characteristics, properties or features of these are not the same as those of the elements. Something new, therefore, emerges. That system is, therefore, a wholeness in its own right. The properties of water are not the same as those of the hydrogen and oxygen of which it is composed. An animal is something different from the cells it is composed of. The arising of the characteristics of the whole is not predictable from a study of the constituents. This means that science has left out a whole dimension of reality. We recognise an object by its properties. That is, consciousness sees them within a wholeness. It is only after this that we search for its parts, its relationship with other things, and its relationship with a greater whole, each of these are recognised in the same way, by their properties.

If we analyse things into simple concepts then we get a great number of parts between which there are complex relationships. The more synthetic a view the simpler it is, but the more complex the concepts. We know that simple laws can produce complexity, and we also know that complexity can give rise to simple patterns spontaneously. The question is - Do the simple laws create the complexity, the apparent chaos, or have the laws of science arisen spontaneously from chaos? If we analyse something into parts, then we have to synthesise them again to re-obtain the whole. But if we do so then there is no guarantee that the end result will be the same as the beginning. Indeed, we do the analysis and re-synthesis precisely because we want to invent something new. All human inventions are re-arrangements of the materials found in nature. Analysis and synthesis, of course also takes place in nature, and this allows something new to emerge. There is, therefore, no difference in this respect between nature and human activity. But there is a distinction between invention and knowledge and this has not always been made.

Generally religious ideas, because they are concerned with spiritual matters, of consciousness, conscience and will, are holistic. Science tends to be analytical and reductionist. But there are also synthetic or constructionist attitudes which studies things with respect to their context. A few examples are as follows:-

In Physics, Newton’s Law of Gravity was criticised on the grounds that it sees gravity as a feature of objects and this led to the idea of action at a distance between objects with no kind of connection between them. The motion of planets was described as elliptical and this could only be done by regarding them as spheres in which the whole of the gravitational force acted at the centre point. However, the motion of the planets is not elliptical, not only because of the affect of other planets, but also because the planets are not true spheres. What is more, it consists of a great number of atoms each of which has its own gravity and has its own motion. A process of “idealization” or “simplification” has been applied to facts to make them manageable. It is hoped or assumed that the discrepancy so created will not diverge too far from reality. It is, however, only an approximation, a model not a truth. This theory replaced that of Ptolemy who described the motion of the planets as being based on circles in a complex way, also a model. The Law does not exist without these assumptions. This process of “idealization” in science produces no great problem in relatively simple systems, but could in complex ones. It could well be that the Gravity of the planet is an emergent phenomena caused by the complex system of atoms and not a property of the individual atoms at all. We know that the separate atoms in combination do produce a united gravitation, but this owing to the spatial distribution of the atoms, may have a structure. We know that gravity does vary from place to place on this planet according to the masses present in those places.

 Einstein’s theory of gravity takes a different view. Gravity is the curvature of the Space-time in which objects exist and is affected by objects. We see a wholeness and there is no action at a distance. This result was obtained by redefining certain concepts such as space and time. They were to be regarded not as Absolutes, but as relative to the measuring activity.

Thus, we have two different Theories of Gravity each based on different assumptions. Clearly, they cannot be Laws of Nature, but only models of how things seem. A theory requires a rule X(1) which acts on data Y in order to produce results Z. We obtain Y and Z by observation. If Y and Z are confirmed then we say that X is confirmed. But this is untrue because we see that some other rule X(2) has given the same result Y. It could also be the case that other data Y(2) could give the same result. Conversely, if we wish to obtain certain results we could construct appropriate rules and choose appropriate data. Indeed, this is what happens in science - rules are constructed, or if there are several, then one are chosen which fits an ideological system. The theory is not independent of the rest of intellectual environment. These facts give quite another interpretation to the Anthropic Principle than is usually accepted. Truth depends on our conceptual framework. A different ideological system, such as a religious one, or a science based on completely different ideas such as that behind acupuncture would be equally valid.  

