How Things Work: A Brief History of Reality
VOLUME I – Book II "The Power of Three" (#40. Introduction to Book II)
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Tuesday July 19, 2022
"Every one who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe – a spirit vastly superior to that of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble."
– Albert Einstein
CONSIDERATION #40 – Introduction to Book Two
PREFACE
Welcome to Book Two Everybody!
In Book II “The Power of Three: Understanding Reality Through Science & Religion,” we begin to consider humanity’s movement beyond dualism into a new understanding of Reality involving the metaphysical concepts related to triads and trinities. Modern science and modern Christianity both rely heavily on the rational connections between abstract mathematics, logic, and reason to develop new modern interpretations of “ultimate truth.”
In Book II we follow science through its classical period to Einstein’s theories of relativity and the beginning of quantum mechanics. The attention of modern science ultimately becomes focused on an ancient abstraction called the atom. Understanding the basic structure of the atom as three interdependent forces called an electron, proton, and neutron leads to a revolution known as the “atomic age” of science. This is the period of science which leads to the greatest scientific and technological revolution in human history.
“There were no secrets, no mysteries, no dualities, only scientific truth waiting to be discovered and understood.”
Science becomes the empirical foundation for objective research, study, and investigation into the “real” physical world. Through science, human beings, for the first time, gain the power to control and influence their own physical reality and existence. In science, the modern world reflected a world that was tangible and knowable. There was essentially a reasonable, logical, practical answer for every possible question; it was just a matter of finding it! There were no secrets, no mysteries, no dualities, only scientific truth waiting to be discovered and understood. For a while there appeared to be no problem science could not solve.
However, as the implications of relativity theory and quantum mechanics began to emerge, the solid objective empirical nature of science began to fracture. More and more, science became forced to seek rational mathematical abstractions as a means for solving the seemingly unending paradoxes arising from objective scientific experimentation. The new view of reality resulting from these abstractions was beginning to resemble the theological constructs related to spiritual paradoxes more than the scientific method developed by Descartes. As science delved deeper into the macro-reality of the cosmos and the micro-reality of atomic and subatomic particles, the answers they were seeking seemed to become more impossible to find or understand. Science had run into a “reality brick wall.” The empirically objective physical world built by Aristotle, Descartes, Newton, Maxwell, and even Einstein was beginning to crumble. Reality was about to change; drastically.
“…spiritual authority began to shift from the central power of the Catholic Church to the individual Christian and their unique relationship with the Divine.”
As the power of the Roman Catholic Church diminished, so did its ability to control Christian thought and dogma. With the Protestant Revolution and the advent of Gutenberg’s printing press, spiritual authority began to shift from the central power of the Catholic Church to the individual Christian and their unique relationship with the Divine. While some theology, such as the Holy Trinity and the Logos, had become inextricably embedded into Christian Ideology, each individual and new denomination now had the opportunity to read the Bible for themselves and come to their own theological conclusions. For more and more Christians, God’s Truth was not based on the proclamations of a mortal Pope, but on the eternal Word of Almighty God Himself: The Bible.
Unlike the highly constructed dogma of the Catholic Church, the narrative stories of the Bible seemed much more accessible, and human. For the first time in history, individual Christians could read the Bible for themselves, and for many it revealed an entirely new religious reality. A relationship with God that was direct and personal, with no other intermediary necessary. Christians, and Christianity, were about to experience a completely new kind of religious freedom. The result would ultimately be a less wrathful and a more loving God.
CONSIDERATION #40: Introduction to Book II
People think of science as rolling back the mystery of God. I look at science as slowly creeping toward the mystery of God.
– Allan Hamilton
In Book One we focused on human beings’ unique ability to use their senses and reason to determine the nature of their reality though the recognition and connection of patterns; particularly patterns relating to opposites. Both Eastern and Western civilizations utilized this knowledge and understanding to build highly civilized cultures based on the principles of dualism. However, within dualism also resided the possibility of not only recognizing reality but understanding and affecting it as well.
This is where the East and the West separated into alternative realities; with the East focusing on the ability to directly experience the nature of reality, and the West focusing on the ability to rationally understand and alter reality. In Book II we will come to recognize how important this distinction was in transforming the primitive experience of our ancestors into the modern world and the age of science that we know today.
“This abstraction of three becomes a paradigm shift for both science and religion.”
The underlying foundation of this unique transformation is manifested through the recognition and understanding related to the unlimited possibilities residing in the inherent Power of Three. Unlike the natural division of duality, a trinity represents a kind of balanced completeness. This abstraction of three becomes a paradigm shift for both science and religion. In Christianity, the foundation of its spiritual metaphysics is supported by the divine revelation of the Holy Trinity consisting of metaphors incorporating the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In science the fundamental structure of the universe is generated from an Atomic Trilogy consisting of the metaphors Proton, Neutron, and Electron. Ironically, even a trilogy leads to paradox after the parts are given names. Once the parts become tangible, they generate a new paradox of their own. There is only one hope of escaping the eternal paradox: transcendence.
Here’s how it works.
(Emphasis in quotations such as bolding and italics are mine)
POSTSCRIPT
“Science and religion are not antagonists.
On the contrary, they are sisters. While science tries to learn more about the creation, religion tries to better understand the Creator. While through science man tries to harness the forces of nature around him, through religion he tries to harness the force of nature within him.”
— Wernher Von Braun
The purpose of Book II is to lay out the scientific and religious arguments for Reality and their influence on our current reality. The book is divided into two, or three, parts depending on how you count it. The first part follows the modern scientific argument from Newton to Einstein systematically from a scientific perspective. The next part dealing with religion is divided into two sections: Judaism and Christianity. It explains the Judeo-Christian religious perspective of reality, particularly Western Reality. Both the scientific and religious arguments are defined through their own unique interpretation without direct metaphysical comparisons in this book. Book Three considers the current metaphysical connections between science and religion; and Book Four completes the modern scientific perspective of reality with a consideration of String Theory.
Next week we will begin to consider the transcendence of dualism through the Power of Three by untangling the history and influence of the Mystical East on the Scientific Revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries.
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