Is Science Leading us Backward?

I recently watched a video interview of scientists who challenge Darwinian Evolution Theory. One of them made a remark that I found very profound. He said that evolution, at its core, seeks to explain the complexity of life. But here is its problem. The cell, which is considered to be the basic unit of living organisms, is enormously complicated. What's more, the problem is that the more we learn about the cell, the more complicated we find it to be. Therefore, instead of getting closer to explaining the complexity of life, we are getting farther away from it.

The video is at

Mathematical Challenges to Darwin’s Theory of Evolution - YouTube

By extension, the same problem seems to exist with physicalism in general.    It is why there is a trend among scientists to question why it is that no new territory in science has been successfully resolved in over 100 years.  That may be somewhat of an overstatement, especially in terms of technology, but essentially, relativity and quantum mechanics are the most recent paradigm shifts. 

My personal prediction is that science will reach (and may already be reaching) a sort of brick wall, in which it is recognized that there are fundamental principles of nature that govern its workings, but for which there is no physical explanation.

To quote me (LOL), "Nature cannot have arisen by natural means, because until nature existed, there were no natural means."  If someone else said that first, my apologies.

What the End Times will be Like

Years ago, there was written a book that prophesied that the anti-Christ would be a man who at the time was coming to power in Germany, a man named Adolph Hitler.  To be sure, Hitler fulfilled many of the descriptions of the anti-Christ.  As it turns out, however, he did not fulfill all of them, and while some may disagree, he was clearly not the anti-Christ.

The point of mentioning that is to caution us against interpreting scripture beyond what the scripture plainly says.  As soon as we begin saying, “This is what it must mean,” then we have gone too far.  The Bible itself warns us to neither add to, nor subtract from, the actual words of the text

The Bible also tells us that the spirit of anti-Christ is already in the world.  That being the case, we should not be surprised that present-day events, as well as events from history, can foreshadow what is later to happen.  The Old Testament in many places foreshadows the Messiah Jesus.

Looking at it in this way, and being careful not to claim Biblical authority, we can make certain educated guesses as to how present-day events are portents of the End Times.  Those days may yet be far in the future, or much sooner than that, but in either case, we should keep in mind what the Bible tells us about those future times.

It tells us of future calamities, both natural and manmade.  Of those that are manmade, there will be wars, and rumors of war.  It tells us of the rise to power of a man who will rule the world, for a time.  Many dictators have fulfilled some of the characteristics of the anti-Christ, but even the very worst of them will not be as evil, nor as powerful, as the anti-Christ.

One of the more relevant passages of the Bible tells us that no one will be able to buy, nor sell, save him that has the mark of the beast.  Are we seeing fore-shadowing of that, today?  As government grows in power, it increasingly controls who can participate in the economy.  Government can shut down businesses almost on a whim.  No one can do business without a license of some sort, or if not that, then he must be in compliance with so many rules and regulations that no one can keep track of them all.

The Bible tells us that the anti-Christ will be a great speaker, and large numbers of people will be swayed by his words.

When the dominion of the anti-Christ collapses, it will lead to devastation and death.  War, starvation and disease will take a terrible toll.  Passages in the Bible also resemble technologies that we do not yet have, but many of which are already (so to speak) on the drawing board. 

Some people believe that the collapse of the evil reign of the anti-Christ will come about when Jesus returns, but my personal belief is that the evil society will collapse of its own weight, of its own evil.  Inner rot will consume it.  All manner of sin and perversion will destroy society from within.  The Bible tells us that no flesh would survive, except that they will be rescued, apparently at the darkest hour, with the return of Jesus.

I must close by reminding the reader that I have no Biblical authority, and that my words should be checked against what the Bible actually says.  Perhaps you will partly agree with my opinions, but in any case, I think it entirely reasonable to say that we must prepare for the worst—prepare both physically and spiritually, so that when we are called upon, we will serve Jesus as He would have us to do.

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A new quantum paradox throws the foundations of observed reality into question (theconversation.com)

What I like about this article is that it is written in simple language that even I can almost understand.  Therein lies a paradox.  Can something involving a truly complex subject be expressed simply?  Okay, E equals M times C-squared seems simple enough, but if that is as far as one goes, he has not understood relativity.  Can anyone?  Or more precisely, can anyone ever adequately understand nature?  The deeper we dig, the more abstract our conclusions become.  Reality is not just abstract theory; it is what we experience.

The article mentions that some theories of reality do not require (or even exclude) free will.  But the absence of free will introduces insurmountable paradoxes, one of which was alluded to by JBS Haldane, when he pointed out that, if materialism is true, we could never know that, because our brains would be material.

Therefore, at the basis of any adequate theory of reality, there must be the fundamental property of free will (and therefore, consciousness, and therefore life).  Once we understand that we cannot understand, we will have a basis for making the most of what we do understand.

UFOs, Dark Matter and Ghosts – What have they in Common?

