I am inclined to contemplate the mysterious — Jack Cummins

I’ll follow every single avenue,
Whether it’s brightly lit or a dark alley,
Exploring one-ways, no-ways, and dead-ends
Until I find where the truth is hiding.

Since we all became of this universe,
Should we not ask who we are, whence we came?
Insight clefts night’s skirt with its radiance—
The Theory of Everything shines through!

As far as speaking in tongues — Jack Cummins

Probably so that the Devil cannot understand what's being said.

And I hereby bid 'Amen' to my old friend Amen.

If there are no lifeforms similar to us in the universe, we can still wonder if there have ever been some in a past age, or whether there will be in some distant future galaxy. — Jack Cummins

Yes, and I think for certain, for the Cosmos is so extravagant in its amount of stuff that here and there the right condition will obtain.

The Impossible Recipe

Explaining the Cosmos is as easy as pie:
It’s an endless extravagance beyond the sky,
Which shows that matter’s very readily made—
Underlying energy raising the shades.

This All sounds rather like an ultimate free lunch,
For the basis is already made, with no punch,
It ever being around, as is, never a ‘was’—
Everywhere, in great abundance quite unheard of.

There’s even more of it than can be imagined—
Of lavish big spenders, there in amounts unbounded:
Bubbles of universes within pockets more,
Across all the times and spaces beyond our shore!

What is the birthing source of this tremendous weight?
There is nothing from which to make the causeless cake!
Its nature is undirected, uncooked, unbaked?
There can’t be a choice to that ne’er born and awaked!

There can’t be turtles on turtles all the way down;
The buck has to stop somewhere in this town.
‘Nothing’ is unproductive—can’t even be meant;
All ever needed is, with nothing on it spent!

Yes, none from nothing, yet something is here, true;
But, really, you can’t have your cake and Edith, too!
And yet I’ve still all of my wedding cake, I do—
It’s just changed form; what ever IS can never go.

Since there’s no point at which to impart direction
The essence would have no limited, specific,
Certain, designed, created, crafted, thought out meaning!
Thus the Great IS is anything and everything!

This All is as useless as Babel’s Library
Of all possible books in all variety!
Yes, and even in our own small aisle we see
Any and every manner of diversity.

The information content of Everything
Would be the same as that of Nothing!
Zero. The bake’s ingredients vary widely,
And so express themselves accordingly.

What’s Everything, detailed? Length, width, depth, 4D—
Your world-line; 5th, all your probable futures;
6th, jump to any; 7th, all Big Bang starts to ends;
8th, all universes’ lines; 9th, jump to any;
10th, the IS of all possible realities.

Your elucidation is quite a piece of cake!
Yo, it exceeds, as well, and so it takes the cake.
Everything ever must be, because ‘nothing’ can’t?
Yes, it’s that existence has no opposite, Kant!

So, we’re here at the mouth of the horn of plenty,
For a free breakfast, lunch, and a dinner party;
Yet many starving are fed up with being unfed.
Alas, for now I have to say, Let Them Eat Cake!

I think that we can also ask whether there will ever be nothing? In other words, will the universe, and beyond, cease to exist at all in some remote, distant age. — Jack Cummins

In The End the Cosmos will be so spread out that any given photon will not be able to 'see' another one!

I just happen to have a great description of this in one of my greatest illustrated poetic productions:

After the Stars Have Gone—The Final, Silent Dark

A glance into the far flung future of the expansion of the universe.

PDF:

https://theomarkhayyamclubofamerica.files.wordpress.com/2021/06/atshg-8.5x11-jpg-longer-150-dpi.pdf

The Summary of Some Disproofs of God
(Some from Victor Stenger)

THE NATURAL Where shall we find, or not, the Supernatural—God? We would find it doing super things that are beyond the natural. If we look everywhere and only find the natural, then the disproof of God lives.

BELIEFS IN THE UNKNOWN ARE UNGROUNDED BELIEFS UPHELD. A belief is that construct that states we consider something as true. But considering and knowing are two different words. One implies holding something up as true, while the other stands on the ground as being true. Indeed, that is the ‘hold up’, for a belief hangs in the air, because it is upheld by the owner of the belief.

THE ETERNAL UNCAUSED MOVER It could not be a Mind, for it would be an already defined and very complex composite system. In any system, the parts must precede. Thus, no God.

MASS AND MATTER ARE CREATED FROM ENERGY! The universe appeared from a state of zero energy, this being, of course, within the unavoidable and tiny quantum uncertainty. So, no miracle occurred.

THERE IS NO TIME-ZERO IMPRINT OF THE VERY HAND OF GOD! An expanding universe could have started in total chaos and still formed some localized order consistent with the 2nd law. At the Planck time, the disorder was complete; it was maximal. Thus the universe began with no structure. None. In fact it was chaos! There was no initial design built in to the universe at its beginning! There was no imprint left by a Creator.

BIBLICAL REVELATION IS UNREVEALING. Biblical prophecy is either vague, wrong, coincidence, a matter of ordinary prediction, or it can be more-simply explained as written after the fact. Humankind’s holy books are what one would expect if they were products of human culture.