The Quantum Theory also analyses matter to its ultimate constituents we can observe, and tries to explain all phenomena as arising from Quantum events. But here we have a basic uncertainty and the probabilities arise as averages. The collapse of the quantum wave function into a material particle is regarded as a matter of chance. But it is well known that this collapse depends on the context and yet this fact is not incorporated into the theory. There could be no causal connection between events or any stability if these quantum events were independent and random. A more holistic theory is required wherein this collapse is determined by the system of quantum events. The material world will then be seen as an emergent phenomena. It has been said that the difference between quantum and classical mechanics is that the former describes the future which is indeterminate and the later describes the past which has already become fixed. This may be because our limitation in the perception or concept of Time.

 

In Biology, the development and behaviour of an organism is explained either in terms of its genetic information in the DNA, or in terms of the evolutionary process within an environment. Indeed, the Gaia Theory sees the biosphere as an organ of the planet giving it a certain amount of autonomy or self-regulatory powers. The fact that we are dealing with systems having different levels of organisation can be demonstrated from the following facts:-

(a) Life on this planet depends on the light, heat and other radiations coming from the sun. The sun also radiates materials such as carbon, oxygen, nitrogen and other elements from which protoplasm is produced.  The Gravitational, magnetic and electrical fields of this planet are capable of selectively attracting and repelling ionised materials and radiation coming from the sun. Its atmosphere can absorb, filter, transform or reflect some of the radiations coming from both outside and from the surface of the planet, thereby controlling what is retained and the general level of negentropy. The condition of the atmosphere is dependent on the chemical processes going on in the land and sea and living organisms are an essential part of this. Thus the process of evolution is controlled partly by the planet as a whole and partly by the rest of the Cosmos of which the planet is an interacting part.

(b) All life has a single source and is composed of the same genetic material, DNA. All organisms are interdependent and are connected together by the circulation of the same air, water and nutrition. All life, therefore forms a single system. Life must be regarded as a single line, string or stream on which individuals are like points, knots or eddies.

(c) There is no real boundary between life and death. There are entities such as viruses which may be regarded as either living or non-living or both. Things like crystals also reproduce. All organisms contain both living and dead cells, e.g. the skin. The cells are constantly dying and being replaced by new ones. Originally, reproduction took place by cell division which made the organism immortal though individuals died, but changeless. Sexual reproduction which allowed change and adaptation by mixing of genes was gained at the expense of death for the individual multicellular organism though the germ cells remain immortal. The individual has a cycle of development and degeneration from birth to death. Organs tend to die at different rates. There is no exact point of death. After death it takes time for all the cells to die. There is a mixture of life and death to various proportions with changing probabilities.

(d) There are different amounts of organisation and integration. Some organisms live in isolation, some form loose groups or communities and herds. Some birds and fishes flock together as if they were a single entity. Some worms combine together to act as a single body. Some organisms such as bees and ants show that it is not individuals but the community which must be regarded as the true organism. The individual multi-cellular organism is a community of cooperating cells. Human beings are a much more integrated unit than other organisms and differ from one another in the degree of integration. But human beings also live in communities and nations which are becoming progressively more organised and integrated, and they are imposing this integration on the rest of the planet, and may do so eventually on the solar system, the galaxy and the whole Universe.

(e) Animals live by eating other animals or plants, converting them into animal matter; plants live by transforming minerals converting them into plant matter. Human beings convert their own animal matter into that which functions as the truly human. Life is a system which maintains its equilibrium above that of its surroundings. This does not require an external cause but an inner one. It is, therefore, a layer above the minerals. Consciousness is also a system which struggles to maintain itself at a still higher state of equilibrium.

(f) It is not, in fact, possible to identify life with non-living mineral matter since the material passes through living organisms leaving their organisation in tact. It has its own characteristics, laws and processes. It is possible to break up a beehive and scatter the bees which may then become parts of other bee hives. If we mash up a sponge, the cells will reform the sponge. Injury in various places is repaired by the growth of cells appropriate to the position of the injury. If cells are removed from an organism and allowed to grow in isolation they do not form the organs they would otherwise form. They lose their identity and become more like their primitive ancestors. But if put back into the organism they assume their proper role. But there is no centre in the organism which controls the differentiation of the cells into their proper role. This appears to be something diffused throughout the organism.

