Do We Have A Soul? May 2, 2009
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Certainly, that is an age-old question and I won’t be able to give a definitive answer here. But, I do have some thoughts.
I cannot prove the existence of the world. Its is possible that everything I witness is an illusion created in my mind. I wouldn’t say that its very possible, but I cannot completely discount it either. The fact stands, I cannot prove without doubt that you exist, that the Internet exists, that the room around me exists. I cannot even prove that my body exists. It could all be a very elaborate illusion.
But, I can prove one thing without question, if only to myself. I can prove that I think. I can’t prove it to you and you can’t prove to me that you think. But, I know, without any doubt, that I think. And, following the eloquent argument of Rene Descarte, ‘I think, therefore I am,’ I can then prove without question that I exist. Again, I can prove it to me, but not to you.
So, I know that I exist. There is something inside this body that is me. But, is that something a soul? In other words, is the something separate from the body and will it continue to exist after the body ceases to function? Is it possible that I am nothing more than animated chemicals? Again, I have to conclude that it is possible. It is possible that I exist only while this body continues to live. I don’t think it is very likely, but it is possible.
But, let’s go back to my earlier conclusion. I know that I exist. I cannot come up with any other possibility. Any form of alternative always leads back to that conclusion. You cannot take away my existence and leave my thinking in place.
So, if I exist, where did I come from? What is the ‘I’ that exists? If I loose my legs, I am still me. If I then loose my arms, I still exist. If I loose my eyes and ears and tongue, I still exist. Take away all body parts that are not necessary for the immediate demands of my living body (even if it would eventually die) and I still exist. This certainly seems to show that the body and the ‘I’ are not one and the same.
But, of course, if you take away the brain, the body can live for a long time, but the person is gone. This would seem to indicate the brain and the consciousness are linked. Is the ‘I’ in the brain? Or, is the brain merely the means for the individual to inhabit the body? Even then, not all parts of the brain are critical to this. You can loose parts of the brain and still be the person you were.
Its a conundrum and I don’t have an answer.
But, if there is an ‘I’ inside this body, it begs a couple of questions: “Where did I come from?”, and “Where am I going?”
I have no memory of any past lives. I have met people that claim they have such memories. I cannot do anything to prove or disprove those claims. And, there have been many people over the years that have made such claims. General George Patton, for instance, claimed to remember six prior lives. But, look at the list of lives he said he remembered: A prehistoric warrior who “battled for fresh mammoth” and “warred for pastures new”; a Greek hoplite who fought the Persians of King Cyrus; a soldier of Alexander the Great at the siege of Tyre; a legionnaire with Julius Caesar in northern Gaul; an English knight at the battle of Crecy during the Hundred Years’ War; and a Napoleonic marshal at a time “when one laughed at death and numbers, trusting in the emperor’s star.” All of these memories are of soldiers. Patton was a great scholar, especially of military matters. As far as I know, he never had memories of non-soldiery activities. All of these ‘memories’ could be explained as being recollections from his studies over the years. These ‘memories’ certainly don’t constitute proof.
There are many stories of people that had detailed memories of prior lives that were investigated and confirmed. There are stories of people that had some kind of knowledge, such as fluency in a foreign language, that could not be explained. The problem with all of these stories is that they are just that. None of this stuff has ever been rigorously confirmed. And, there have been frauds that have been revealed, indicating that there really are people that would fake these kinds of things. Again, there is no proof there.
The same for life after death. Lots of people claim to have near-death experiences where they claim to have seen the after-life. There have been many scientific investigations into this with some results indicating its merely brain activity in the dieing brain. But, the scientific results cannot prove it one way or another. I have never experienced it myself, so I don’t have any comments about it.
So, we can’t prove anything about where we come from or about where we’re going. But, that still takes me back to my original conclusion. I know I exist. Based on that absolute, I must have come from somewhere, and it is necessary that I will eventually go somewhere. If I exist, both of these conclusions are inescapable. I don’t know where those places are, but the fact that I came and will go indicates there is more than just a body to me, there is an ‘I’.