IN THE ‘BEGINNING’… THERE WAS NO CAUSE! Physical events at the atomic and subatomic level are observed to have no evident cause. That realm is causeless.

QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS. Einstein did away with the aether, shattering the doctrine that we all move about inside a universal, cosmic fluid whose excitations connect us simultaneously to one another and to the rest of the universe. Second, Einstein and other physicists proved that matter and light were composed of particles, wiping away the notion of universal continuity.

ENLIGHTENMENT DEISM. In 1982 a definitive series of ‘EPR experiments’ with this configuration was carried out by Alain Aspect. The results agreed perfectly with conventional quantum mechanics and thus ruled out any subquantum theory with local hidden variables.

THE LAWS OF THE UNIVERSE ARE NATURAL A principle of point-of-view invariance is equivalent to the principle of covariance when applied to space-time. These laws automatically appear in any model that does not single out a special moment in time, position in space, and direction in space. Back at the Planck time of the big bang, the universe had no distinguishable place, direction, or time: it had no structure; thus, the conservation laws apply.

OUR VALUES/LAWS/MORALS DO NOT COME FROM GOD AND/OR RELIGION. There are common ideals that arose during the gradual evolution of human societies, as they become more civilized, developed rational thinking processes, and discovered how to live together in greater harmony. Human and societal behaviors look just as they can be expected to look if there is no God.

THERE WAS NO FINE-TUNING OF THE UNIVERSE. For fine-tuning, only ‘dimensionless’ numbers that do not depend on the system of units are meaningful. The Fine Structure ‘Constant, ‘a’, is not even a constant. There can still be long-lived stars if we vary the parameters and certainly the universe is not fine-tuned for this characteristic. The 7.65 million electron-volts needed for Carbon to form actually hinges on the radioactive state of a carbon nucleus formed out of three helium nuclei, which has over a 20% range to work with without being too high. The vacuum energy of the universe is not fine-tuned, for the large value of N1 is simply an artifact of the use of small masses in making the comparison. The Expansion Rate of the Universe in not fine-tuned since the universe appeared from an earlier state of zero energy; thus, energy conservation would require the exact expansion rate that is observed. Same for the Mass Density of the Universe. Looks the same as if there were no God.

THE VILE ARGUMENT FROM EVIL becomes that we rely on our own human instincts, these taking precedence over confusing divine commands, for these commands offend both our common sense and our reason. Observations of human and animal suffering look just as they can be expected to look if there is no God.
Many disproofs of the supernatural;

The Book of Revelation — Jack Cummins

PDF:

https://austintorney.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/book-of-revelation-150-dpi.pdf

A Person/Being cannot be Fundamental, for the parts would have to be more so.

Nor could even a particle be fundamental, as it is an excitation quantum of a field.

No 'God'.

Science vs. 'God': The Big Bout PDF:

https://austintorney.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/fthc-8.5x11-jpg-150-dpi.pdf

The question may be why does one thing happen rather than anything else. — Jack Cummins

(Plus the Why of Existence)

In our specific and particular path of History there are no what-ifs of it could have been otherwise, since the happening are already a fate accomplished, but this "particular path" hints at a larger scheme…

Existence has to be, given no alternative/opposite of nonexistence/Nothing. The Eternal Basis that then has to be can't just give rise only to our particular path because what has no Beginning, as Eternal, could not have been designed beforehand or outside of itself and thus cannot be something particular such as only the history of our universe; so, the Eternal Basis must then give rise to everything—every possible path. There can't be any special time, place, or arrangement.

In those other paths that go further to become similar to ours lies your 'otherwise'.

contradiction — TheMadFool

‘God’ cannot be found anywhere because ‘God’ can’t be Fundamental.

Yet, an Eternal Basis has to be, for 'Nothing' cannot be, much less 'be' a source of anything, demonstrating that the existence of the Eternal Basis has no alternative, in that existence can have opposite. What is Eternal, then, has to be ungenerated and deathless, unmakeable and unbreakable. Also note that there can be no design point for the Eternal Basis, given no Beginning.

For certain, 'God' cannot be so, as Fundamental, since a Being who thinks, plans, designs, and implements requires a System of Mind; however, systems violate the Fundamental Arts in that they must contain parts—and parts have to be more fundamental than the system. 'God' is a contradiction and thereby disproved.

Not even a proton can be fundamental, for quarks are its composite parts, but a quantum field could be, as continuous waves oscillating.

So long, ‘God’; we hardly knew ‘ye’, because ‘Ye’ were never.

Look to the future for higher human/alien beings, for that's where greater complexity lies. Look not to the past of the simpler and simpler—that is the wrong direction—the wrongest even.

I'm not sure about all I said above. — TheMadFool

Yogi Berra: "I never said all the things I said."

some type of exchange ought be taking place. — Cheshire

Yes, and it should have read 'can' instead of 'cannot' or 'either' instead of 'neither'.

So, substance dualism is dead.

I don't think it's necessary to invent a new material to explain why people think and trees don't in a complex sense. — Cheshire

The distinct and separate substance of substance dualism are not able to exchange energy, for neither one cannot walk the walk and talk the talk of the other.

there has always been something that has existed whether that be god or whatever you wanna call it. — Deus

The Eternal Basis has to be, for 'Nothing' cannot be, much less 'be' a source of anything, as you note, showing that its existence of the Eternal Basis has no alternative, in that existence has no opposite. This, then, seems to be a stable position based on the ultimate default condition, which we both accept. More defaults will come into play, such as that composites can't be Fundamental.