(g) Experiments show that when sensitive electrical equipment is attached to plants and other organisms, then electrical changes can be detected in them in response to injuries, death and other states of other organisms in their neighbourhood. This response is stronger when there is some kinship between the organisms. There is, therefore, a direct electromagnetic or other link between organisms, and some type of biological resonance exists. Sensitive plants which have no nervous system can catch insects, showing that plant cells are capable of concerted action. It is probable that there is some kind of structured bio-field connecting the whole biosphere, a network of connections of various frequencies which controls the whole of it. Each group or individual must be regarded as a sub-system controlled in the same way.  

It is well known that the development of the embryo does not at first depend on its own DNA, but on the environment provided by the mother, DNA cannot replicate itself but requires a cell in which to do this, and the final development depends also on numerous environmental influences which can stimulate or suppress certain characteristics. No gene by itself can produce the required proteins. At least three are required. The same set of genes can produce different proteins and characteristics, and different sets of genes can produce the same protein and characteristics. It is not, therefore, possible to explain the characteristics and development of an organism by its genes alone and there is no one to one correspondence between a gene and a characteristic. Indeed, how can one find a gene for a hand which consists of muscles, blood vessels, bone, skin etc., or for courage and intelligence? Its environment and efforts have also to be considered. The size and power of the muscles could be determined by genes, but they could also be determined by nutrition and exercise which depends on the motives of the organism and its environment. Conversely, the same environmental context can produce different adaptations and species, and different environments can produce the same characteristics. The characteristics of an organism cannot be found in the genes or in the environment. They are emergent phenomena. The structure of organisms and their organs such as eyes and ears etc. do not determine their functions, e.g. whether they see or hear, but it is also the structure which is determined by the requirement that they should see or hear by the logic of evolution. This requirement arises from the urges or forces within them - self-preservation, reproduction, self-extension. No evolution can take place without these urges. It is quite untrue that evolution is driven by chance. It is driven by urges within a restricted environment. Organisms seek out, select and change their environments as much as environments change organisms. An ecological system is a unity in its own right which adapts itself to the position it has in the whole planet.

The reductionist view applies to mutations which are regarded as taking place in genes randomly, producing random characteristics in the organism. But seen as a whole there is no randomness. The cosmic and other radiations which cause the mutations are an integral part of the world and must inevitably produce mutations in the biosphere. The changes brought about depend also on the nature of the genes. Genes interact. There are many genes with no known effects at all or whose effects have been suppressed by others. Patterns can emerge spontaneously from the collective interaction of many genes. Some kind of inner selection must also take place due to the needs or urges of the organism - the need to see for instance. The Biosphere as a whole may well form an emergent phenomena in the form of what the Biologist Sheldrake calls the Morphic Field where memories are retained. This allows the mystery of convergence - the fact that similar adaptations have taken place in widely different species and times through different series of mutations - a kind of resonance. Whereas this idea has not yet been accepted in science, religions do postulate a Universal Memory which Hindus call the Akasha Field, and the Quran speaks of the Record in Heaven. It is also a Field of Potentialities which determines what can be actualised, a kind of Universal Blue Print. Human consciousness can also have access to this. If Time is a dimension then the past must be a Memory, or conversely memory means that Time is a dimension. Information would be conserved and we could speak of potential and actual information being converted into each other. It would explain resurrection as well as evolution.

Things are not deterministic nor random. Organisms have to adjust themselves to their environment and they do so in a variety of ways, each unpredictable. Conversely, a variety of organisms have developed the same organ. Wings, for instance, have formed independently several times in the history of the Biosphere. A gene may create a particular characteristic which leads the organism to a behaviour pattern which causes the strains within the organism. This stretches other characteristics and create the conditions in which appropriate mutations become advantageous. This releases the strain. For example, a new organ or taste may change the life styles such that muscles have to be used more intensively. This will cause them to grow through exercise. But the conditions are right in which mutations causing muscles to be genetically stronger are an advantage. Such mutations may already lie dormant, or may happen in the future, or it may be that the strains themselves indirectly (e.g. through chemical or electrical means) cause these mutations. The same process applies not only to single organisms but also to the whole group or species which may be regarded as greater system of genes.