In other words, I believe I have a soul and that soul is separate from my body. And, just like everyone else, someday I will get a definitive answer to the question. Hopefully, not for quite some time, though.
A Time To Catch My Breath April 12, 2009
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My life has been quite full since about the beginning of December. Christmas, the start of the new semester, scientific papers, legal fight, sailing training, household projects, official duties, and more have all added up to keep me completely occupied. But, I made a couple of my famous to-do lists and just checked off things as I got them done.
Now, I’ve managed to work through all of these major items. I completed my tax returns yesterday and that was the last one. I completed my sailing training this last week and am now just waiting for my summer assignment. Most importantly, I submitted a significant scientific paper that I’ve been working on for the last two years. This was a major effort and required a huge amount of studying and researching, and restudying and re-researching. But, it is now being reviewed by peers and I am waiting for their comments. My teaching requirements are, as usual, demanding, but the semester is going amazingly smoothly. Being a single-dad with a teenager has had its expected moments this spring, but we muddle through somehow.
I tell you this because, despite all of the intense demands and heavy workload, I have had very little stress. I have been very much at ease with the demands on me and have really enjoyed myself. I have my girlfriend, Diane, to thank for much of that. Somehow, we have kept this long-distance relationship going and have just celebrated our first year together. She has been a comfort and a joy. Everyone needs someone like that in their lives. If you don’t, find someone.
I also have been involved in things I enjoy doing. Mondays are not days I dread and I do not spend my week counting the days until the weekend. I love my job and I love where I work. Teaching at the Naval Academy has been the best job I’ve ever had. I not only get to teach dedicated students, but I am in a very supportive atmosphere. They give me time to do research and freedom to teach my classes. And, the exchange between faculty is great. People routinely share papers they have submitted, give talks on their research, and invite other faculty to meet with outside guests when they are on campus. This last week I got to meet with NASA’s director of Mars exploration. This week, I will be meeting with the director of astronomy funding from the National Science Foundation. While it may not sound like much to many people, for someone like me, its better than fine chocolate. And, that’s the moral. Enjoy your work and bring in extra things to keep it interesting. Enjoying what you do does more than add five days to your week. If you have to spend all of your off-time recovering from how much you hate your job, then you really don’t have any off-time, just recovery time. As much as I love what I do, I can switch gears on weekends and holidays and do something else without a feeling of relief that I’m not at work, or dread about it ending.
Another thing that has helped is that I put fun things on my to-do list. Diane loves this. In among the chores are ‘go to the movies’ or ‘read a book’ or ‘play a video game’ or something similar. Taking a break from the work keeps me fresh and actually makes me more productive than if I had just kept working straight through.
I always take time for myself. I love to take bubble baths, especially by candlelight. Add a glass of wine and I’m in hog heaven. I eat well and I get a good night’s sleep. I exercise. I keep my house clean and neat. I spend time talking to my son (Its even better when he talks to me, too. Teenagers!). I take walks on the local nature trails. Sometimes by myself, but also when Diane is in town (about once a month). I feel I’m worth taking care of, even worth pampering, and I enjoy doing it. A little fine dining every now and then, a better bottle of wine, a little fine chocolate, a good dessert. It also makes it easy to pamper the people in my life, which makes them even more pleasant to be with.
I try to be truthful with myself. And, I always feel grateful for the things I have.
Now, I have one of those rare periods where there are no major tasks to be done. The to-do list has everything marked off. I can sit and just enjoy. Or not, if that’s what I want to do. I know a new to-do list will be coming, so I want to enjoy this interlude while I can. I’ve been sitting in my study with a good book this morning and I think I’ll do some work in the garden this afternoon. What a great pleasure both of those are.
Life is good. But, its even better when you plan it that way.
Fun with Easter Trivia April 6, 2009
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So, I get this email from my sister saying that she and her husband have
been watching the mini series North and South over the past week. I found it interesting that Jackson and Lee signed the documents ending the Civil War on Palm Sunday April 5th. Which just so happens yesterday, April 5th, was also Palm Sunday.
She called it useless trivia, but I didn’t see it quite that way.