What is Eternal, then, has to be ungenerated and deathless, unmakeable and unbreakable. I would also note that there can be no design point for the Eternal Basis, given no Beginning.

…

For certain, 'God' cannot be so, as Fundamental, not an evolved Alien, for a Being who plans, thinks, designs, and implements requires a System of Mind—and systems violate the Fundamental Art in that they must contain parts that have to be more fundamental than the system. 'God' is a contradiction.

Not even a proton can be fundamental, for quarks are its composite parts, but a quantum field could be, as continuous waves oscillating.

~~ — Banno

Yeah, plus blah, blah… suppositions… invisibility disorder…

I think I'd prefer to have been not been embodied in the first place. — Inyenzi

What, without asking, hither hurried whence?
And, without asking, whither hurried hence!
Another and another Cup to drown
The Memory of this Impertinence!

From birth we can look forward to being host
To woe, and then to giving up the ghost.
Happy are they who quickly burn to toast,
And blessed are they who ne’er came to the roast.

—Omar Khayyam

Thing vs Anti-thing! — TheMadFool

Also:

The weak force promotes changeability; the strong force promotes stability.

Molecules are neither prone to break apart and react with something nor to remain intact.

Energy doesn't change everything all at once not does it take forever to do anything.

One stable positive matter particle in free space—the proton; one stable negative matter particle in free space—the electron. One stable energy particle in free space—the photon. This is a curious symmetry suggesting that there are only those number of ways to make stable particles in free space (and their anti-particles).

The negative potential energy of gravity balances (cancels) the positive kinetic energy of stuff.

Electric charge polarity plus and minus.

'Book of Revelation' — Jack Cummins

THE END OF THE EARTH
(Revelation Revised)

The Asphodel sustains the Dis dwellers,
Where they rest beyond that fatal river—
There the wretched shades drink forgetfulness,
And to oblivion sink without distress.

Charon was withered, wan, and skeletal,
Although eternally grateful for his immortal life
And steady job of ferrying the dead across the river Styx,
In their transition from life to death to forgetfulness.

Fireweed grows from Hell’s sulfurous embers,
As does Purple Loosestrife—dead men’s fingers;
But wildflower air revives the dead—and then
Those happy souls can thrive on Earth again.

As Earth was the only planet he’d come across
With such promising higher life forms,
Charon had grown rather fond of its inhabitants,
Even though he only saw but the worst of them;
But even from that he could extrapolate
To the qualities of the best.

Charon did his job well, professionally,
Although it was ever so dreary,
With the endless darkness of wasted lives
And the grim and gloomy skies all around.

The land always had
That same gray and leaden feel.
He ferried on, though,
For his own life was precious to him.

The soon-to-be really really dead never said much,
For what was there to tell after an empty life
That had often turned to deep regret.

Charon, weathered and worn, rowed them on,
Whose forlorn hopes had been long forgotten—
More amused than enlightened by their ploys—
All too soon be erased in this land of no joys.

Charon did not prompt them for information,
For this was not the thing to do
At the time of their passing,

So he was always most
Courteous and kind to them,
Even to the most evil of the darkest,
Doing his task as well as he could.

It was not that Charon was afraid that
His undersized master of the underworld,
Pluto, might be watching,

But that he had the extreme clarity
To duly serve the task at hand—
A testament to his character.

Charon had been quite alarmed lately—
What with the numbers of the hellish-souls-to-be
Climbing into the millions in such a short time,

But he had been through this kind of rush before
With the doomed and damned of other planets
That had been consumed by their suns
Or had undergone other such catastrophes.

He just used larger boats,
And patiently took his time,
For he had all of Eternity.

Of course,
Charon could and did feel deep sadness,
But he didn’t show it outwardly,
Even when the numbers from Earth
Increased a thousand-fold again.

A few of the now billions of depressed Earthling souls
Had enough energy left to mumble a few words,
And so he was able to glean from them
The latest happenings on Earth.

In 2022, the predicted exponential surge
Of melting ice from global warming
Had quickly inundated all of the coastal cities,
Many of them large centers
Of population and commerce.

Everyone who could possibly make it
Had to retreat inland,
Creating the largest mass exodus in history.

As the heat rose to unbearable levels,
Many had begun living in their basements,
As the Earth’s infrastructure
Began its eventual collapse.

Millions eventually headed north
Towards Canada and Siberia,
But had to retreat when the ice caps totally melted
And formed the great Ocean of the North;
Most of them did not make it.

No one but the ignored physicist mathematicians
Had predicted that the end
Could come into sight so quickly.

Then came the dreaded polar shift
That made global warming seem but a small note
Compared to this new and darker symphony.

The Earth was thrashed with storms
The likes of which it had never seen;
Electricity went out completely all over the world,
But for a few nuclear powered areas that didn’t last.

No one could drive very far,
Even on their last tank of gas,
For the roads had melted,

Along with the tires of the vehicles,
And if the vehicles stopped
They’d find themselves mired
In the meltdown of the asphalt.