Over the decades of my life, I have read much about UFOs and ghosts, and lately, about dark matter.  After all that, I have one question:  what practical application do they have in my life?  Or yours?

To be sure, I could ask the same question about the Himalaya Mountains, the Galapagos Islands, and ancient Greek plays.  I have no doubt in my mind that those things exist, but I cannot think of any practical effect that any of them have had on my life.  But UFOs (etc), even though impractical to me, are in a different category.

By contrast, electricity has a major impact in my life.  So also, do less obvious things, such as quantum physics (transistors) and General Relativity (global positioning technology).  They change the way I live.

There is significant dispute as to whether UFOs are space aliens, or whether ghosts are real spirits of the afterlife.  There is even doubt among some well-qualified scientists as to whether dark matter exists.  These are not the same, however, as electricity, in terms of how they affect my life.  They don’t.

I have my opinions about them.  I will even go so far as to say that I lived several years in a house that showed very strong evidence of being haunted (but nothing like in the movies).  In that respect, I have to admit that there was a practical effect in my daily life, psychologically, but we who lived there adjusted to it and got on.  We didn’t move away, for example, until other, unrelated factors caused us to do so.

Even the ghosts, which we regarded as real (and still do) were far less important to us than electricity.

By contrast, there is much practical benefit to be gained by studying the physical sciences, and music, and such things as carpentry and automobile mechanics.  Indeed, civilization depends on them.

But, ghosts?  UFOs?  Dark matter?

I will grant you that, it is conceivable—that at some point in future time, a discovery or an event may reveal such things to be important, and worthy of intense activity.  For now, however, they are like the existence of super-volcanoes, or meteor impacts, which could wreak havoc on Biblical scales.  Even though we know that they are real, there is little or nothing we can do about them.  We don’t change the way we live.

What progress has been made, really, in the study of ghosts?  Even my extended, personal experience with them has not led me to produce any useful result from all that I have read.  Likewise, with UFOs, even though the government has released film footage of them, to what avail?    And concerning dark matter, even the brainiest scientists in the world are at a standstill when it comes to producing any practical use for it—if it even exists.

We could discuss other topics, including the paranormal, with the same useless consequences.  Isn’t there a better way to spend our time?

Please don’t mistake this as a dismissal of the importance of pure research.  Much progress has been made as a result of inquiries that seemed to be useless at first, but then became important.  Perhaps such will be the case with UFOs, ghosts and dark matter.

If anything, my criticism of these three topics, is a proactive one.  The study of them should be pursued, but not in the manner they now are.  We seem to be spinning our wheels, expending much effort, but getting nowhere.

Heron’s steam engine was invented in the year ninety A.D., but was forgotten for over a thousand years, until someone took a practical approach to using the principle underlying it.  Someone saw a need, and applied steam power to meet that need.  It changed the course of history.

If I could do the same with UFOs, dark matter or ghosts, I would be wealthy, or at least famous.  I am not of that caliber intellectually.  But someone is.  Must we wait another thousand years?

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Is Infinity Real?

The short answer is, “Yes but.”  The longer answer is, it depends.

If that seems confusing or noncommittal, well, what can one expect from a discussion about infinity?  One might wryly say, it’s a big subject.

Mathematically, the answer is, “Yes.”  Infinity is a mathematical value, so therefore it is real.  On the other hand, one might mathematically calculate the length of a table as minus five feet.  There are no tables of negative length in the furniture store—therefore, one can say that just because something is mathematically real, does not necessarily mean that it is physically real.

Geometry recognizes that infinity is real.  Any given line segment has, along its length, an infinite number of locations called “points,” or geometric points.  However, each of those points has dimensions of zero.  Zero, by the way, is considered to be infinitely small.

In the physical world, however, we do not deal with these types of infinity.  Indeed, it seems that space and time are composed of units that are larger than zero, not infinitely small points.  This is why space and time are considered by some physical scientists to be “grainy,” not smooth.

Perhaps the biggest cosmological question concerns the size of the physical universe.  It is either of limited size, or of infinite size.  If it is of limited size, then it is most likely curved inward on itself, somewhat in the way that the surface of the earth is curved.  If instead, the universe is of infinite size, then it is either not curved at all, or curved in a way that is difficult to imagine, curved outward, somewhat as a saddle is.

The idea of an infinitely large, uncurved universe boggles the mind.  It means that someone (or, some thing) could travel forever in a straight line, always with an infinite distance lying before it.

In such a universe, there could be infinite numbers of galaxies and planets, and perhaps infinite numbers of living creatures, even beings much like us.  Perhaps more strangely, there could be an infinite expanse of empty space beyond the part of the universe that contains galaxies and planets.

To completely boggle the mind, there could even be infinite numbers of infinitely large universes, each containing infinite numbers of more universes, a mega-multi-verse.

The answers to the questions posed by these thoughts, would depend on the nature of reality itself, something which we can never know.