First cause formed in physics the knack;
Cybernetic effects fed it back.
But our needs led to want;
We collapsed to a quant.
Hence theology's back on the track.
This limerick is an autobiography and whimsical biography of the universe, a kind of Theory of Everything in panentheism (the theistic worldview holding God to be both transcendent and immanent). It describes my own studies in physics and cybernetics, followed by my material desires leading me into a stage in my career as a quant (financial quantitative analyst), and finally my interest in theology in an effort to find my way back to meaning and purpose, resparking my academic interests in physics and cybernetics.
The allegorical aspect of the five lines is more complex:
- Line 1 — A first cause started a world in which evolution (the "knack") would eventually emerge;
- Line 2 — By means of feedback mechanisms, intelligence emerged and became self-aware;
- Line 3 — Mankind chose to serve their own material needs;
- Line 4 — As a result of this, humans are conscious of themselves as individuals rather than as beings coherent with the universal wave function;
- Line 5 — God guides us in the search to rediscover a selfless worldview.
Having positive cognitive attitude
Can stem from, some say, real gratitude.
When you visualize need,
Don't materialize greed,
Else the Law of Attraction burns latitude.The Law of Attraction is that by training our minds to think positively about our desires we can make them manifest, that mind controls the material reality we experience.Having, or offering latitude, means giving a degree of freedom from normal restraints, limitations, or regulations. For example the scientific method has requirements for rigor in empirical and verifiable evidence. Similarly ethics, such as mercy, compassion and selfless love of ones neighbor, imply we should shun systems of belief that promote excessive material greed that focus on the individual. The proposed Law of Attraction in the recent movie and book The Secret is neither a secret, nor has it passed scientific analysis as a law of nature, and has an ethical basis that for some gives cause to pause. Nevertheless, being positive and affirmitive in life is generally a good thing, and many people believe in the power of prayer, meditation and synchronicity. At some level, the Law of Attraction may indeed work. Some interpretations of the quantum theory of physics do give some credit to the association of matter and mind, but these are not mainstream models and they remain at the fringe of science.
Could an archetype form in the mind,
Through collective unconscious enshrined?
Might archaic man sense
What some men will see hence?
So says Jung; "we're acausal entwined."An archetype is the original pattern or form from which all things of the same kind are based; they are a model or a prototype. Archetypes have been present in mythology and literature for thousands of years. The use of archetypes in analytic psychology was advanced by C. G. Jung. He speculated that the mechanism for communication of these patterns could be due to synchronicity (an acausal connecting principle) between cultures made manifest by a process described by his concept of the collective unconscious.Such archetypes can be found in certain religious traditions with frequent recurrence of self-similar imagery, e.g., sacrificial imagery and cross cultural mythological symbols, such as the Summerian Ningishzida, the earliest known symbol based on snakes entwined around an axial rod. This pattern is common across Hellenistic and Judaic cultures; indeed this self-similar pattern is strongly reminiscent of the double helix spiral of DNA today.
Through the ages of man has grown thought,
The ascent has been hard and close fought.
First we fell then arose,
Climbing paths that we chose.
At this peak, this "New-Age" appears fraught.The Ascent of Man (1973) was a landmark BBC documentary series, written and presented by Jacob Bronowski. The book and the series explored the cultural evolution of mankind, centered on science. It was depicted as an ascent through man's ages of understanding and thought. In a sense it was Bronowski's challenge to the emerging "New-Age" thinking; Bronowski's view was that man be understood to have his proper place in the natural world. However threatened the individual may feel, he must "accept the subtle but closely woven evidence that man is not different in kind from other forms of life; that living matter is not different in kind from dead matter; and therefore that a man is an assembly of atoms that obeys natural laws of the same kind that a star does." Bronowski realized the profound impact of this statement, "the crisis of confidence that springs from each man's wish to be a mind and a person, in the face of the nagging fear that he is a mechanism . . . can man be both a machine and a self?" Perhaps "New-Age" thought is a reaction from extreme skpetical claims that seek to deny mankind has any spiritual identity. For many this is a bleak outlook that conflicts with their experience and results in a retreat into pre-Christian (in some cases pre-Abrahamic traditions). What is needed is a reconciliation between science and religion, a Post New-Age Age.
At heart's core winds a thread that sustains,
Binds the centre, unites and remains,
Giving constant support
Throughout lives, though cut short,
In which love that is true and good reigns."That thread of the all-sustaining Beauty which runs through all and doth all
unite." James Russell Lowell, The Vision of Sir Launfal, Part 1st.
The Omega Point's near the world's end
Where complexity/consciousness tend.
We are singular points
That the alpha anoints;
We're aware that our beings transcend.The French Jesuit and paleontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) came up with the expression the Omega Point. In his theory, the universe is evolving towards higher levels of physical and mental complexity, which Teilhard called the Law of Complexity/Consciousness. For Teilhard, this is only possible if a higher form of consciousness is attracting the universe to itself. Thus Teilhard postulates the Omega Point as the critical point (or complex) of consciousness — in chaos theory terms a strange attractor giving rise to fractal self-similar images.Similar expressions are used by the American mathematical physicist Frank J Tipler (b. 1947); his 1994 book The Physics of Immortality describes a Singularity, a point in the future of infinite computational facility. Both Teilhard and Tipler see their theories as underpinning a rational understanding of certain mysteries of Christianity. In their terms, the Omega Point is for all intents and purposes God; indeed, the expression alpha and omega, "the first and last", is frequently used to signify God's eternity.