Food would no longer grow very well,
Even in once lush gardens,
In the amounts that were needed,
And, as the heat rose further,
Into the 140s, plant growth ceased altogether,
Although a new but rare
And expensive form of food pill
Extended life for some of the rich,
For a short while.

Charon had of course,
Seen much of this kind of thing before,
From the many other solar systems
And galaxies on which life had formed.

Earthlings seemed to have
A special charm and hope
Above and beyond the other alien races.

So he rowed and ferried
And deposited them on the far shore,
His job and life forever continuing
In a place with no color,
No joy, and no future—
On the shore of the land
On the edge of oblivion.

Charon had depths of compassion,
But many passengers might
Have thought him stoic,
Although they were mostly
Beyond this capability.

A sign on the opposite shore said:

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Billions more arrived
In the gray land all too soon
And Charon learned that
Either madness or desperation on Earth
Had caused a nuclear winter all over the planet,
Bringing on a deep freeze that few could escape.

Perhaps they were trying
To combat the ultimate heat,
Which would have been
But a cool breeze in Hell.

The polar shift had greatly
Added to the deep freeze.

A few of Charon’s still speaking
But chilled customers
Even expressed a longing
For the legendary warmth of Hades.

Charon, stalwart and reliable, rowed on steadily,
Ever steeling himself to the misery.

Finally the masses slowed and dwindled
To a few dribs and drabs over a few years
And then there was no one for several years.

A lone man appeared on the shore near the ferry dock,
And Charon readily approached the man,
Something he had never done before.

They had a long and hearty talk,
For the man was animated
And not at all like any of the other wretched souls.

“How is it,” inquired Charon,
“That you are full of life and seem to be a good man
But have been sent here?”

“I am not a bad person in any way,” the man replied.
“Actually, I just spent some time in Heaven.

“I found out there that my sweetheart
Was sent here to you, for she was a suicide
And so was destined here;
However, I had promised
To be with her forever,
So I chose this place
Over Heaven out of my love for her.”

“Extraordinary,” exclaimed Charon.
“I knew the Earth had
A few good men and women;
I’ve not seen very many clues
Of that elsewhere in the universe.

"Did you colonize space—
Will your species continue and flourish
After your Earth bids farewell?”

“I’m afraid not,” replied the man,
For too many needless wars intervened
And this greatly delayed our space program.”

“A shame,” said Charon,
But is there any hope left on Earth,
I mean, are there any others still about?”

“I am the last,” the man answered slowly.

The first tear of Charon’s long life
Rolled down his cheek;
Nothing had ever made him cry before:
Nothing had ever made him weep.

(Rewritten from Lord Dunsany’s brief sketch)

'A man is no man if he has no beast inside.' — Jack Cummins

A tale I’ve written, invented, yes, hence
An attempt to unite the Christian pense
With the non-belief, in a middle ground,
Somewhere between mystery and good sense:

With flora mystical and magical,
Eden’s botanical garden was blest,
So Eve, taking more than just the Apple,
Plucked off the loveliest of the best.

Thus it’s to Eve that we must give our thanks,
For Earth’s variety of fruits and plants,
For when she was out of Paradise thrown,
She stole all the flowers we’ve ever known.

Therewith, through sensuous beauty and grace,
Eve with Adam brought forth the human race,
But our world would never have come to be,
Had not God allowed them His mystery.

When they were banished from His bosom,
Eve saw more than just the Apple Blossom,
And took, on her way through Eden’s bowers,
Many wondrous plants and fruitful flowers.

Mighty God, upon seeing this great theft,
At first was angered, but soon smiled and wept,
For human nature was made in His name—
So He had no one but Himself to blame!

Yet still He made ready His thunderbolt,
As His Old Testament wrath cast its vote
To end this experiment gone so wrong—
But then He felt the joy of life’s new song.

Eve had all the plants that she could carry;
God in His wisdom grew uncontrary.
Out of Eden she waved the flowered wands,
The seeds spilling upon the barren lands.

God held the lightning bolt already lit,
No longer knowing what to do with it,
So He threw it into the heart of Hell,
Forming of it a place where all was well.

Thus the world from molten fire had birth,
As Hell faded and was turned into Earth.
This He gave to Adam and Eve, with love,
For them and theirs to make a Heaven of.

From His bolt grew the Hawthorn and Bluebell,
And He be damned, for Eve stole these as well!
So He laughed and pretended not to see,
Retreating into eternity.

“So be it,” He said, when time was young,
“That such is the life My design has wrung,
For in their souls some part of Me has sprung—
So let them enjoy all the songs I’ve sung.

“Life was much too easy in Paradise,
And lacked therefore of any real meaning,
For without the lows there can be no highs—
All that remains is a dull flat feeling!

“There’s no Devil to blame for their great zest—
This mix of good and bad makes them best!
The human nature that makes them survive,
Also lets them feel very much alive.

“That same beastful soul that makes them glad
Does also make them seem a little bad.
If only I could strip the wrong from right,
But I cannot have the day without the night!”