The date for Easter every year is based on the lunar calendar and falls on the first Sunday after the the first full moon after the spring equinox. There have been 144 years since 1865. Since they both fall on the same date (1865 and 2009), there must be an integer number of cycles in that number of years. So, if we were to divide 144 by the integers we can find out how many days there are that can be Easter. The only number that gives a reasonable result is 4, which goes in 36 times. 3 goes in 48 times and that’s too many. 5 does not go in an even number of times and 6 goes in 24, which is too few. So, there must be 36 different days that can be Easter, in one year or another.
If the lunar cycle completes one cycle in 36 years, then this is the 4th April 5th Palm Sunday since Lee and Grant signed the documents. And, since this means there are 36 days that can be Easter, the date range would start with the equinox and count forward from there, which means the date range is from March 22 to April 27. Comparing this to the actual range, March 22 to April 25, we can see this is just about right on. The difference is the way the equinox is defined by the Church, as opposed to the way it is defined in astronomy.
So, you see, it wasn’t entirely useless.
Just something to do during my lunch break.
Peculiar Story On Drug Usage March 9, 2009
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I stumbled across this strange story about a possible link between drug usage and heart disease in Science News. That wasn’t what was so interesting. What caught my eye was this:
The heavy users, who were mostly in their early 20s, otherwise healthy and used no other drugs, reported smoking anywhere from 78 to a whopping 350 joints per week.
Amazing! Assuming you sleep eight hours a day, these drug users are smoking a joint, on average, between every 86 minutes and every 19 minutes! And, they are doing this every day of their lives!
They probably even think it makes their lives so much better, too.
Science Under the New Administration March 2, 2009
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There were a number of things about the Bush Administration that I was critical of. I know people that are just rabid in their hatred of Bush and everything about Bush. Their hatred has become so illogical as to be irrational. I am most certainly not in their camp, but neither am I supportive of much of his actions. I try to look at his record in a logical and factual light.
For instance, I was against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning. But, once we started it, we had to see it through and was a supporter of the Surge. Even now, I still think Bush was wrong with the invasion, but I think events have shown him to be right about the Surge.
Another area that I strongly disagreed with him was his treatment of science. I felt that science was often treated as an undesirable under the Bush administration. The religious right was so influential that anything that didn’t sit well with fundamental Christianity was delegated to a status of undesirable. Scientists working on climate change were officially silenced if their work did not support the administration’s position on climate change. Being a scientist and a professor, it stands to reason that I strongly disagreed with this philosophy.
So, it has been with a sense of relief that I see Obama elevating science back up. One notable appointment has been Steven Chu to be Secretary of Energy. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physics, Dr. Chu has been the chief of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, so he has a strong background both in science and management.
Another physicist appointment is John Holdren to be the President’s science advisor and director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. Dr. Holdren has run the science, technology, and public policy program at Harvard University since 1996. He also worked as a theoretical physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
A third science pick has been Carol Browner, former administrator of the EPA to fill the newly created position of assistant to the President for energy and climate change.
This makes me feel comfortable that science in general, and climate change in particular, will finally receive the attention it needs. There is simply no better investment that we can make than to invest in our intellectual infrastructure. This infrastructure was neglected and even damaged by the Bush administration. Hopefully, the Obama administration will fix a few things.
Is History a Fractal? February 28, 2009
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In his Foundation series of science fiction books, author and scientist Isaac Asimov postulated the idea that history could be projected forward as a mathematical set of equations. The principle was that if you have enough people, the group will behave in very predictable ways. You can’t predict the actions of a single person, but when you have, in the case of Foundation, a galaxy full of people, then you can forecast what they will do with mathematical certainty. It made for a very entertaining series of classic science fiction literature.
But, I wonder if there might be some truth to this idea. When you read history, you find that events happen over and over. Indeed, its a famous saying that history repeats itself. But, if you start looking, what you find is the same things are not only repeating themselves, but they repeat themselves at all levels. Take this comparison of 2008, for example. Things that look the same at all magnifications are called fractals.