Many animals and plants are inter-dependent and symbiosis is wide spread. Insects, such as bees, depend on plants to collect honey and in doing so pollinate the plants, helping to set fruit and seed. No bees, no plants. No flowers on plants, no bees. This implies that they have evolved together. The genetic content of each is connected with the genetic content of the other. It is not, therefore, possible, to explain the existence of any species by itself. Nature creates a great many seeds and great variety in order to ensure that only some of these will grow and be adapted to different and changing environments.

Let us examine the notion of “survival of the fittest”. If we enquire into the meaning of the word “fit” we find that it is defined as that which survives. It is fit because it has survived, and it survived because it is fit. We have a vicious circle or a tautology. The term has no predictive value. Consider an environment, say a factory in which skills A, B and C are required. There are three independent workers, each of whom is superior in one of these skills. Which of these is the fittest? Now change the environment to one where the following skills are required:- ABD, ACD, DEF. Which of the workers is the fittest? Now suppose that one of these workers is a bully or that the three cooperate, or one is lazy, or one or two have no great interest or needs, or are exceedingly ambitious. Suppose the desires change. Suppose that the environment is rich in resources, and then its resources become exhausted. Suppose that there are several kinds of resources, each associated with a particular skill. Suppose one has great strength and another a gentle power. Suppose one worker has several characteristics and one set of circumstances causes conflict between them or with those of others, and in another allows complementation. Now who is the fittest and who will survive? Obviously fitness has meaning only with respect to a purpose and an environment, an inner and outer context. Suppose we have a system in which A lives by eating B, B lives on C, C lives on D, and D lives on E. But E is a parasite on A. If B dies out then A will die out. Which of these is the fittest and which will survive? Fitness appears to mean how well adjusted an organism is, or fits into, its eco-system.

It is supposed that competition fuels evolution. This is too simplistic and narrow a view. The correct view is probably as follows:- The organisms has certain inner desires. The environment provides opposition as well as certain opportunities to fulfilment. This presents a problem, a challenge. Evolution is a solution to this. It depends on the inner desires, the environment and also on the efforts of the organism, and modifies all three. An organism may adapt by seeking the kinds of food for which there is no competition. It is not, therefore, a case of explaining the characteristics and behaviour of organisms from only the bottom (its constituent parts), but also from the top (the greater system of which it is part). If we carry this argument to its ultimate conclusion then the final cause lies both in the ultimate parts, the sub-quantum field and the ultimate whole. The two are identical.

 

The same considerations apply to Psychological studies. The controversy between whether characteristics are inherited or acquired (nature or nurture) is futile, and so is the controversy between determinism and free will. Organisms have certain inherent possibilities, but these must be actualised by the environment and by efforts. Even animals, said to be driven by instincts, must also learn. Conversely no abilities can be developed for which there are no inherent potentialities. These vary. Some organisms can learn faster than others or are more adaptable. The fact is that there are varying amounts of alternatives, but impulses are required to actualise each of them. The same may be said about the dichotomy between mind and matter. They are reconciled by life which refers to interactions between an entity and its environment. Looking inward in a holistic or synthetic manner we have mind; looking outwards in an analytical manner we have matter. Mind and matter are both concepts in the mind. But there are constraints, an inertia, associated with all ideas. These come from the environment of which we are a dependant part. We are not free. We can, therefore, only speak of different levels of intelligence and consciousness which arise from organisation as emergent phenomena. If, however, we consider the whole of existence then there can be nothing outside it by definition. It is pure consciousness even if we regard it as material.