… (flower lore)

'The Book of Revelation' — Jack Cummins

I illustrated it once for a lark. Those with '666' on their foreheads can't be killed right away, for they have to be tortured for six months or so. Typical made-up human notions of a mean 'God'.

A recurring Biblical theme is of 'God' trying to repair or cull the very nature that He Himself perfectly put into Angels and humans in the first place as intended.

"Why and Why not otherwise?" — Cheshire

Because it already happened in a particular way, as per what was going on at the time.

Can't we still suppose?

Sure, it's good for reviewing what we would do in a similar situation or for enjoying thinking in an alternate fantasy world, but, all that aside there is not really a 'What if'.

What if Germany and/or Japan had won World War II?'

They didn't; there are no real 'what ifs'.

It works because the harmonic oscillators model of quantum fields results in the certain unit quantum energy levels that we observe and thus made the Standard Model from, which works.

What good about quantum fields?

The are continuous and thus non composite, having no parts, thus satisfying the fundamental arts.

Why and how are the quantum fields there already made with not anything to make them of?

They were never made; they are eternal, and the eternal cannot have a beginning.

What if they end?

The eternal cannot end; energy can neither be created nor destroyed.

Why does everything change, not even remaining as anything particular even for an instant?

It is energetic.

What are the eternal quantum fields made of and what are they in particular?

They are 'made' of themselves, being fundamental (so far), but are not particular in the way you think of them having been designed, for the eternal can't have a design point, given no beginning.

All this seems not to then have any built-in direction, purpose, and meaning.

I said that, in effect.

What can I do, as basically novel?

You can't really do anything truly original; the Cosmos does you.

Why do squirrels run back under a car after they're already in the clear?

Some things are truly unfathomable!

Really?

No, they can't tell where the car's sound is coming from, for it reflects from the environment.

Is it possible to create universal criteria that answers the question why?. — Cheshire

Why anything?

It has to be.

How come?

Existence has no alternative?

Why is that?

'Nonexistence', also called 'Nothing', cannot be. 'It' has no properties.

Why all those quote marks?

Because 'Nothing' cannot even be meant.

What if there never was anything?

Not true, for there is something.

OK, but is there an infinite regress of entities made of lessor entities?

No, for a never ending cascade could never complete.

How come?

It would take forever.

What, then, underlies all events?

So far, it is the quantum fields whose excitations give rise to the elemental particles.

Why does that work?

(I accidentally hit the post button; I may continue it…)

it is necessary that there is no God — FreeEmotion

The 'God' of belief has been reduced to doing exactly what nature does.

Jesus and the Buddha are examples for higher ideals — Jack Cummins

Yes, and even just average good humans still put the 'God' of the Bible to shame, which again suggests the making up of the Biblical 'God' as wishful thinking at best.

Alzheimer's, for instance, consists, in part, in plaque deposits in the brain that inhibit thinking as well as memory andwhich can only happen if thoughts-memories are physical systems that physically process thinking & memorizing. — 180 Proof

Good one! :up:

What do you think of this:

On Consciousness

What the meaning to this play we’re befit,
From dirt to dust within the script that’s writ?
The wise in search have thrown themselves to waste;
Experience alone is the benefit.

Physics describes but the extrinsic causes,
While consciousness exists just for itself,
As the intrinsic, compositional,
Informational, whole, and exclusive—

As the distinctions toward survival, 
Though causing nothing except in itself,
As in ne’er doing but only as being,
Leaving intelligence for the doing.

The posterior cortex holds correlates,
For this is the only brain region that
Can’t be removed for one to still retain
Consciousness, it having feedback in it;

Thusly, it forms an irreducible Whole,
And this Whole forms consciousness directly,
A process fundamental in nature,
Or’s the brain’s private symbolic language.

The Whole can also be well spoken of 
To communicate with others, as well as
Globally informing other brain states,
For nonconscious parts know not what’s being made.

dismissive — 180 Proof

Great description! :up:

pre-existents — Nelson E Garcia

These stimuli seem to hover somewhere in between natural existence and nonexistence yet they lean far away from nonexistence and more toward existence since they are apparently something that the senses can take in, with the brain needed to turn them into phenomena as 'existence' in our minds' reality, they only in that sense being named as 'pre-existent'.

I'm not sure what argument you're making, if any. Hazy generalizations don't get us anywhere. — Noble Dust

How Do We Think About The Bible From A Philosophical Point Of View?

The Bible incorporates ideas about the relationship between God and human beings… — Jack Cummins

So then, the Bible's 'creative' and inventive literature gets much worse in its 'making up', beyond the crumbling of its foundation in Genesis, and continues its teriffic decline via its presentation of a God who is not a good role model who could be followed, emulated, imitated, etc., we thus easily outthinking the One who breaks His own 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' directive in the Great Flood, and so much more bad role model behaviors that we have wisely made civil and moral laws against.

Want to see a concise poetic description of, um, His mysterious (cover-up for 'insane') ways? It's good literature.

Correct me if I'm wrong but it sounds like you're critiquing a literalist interpretation of the Bible, which is pretty well known to be an extremely minority view among Christians, so it's sort of a straw man to discard the Bible on that basis. — Noble Dust

Yes, but for the many Evangelical Fundamentalists many looser Christians don't take much stock in the Bible's proclamations or go into denial. The Philippine Catholic Bible has an asterisk on Genesis that notes that the farmers and the sheepherders were at odds with each other, one of these being the Cainites.