The Mandelbrot set was derived —
In its complex quadratic-contrived
Polynomial form —
To repeat as a norm:
With self-similar fractals revived.These irregular shapes are a set.As each fractal is plotted, you getGeometrical artThat reflects in each partIts original — small — smaller yet.So they go, on and on; there's no endTo recursions that make your mind bend!As you pass through these levels,Your consciousness revels:Are we just a fractal God penned?•••The Franco-American (Polish-born) mathematician Benoît Mandelbrot (MAN-duhl-broht) (b. 1924) studied parameter spaces of complex quadratic polynomials. With modern information technology he was able to plot their point sequences to form images of complex fractals. Partly because of his work, fractals have been introduced into many practical as well as aesthetic applications today.(Co-Authored with Carol June Hooker)
Ningishzida (Caduceus) sign;
Round an axial staff snakes entwine.
The Asclepius Rod,
Moses raises for God —
The Nehustan — a symbol divineThe Sumerian image of the Ningishzida (ning-ish-ZI-da) is the earliest known symbol of snakes entwined around an an axial rod (reminiscent of a double helix). It predates the Greek image of Caduceus (ca-DU-ce-us) of Hermes, the Asclepius Rod (a-SKLE-pi-us) and the Hebrew Nehustan (ne-HUSH-tan) staff of Moses (these later two symbols having just one snake). All are used as images in traditions of medical practice. In the case of the Nehustan in the Biblical story of Exodus Moses, to relive the Israelites from snake bites, prays for deliverance. God directs him to create a staff with a symbol of a snake coiled around it, and raises it up and those who see it are cured. Christian theology assigns significance to the event as prefiguring the crucifixion of Christ, who was raised up to cure mankind from the curse of sin (a concept that itself harks back to the Genesis story of the serpent in the Garden of Eden).
With God's infinite scope and potential,
Intervention is just nonessential.
Evolution's His law
That will form in us awe:
Autopoiesis — means providential.Autopoiesis (au-to-POY-es-sis) means: auto-creation (from the Greek: auto - αυτό and poiesis - ποίησις for creation or production).For some theologians posing a God who would intervene in evolution creates more problems than it solves. Two examples:- Why would God choose to design a world that requires his occasional maintenance actions to achieve his purpose when a more efficient design might be opted for?
- If God chooses to give us free will to love and believe in Him, would he not ensure circumstances to be such that faith in His existence is not compelled by scientific evidence?
With this said, it still may be true that God has created the universe with autopoietic potentiality for all that's within it. He utilizes the evolutionary process as an efficient cause. This has an effect that inexorably leads to sentience; giving rise to quests for meaning. Thus, we arrive at a pre-destined free choice to have faith in a God of Love, or not.
Can you laugh at the great cosmic joke?
I'm long gone; If I tried I would choke.
When I look through these eyes
I see old empty lies. Love's infernal spring — clockwork that's broke!I'd get down on my knees so to pray.But can't find any Hope there's a way.All my dreams are but smoke,Sure it's time I awoke,But this nightmare goes on — where's the day!I would like to have Faith that prevailsBut in what? To my sense it assails.I'll just waste what time's leftIn mere games (though bereft Of all meaning). I'm lost — my heart quails!In these dark nights of the soul, even the strongest hearts shake, minds doubt, bodies shiver and spirits shrivel. When in those times, the best you can do is to laugh at the cosmic joke that is man's apparent condition! There is light to be found in the new dawn -– but you must pass the test of the long night's journey into the day.
Are there forces of virile attraction
Guiding all of creation? His action
Seen in fractal-based forms
Emerges and warms
Cold dark matter (a MACHO abstraction).
But expansion rates still seem to rise.
Mass of MACHOs and WIMPs can comprise
About 20%
(Normal stuff makes no dent),
Plus new forms in dark energy's guise.
It takes faith to believe in such stuff.
As they're not seen directly, it's tough.
We're just asked to accept,
Since some men are adept
With such leaps — could it be just a bluff?
virile: characteristic of a potent and active male figure
The cold dark matter (or CDM) assumption of the standard model of cosmology is that most of the matter in the universe consists of material that cannot be observed by its electromagnetic radiation. However, CDM is inferred through its gravitational attraction and warping of space-time. One prediction of the theory is the existence of MACHOs (massive compact halo objects), whereby much of the CDM consists of condensed objects such as black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, very faint stars, or other non-luminous objects.
In addition to MACHOs there are thought to be weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs); these particles are elusive and as of March 2008 remain unobserved.However, the observed acceleration in the expansion of the universe cannot be accounted for by the effects of CDM alone. CDM accounts for some 27% of the mass-energy required (and "regular" matter of familiar atoms accounts for some 5%).
The remaining curvature of space-time is thought to be contributed by "dark energy", which makes up the remaining 68%.There are contending theories that require less multiplication of entities, but at the expense of tinkering with the equations of general relativity.
A catastrophe's when our hearts shake;
Our fond dreams now have gone. We forsake
These, but hope that the dark
Silver-lined clouds will spark
Eucatastrophic joy to awake.Sentiments such as "When one door closes another opens," "Every dark cloud has a silver lining," and Kipling's poem "If" underpin something significant in man's spirit. Or so thought J.R.R. Tolkien; he termed this eucatastrophe, meaning the sudden turn of events at the end of a mythic story which results in the protagonist's ultimate well-being. He developed just such an ending for his epic book The Lord of the Rings. Tolkien recognized this recurrent, fractal-like theme throughout mythic tales of many civilizations, and believed they prefigured the actual incarnation of Jesus Christ as the eucatastrophe of human history, and in turn Christ's resurrection as the eucatastrophe of the incarnation.