Biologists and some Psychologists try to explain all human behaviour by means of the nerve circuits in the brain alone, the hardware, which is constantly changing throughout life. But the brain is known to act as a whole and nerve cells also respond much more directly to each other through induction quite apart from the physiological connections. There is a unified though structured electromagnetic field which has some control over the parts. This field is also directly affected by, and affects, a similar field in the greater environment. It is unlikely also that a physiological investigation of the brain can determine the more indirect affects of experience and culture in the environment. It is not yet known how memories are recorded. The program by which information is processed is also something which varies between people and depends on inherent temperamental factors, experiences and the efforts of the individual. Whereas, it is possible to speculate how a particular program or behaviour pattern may have arisen - to retrodict - it is not possible to predict from the temperamental type and the experiences of the individual what kind of program or behaviour pattern will arise. The same circumstances, even in identical twins who are inherently similar, produces different results. As in the case of cosmology, neither can we determine all the initial conditions, nor are the laws more than statistical in nature and the constants are probably also variable. The various associations and feed back mechanisms create a wholeness in the system with its own emergent phenomena.

We conclude that:-

(a) All entities, and their characteristics, have a degree of flexibility, a range of probabilities with an upper and lower limit to adaptability. The impulses within them and the nature of the environment collapses this into particular behaviour patterns. This is similar to the collapse of the wave function in quantum physics. This is also true for the species as a whole which may, therefore, adapt to changing environments or change their own environment. Inner Urges drive this adaptation.

(b) A study of evolution shows that there is divergence (increase in variety) and convergence (decrease in variety), that there are evolutional dead ends and growing points and that there are periods of slow changes and periods of sudden changes. These facts can be explained in terms of the following cyclic or spiral process -

(i) First there is experimentation - combinations and recombinations at the same level.

(ii) A combination is hit upon which produces some new emergent characteristic with great potentialities, e.g. self-replication, ability to survive on land, sexual reproduction, flight etc.. This leads to the rapid exploration of the potentialities, resulting in great variety and divergence.

(iii) The process of selection reduces this variety to the most useful fewer number of characteristics.

 

There is then a return to the first stage at this higher level.

This process probably also applies to the building of the fundamental particles, atoms, DNA molecules, organisms, the development of babies, ideas, and sociological and economic entities. It probably describes the quantum field which underlies all these other entities.

(c) Evolution does not refer so much to individuals since they are dependant, as to the whole system of which the individual is part, in the same way as it does not refer to a particular organ but to the whole individual of which it is part, It refer, therefore, to individuals as part of a community as part of humanity, as part of the biosphere, as part of the planet and so on, ultimately the Absolute Whole.

(d) The behaviour of an entity is governed by several levels of functioning which also interfere with one another. An organism, for instance, is acted upon externally by forces coming from its environment and must adjust itself to its environment. It learns from its parents; it interacts with other members of the species; with the rest of creatures; with the planetary conditions, its terrain, vegetation and weather etc..; with influences coming from the moon and the rest of the cosmos, including gravitation, radiations such as light and heat, meteors and so on. Internally, it is governed by its genetic make up; by the underlying chemistry, both within and in its environment; by the laws of physics which underlie the chemistry but also affect the way its limbs work, its blood circulates, how it perceives and how its nervous system functions and so on; and by quantum events.

 Every entity is a hierarchy, and has a position in a hierarchy. In every case there is an interaction between the inner urges or forces within the entity and the environment in which it finds itself. It has to adjust to that environment which collectively also has forces. It is not generally realised that a force is fundamentally a mysterious thing. It produces effects. The fact that it is named gravity or electromagnetism or strong nuclear force does not get rid of the mystery. The chances are that they are all different aspects of a single force, and this in religion is called the Spirit, Word or Command of God.

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References:-

                    The Blind Watchmaker      by Richard Dawkins

                    The Collapse of Chaos      by jack Cohen & Ian Stewart

                    The Fire in the Equations   by Kitty Ferguson

                    Theories of Everything     by John D. Barrow

                    When the Sky Fell         by Rand and Rose Flem-Ath      

                    Fingerprints of the Gods    by Graham Hancock

`                   New Scientist Magazines

                    The Physics of Immortality  by Frank Tipler

 

Comments:- Some of these books and others not mentioned, contain ideas similar to those contained already in the first edition of this book, and were regarded as unique at the time. It is remarkable that these books were not published until after this book was placed on the Public Domain in the computer world in 1994. If there is no direct connection, or even an indirect one through some third parties, then we must suppose that the ideological environment has risen to a level where these or similar ideas can arise spontaneously in different places independently.  

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