Regardless, some just really want God to be fact, anyway, not even saying 'maybe' or 'perhaps' to reflect the hopes and wishes of faith …

Their ingrained beliefs the priests’ duly preach,
As if notions were truth and fact to teach.
Oh, cleric, repent; at least say, ‘Have faith’;
For, of unknowns ne’er shown none can e’er reach.

Nevertheless, biological and cosmic evolution gets rid of the made-up events in the foundational Genesis. There can hardly be a bigger fail of the religious underpinnings than that.

Some Christians realize the above downfall, coming up with crazy schemes to save the proclamations, such that the Bible should no longer be seen as "plain words for the common man" but as an obscure rendering requiring an theological expert to interpret…

creative inspiration — Jack Cummins

Doesn't much matter, for either way, the ABCs of the Bible came out wrong as could be, as a polar opposite of what's been found. As for the xyzs, they are then quite suspect, but for some accounts of history and locales. Although the Bible is as a Fairy Tale, it has some good poems in it, such as in the Song of Solomon, which is also a sexy poem. Some good illustrations, too.

Because Genesis is wrong, as discussed in another thread, there is no divine Inspiration to it and so it can be dismissed.

As for explaining why God the Bible came to be supposed to be true, that is another matter:

The ancients found themselves here and not there,
Yet to fathom earth, fire, water, and air,
Asking why life was not square, as unfair—
Thus invented the Bad Role Model’s Care.

They looked unto their calamities,
Their powerful rulers and enemies,
At their olden family structure’s way,
Of strict father, and mother with no say.

The Father Notion they based on themselves,
As the best answer that was ever delved:
The demanding Male Mind who was called ‘God’,
An idea for some to this day, well trod.

Answers were needed for them to persist—
They extended the Notion with more myths
And legends into lore layered upon,
Inventing all the scrolls of scripture on.

‘God’ brought both fear and comfort in those days,
Making people better through fearsome ways,
Although worse for others—unchosen tribes—
Protecting their notions, as taught by scribes.

A wasteland of superstition plod—
Instantiating a meaning for ‘God’.
Emotion e’er sets up a firm blockade
When thoughts fired more build a stockade.

There were various modifications,
Yet the Creator concept remained one;
But natural understandings progressed,
Leaping ahead of the dogmatical rest.

Thousands of years came to pass, in stories,
But then we solved much of the mystery,
Irrefutable now, as gone beyond,
Utterly not by a magical wand.

The basis is fore’er, no creation—
Energy being the primest potion—
And Entirety is seen that it can be
No way but than it is, eternally.

Claims of Revelation in Genesis
Of all of Nature’s species made, as is,
Have been demolished, obliterated,
By evolution and data liberated.

Nature finds no requirement for a ‘God’,
Growth naturally forming from the sod.
The organic ‘comes of the mud and slime,
Formed within billions of years of sweet time.

A trillion lights shine through, of depths of the deep,
Stars afire, with us the souls from their keep.
Man oft spouts the ‘truth’ of a Creator,
As did proto-men near the equator.

Scrolled into scripture, ‘God’ brought rapture,
Enough for sad hearts to wholly capture;
Yet, there can’t be First Complexity’s shove,
For composites can't be First; all's simple of.

I have been searching for an answer, — FreeEmotion

In Genesis, God created Adam, as is, fully formed, from scratch, as intended, presumably immutable, with all the features of modern man, and so Adam's creation is taken to have happened around 4000-7000 years ago; yet, man is mutable and the evolutionary tree of life has been found. Also, we know how solar systems form, and our thriving planet requires a metal rich third generation star as our sun. Earth is in the Goldilocks zone, not too hot and not too cold, just as it should be for life to arise.

Adam didn't know what his genitals were for and so God showed him some visions of animals, but Adam wasn't all that attracted them. Then God showed Adam some visions of naked women and Adam then knew right away what his primary male part was for!

God then told Adam, "I can make you the perfect woman; she will do all the chores, including painting the ceilings, cleaning the litter box, cutting all the grass by hand with a scissors, cleaning the sewers, etc., and all that you ask her to do, with no complaints; however, she will cost you an arm and a leg!"

Adam thought for a while and then asked, "What can I get for just a rib?"

ALL THAT LIES BETWEEN

Energy is a beauty and a brilliance,
Flashing up in its destructance,
For everything isn’t here to stay its “best”;
It’s merely here to die in its sublimeness.

Like slow fires making their brands, it breeds,
Yet ever consumes and moves on, as more it feeds,
Then spreads forth anew, this unpurposed dispersion,
An inexorable emergence with little reversion,

Ever becoming of its glorious excursions,
Bearing the change that patient time restrains,
While feasting upon the glorious decayed remains
In its progressive march through losses for gains.

We have oft described the causeless—
That which was always never the less,
As well as the beginnings of our quest,
And too have detailed in the rarest of glimpses
The slowing end of all of forever’s chances.

So now we must now turn our attention keen
To all of the action that exists in-between—
All that’s going on and has gone before,
Out to the furthest reaches, ever-more,

For everything that ever happens,
Including life and all our questions,
Meaning every single event ever gone on,
Of both the animate and the non,
Is but from a single theme played upon.

This then is of the simplest analysis of all,
For it heeds mainly just one call—
That of the second law’s dispersion,

The means for each and every occasion,
From the closest to the farthest range—
That which makes anything change.

These changes range from the simple,
Such as a bouncing ball resting still,
Or ice melting that gives up its chill,
To the more complex, such as digestion,
Growth, death, and even reproduction.

There is excessively subtle change as well,
Such as the formations of opinions tell
And the creation or rejections of the will,

And yet all these kinds of changes, of course,
Still become of one simple, common source,
Which is the underlying collapse into chaos—
The destiny of energy’s unmotivated non-purpose.

All that appears to us to be motive and purpose
Is in fact ultimately motiveless, without purpose.
Even aspirations and their achievement’s ways
Have fed on and come about through the decay.

The deepest structure of change is but decay,
Although it’s not the quantity of energy’s say
That causes decay, but the quality, for it strays.

Energy that is localized is potent to effect change,
And in the course of causing change it ranges,
Spreading and becoming chaotically distributed,
Losing its quality but never of its quantity rid.

The key to all this, as we will see,
Is that it goes though stages wee,
And so it doesn’t disperse all at once,
As might one’s paycheck inside of a month.

This harnessed decay results not only for
Civilizations but for all the events going fore
In the world and the universe beyond,

It accounting for all discernible change
Of all that ever gets so rearranged,
For the quality of all this energy kinged
Declines, the universe unwinding, as a spring.

Chaos may temporarily recede,
Quality building up for a need,
As when cathedrals are built and formed,
And when symphonies are performed,

But these are but local deceits
Born of our own conceits,
For deeper in the world of kinds
The spring inescapably unwinds,
Driving its energy away—
As All is being driven by decay.

The quality of energy meant
Is of its dispersal’s extent.
When it is totally precipitate,
It destroys, but when it’s gait
Is geared through chains of events
It can produce civilization’s tenants.

Ultimately, energy naturally,
Spontaneously, and chaotically
Disperses, causing change, irreversibly.

Think of a group of atoms jostling,
At first as a vigorous motion happening
In some corner of the atomic crowd;

They hand on their energy, loud,
Inducing close neighbors to jostle too,
And soon the jostling disperses too—
The irreversible change but the potion
Of the ‘random’, motiveless motion.

And such does hot metal cool, as atoms swirl,
There being so many atoms in the world
Outside it than in the block metal itself
That entropy’s statistics average themselves.

The illusions of purpose lead us to think
That there are reasons, of some motive link,
Why one change occurs and not another,

And even that there are reasons that cover
Specific changes in locations of energy,
The energy choosing to go there, intentionally,

Such as a purpose for a change in structure,
This being as such as the opening of a flower,
Yet this should not be confused with energy
Achieving to be there in that specific bower,

Since at root, of all the power,
Even that of the root of the flower,
That there is the degradation by dispersal,
This being mostly non reversible and universal.

The energy is always still spreading thencely,
Even as some temporarily located density—
An illusion of specific change
In some region rearranged,

But actually it’s just lingering there, discovering,
Until new opportunities arise for exploring,
The consequences but of ‘random’ opportunity,
Beneath which, purpose still vanishes entirely.

Events are the manifestations
Of overriding probability’s instantiations—
Of all of the events of nature, of every sod,
From the bouncing ball to conceptions of gods,
Of even free will, evolution, and all ambition,

For they’re of our simple idea’s elaborations,
Although for the latter stated there
And such for that as warfare
Their intrinsic simplicity
Is buried more deeply.

And yet though sometimes concealed away,
The spring of all creation is just decay,
The consequence and instruction
Of the natural tendency to corruption.

Love or war become as factions
Through the agency of chemical reactions,
The actions being the chains of reactions,
Whether thinking, doing, or rapt in attention,
For all that happens is of chemical reaction.

At its most rudimentary bottom,
Chemical reactions are rearrangements of atoms,
These being species of molecules
That with perhaps additions and deletions
Then go on to constitute another one, by fate,
Although they sometimes only change shape,

But too can be consumed and torn apart,
Either as a whole or in part, so cruel,
As a source of atoms for another molecule.

Molecules have neither motive nor purpose to act,
Neither an inclination to go on to react
Nor any urge to remain unreacted;
So then why do reactions occur if unacted?

Molecules are but loosely structured
And so they can be easily ruptured,
For reactions may occur if the process energy norm
Is degraded into a more dispersed and chaotic form,

And so as they usually are constantly subject
To the tendency to lose energy, as the abject
Jostling carries it away to the surroundations,
Reactions being misadventure’s transformations,
It then being that some transient arrangements
May suddenly be frozen into permanences
As the energy leaps away to other experiences.

So, molecules are a stage in which the play goes on,
But not so fast that the forms cannot seize upon;

But really, why do molecules have such fragility,
For if their atoms were as tightly bound as nuclei,
Then the universe would have died, being frozen,
Long before the awakening of the forms chosen,

Or if molecules were as totally free to react
Every single time they touched a neighbor’s pact
Then all events would have taken place so rapidly
And so very crazily and haphazardly

That the rich attributes of the world we know
Would not have had the needed time to grow.

Ah, but it is all of the necessitated restraint,
For it ever takes time a scene to paint,
As such as in the unfolding of a leaf,
The endurations for any stepping feat,

As of the emergence of consciousness
And the paused ends of energy’s restlessness:
It’s of the controlled consequence of collapse
Rather than one that’s wholly precipitous.

So now all is known of our heres and nows
Within this parentheses of the eternal boughs,
As well as the why and how of it all has come,
And of our universe’s end, but that others become.

Out of energy’s dispersion and decay of quality
Comes the emergence of growth and complexity.

(The verse lines, being like molecules warmed,
Continually broke apart and reformed
About the rhymes which tried to be non intrusions,
Eventually all flexibly stabilizing to conclusions.)

I am interested to know what media you are working in. — Jack Cummins

Photoshop, Final Cut Pro, iclone …

I don't draw or paint anything; I just move parts around to make a scene.

See my Youtube channel for more pics in videos, some of which move…

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAqzcN340HXpDqHXmAy3SwA

I was summoned here from the Shoutbox. I heard there were lovely original drawings here… — Hanover

Here they are:





There was a time warp around you.

As much as I want the Moon to be made of Camembert, it just stubbornly stays a rock (as far as we can reasonably know). — hwyl

Well, but that's what happens to cheese when it gets left out!

Do you know who the artist is? — Jack Cummins

I am the artist. It depicts the level of reality of human being, based on the transitional past to future orthogonal to the oppositional matter and space, with the derivative pairings onward from that.

From ToE to HUMAN Being

Here’s the theory of how the Who of Being
Becomes of Existence’s Why and How,
Via the transitional Then to When
And the oppositional What and Where.

The Real’s Why is that Nothing cannot be;
Its How is that of Possibility,
Since all methods must be open, due to
The ‘IS’s never-birthed eternity.

Matter vs. Space, from the Formless ‘IS’,
Makes for the realm of appearances, which,
Since crossed by the passage of time, builds life’s
Pyramid from Movement-of-Appearances.

Past that was leads to Future that will be,
Transformational—‘Now’ in the middle,
Rolling smoothly, through recall, sensation,
And anticipation. Time is movement!

Space/Matter, oppositional, crosses,
From the Where/What top and bottom corners,
The left to right sweep of Past into Future,
Which is really as Then-into-the-When.

Where/What plus Then-to-the-When grows to blend
The Spirit of Life in the pyramid’s core,
After some more pairing relationships,
Subsequent, toward the life of our species.

Then+What is History—what has occurred,
While When+What will become Progress.
Then+Where begets Memory—remembrance,
While When+Where induces Wishes, as hopes.

Progress+Wishes combines into Vision;
Progress+History grants Change-in-Structure;
Memory+History makes for Learning;
Memory+History births Change-of-Outlook.

Change-in-Structure + Vision = Planning,
Change-in-Structure + Learning = Creating,
Change-of-Outlook + Vision = Growth;
Change-of-Outlook + Learning = Direction.

Finally, Planning, Growth, Creating,
And Direction make for Being’s Who.

( Matter vs. Space ) [Being] ( Past —> Future )


Five Forces



On the physical forces:

We note that two of them are transitional,
The Electric and the Magnetic,
Each giving rise to the other,

And that two others are oppositional,
The Weak and the Strong,
The Weak promoting changeability,
The Strong promoting stability.

Gravity is then left as the blend of all.

( Strong vs. Weak ) [Gravity] ( Electro <—> Magnetic )

At the molecule level, another oppositional
changeability/stability balance occurs since molecules
are neither inclined to stay together nor to break apart.

There is also 'patient' time restricting
energy's relentless changes from being precipitous.


Another depiction, with more in it:




Provisional simple answers to the How and Why at a low level:

We could ask what is anything? — Jack Cummins

the omnipotent God annihilated himself in the Big Bang to become the Universe. — CountVictorClimacusIII

An Absolute, such as 'God' cannot go away or have a beginning, or it wouldn't be Fundamental and 'First'.

Further, a Mind couldn't have been fundamental, for it would have parts necessarily more fundamental.

I have looked at your idea again, and I am sure that it has so much to argue in its favour, but the question which I would have is how could such an idea have for thinking about reality, in terms of living. — Jack Cummins

Yes, not much to be gained for living at the human being level, as either TOE is just simple, as it must be at that level, and so is not all that interesting but for obliterating some superstitions and demonstrating a kind of pointlessness.

Each level of reality gains its own set of new circumstances relevant to that level.

Our human level is where all the interesting action is, as we are very complex, although the universe is only about .02% along. We are still quite limited, as you note in another post, and will probably be looked upon as primitives by the higher human beings of the future, if we can even make it past becoming but a footnote of history by colonizing space and thriving on.

Our reality consists of all sorts of different minds and wills that have to do what they do, making for a kind of mass confusion but still providing for many interesting discussions.

Above all, experiencing life seems to feel quite rewarding, as the main benefit, if there are any, or at least a great consolation prize.