So, is history a fractal? Can we see the same pattern repeating itself? And, can we possibly, like in Asimov’s books, mathematically predict the future, at least in a general sense? Would it be possible, if we were able to formulate history as a mathematical expression, to forecast, for instance, that there will be a major war in year 2xxx? That the course of events is already in motion and history shows these particular events will lead to some given outcome?
I think there may be some validity to this. Take the current economic problems, for instance. Once finance companies started giving out subprime mortgages to people that couldn’t afford them, it was only a matter of time before the course of events led to an economic calamity. And, the longer it took for the collapse to occur, the more people there would be getting these mortgages, and the more severe the collapse. With the given economic conditions, I have to think it would have been possible to mathematically forecast when the collapse would occur.
But, I’m not saying this is something we could do. At least, not at the present. I think the mathematics involved would be massive and the amount of data required would be massive. But, this would be a good thing to achieve.
Suppose we could forecast when and how a major conflict would occur. We could act to prevent it. Maybe we could even forecast something like a widespread flu epidemic, based on the history of flu viruses and the knowledge of how people move about. We could make adjustments to prevent the (most) recent economic situation.
These are worthwhile goals. It would certainly be interesting if it is something we could achieve. Maybe there would be a website where you could see what the latest forecasts were. The long-range forecast for civil unrest and warfare. Who know? Maybe Asimov was right.
What is Time? February 20, 2009
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This is a question that I’ve thought a lot about over the years. What is time? The truth is, there is no answer to the question, so its merely rhetorical. Something to fill my time, you might say.
I know all about the 4th dimension statements. I had relativity as both an undergraduate and a graduate under one of the world’s leaders in relativity, Dr. Wolfgang Rindler, and I did quite well in his classes. In relativity, time is a fourth dimension after length, width and height. And, let’s be clear on this, the theory of relativity has been tested rigorously and repeatedly, and passed each and every test. I am not challenging anything that relativity says about time being the fourth dimension.
But, that still doesn’t answer the question. Let me put it a different way. We can move in each of the three other dimensions, then, turn around and move back. We can even go back to our starting point. But, not with time. We move in one direction and we cannot go backwards.
But, there is a bigger issue. When I move in a straight line, it affects me and my immediate surroundings only and nothing else. The rest of the world, and certainly the rest of the universe, doesn’t know or care if I move from one side of my room to the other. If I travel from New York to Tokyo, the rest of the universe goes its merry way, neither knowing nor caring. But, if I progress into the future, so does the entire universe.
Think about that. In the time that it took you to read this posting, the rest of the ENTIRE universe was also progressing in time. Stars so distant that their light won’t reach us for billions of years are progressing forward in time, just like us. At the same time.
Now, by relativity, we may not all be progressing at the same rate. By relativity, the faster you go, the slower time goes. But, it still goes. And, if you’re going at a constant rate, the progression is proportional. In other words, if I go through twice as much time as before, so will they. It might not be the same amount of time for them as me, but it will still be twice as much time as they progressed in the first instance. The exception to this is if you are accelerating and changing your speed. This is known as changing your inertial reference frame and other things can occur, but time still moves forward even in these cases.
So, back to my question, what is this thing that causes the complete and entire universe to advance, just like us, and along with us? And, in only one direction?
Just wondering.
Darwin’s 200th February 12, 2009
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Today is Charles Darwin’s 200th birthday. Happy birthday to the man that changed an entire branch of science. Biology today is completely different due to the work of this one man. If you wish to learn more about the man and his work, check out this excellent article by Tom Sigfried at Science News, or take a look at their special package on Darwin and Evolution.
Darwin, in short, was a brilliant man, able to cross several disciplines of science and connect dots that were not apparent to most others. Much of what we understand about the world today is because of his work.
In the most fundamental level, Darwin stated that a species that has an advantage breeding is most likely to survive. This has been summed up in the phrase, ’survival of the fittest.’ The result of this is evolution, the formation of more complex life forms from less complex ones.
This theory has become much more refined since Darwin first published it in On the Origin of Species, but the basic theory is still there. And, contrary to the claims of the nay-sayers, the amount of supporting evidence is huge, simply huge. In fact, I once read that the amount of evidence supporting the theory of evolution is greater than the evidence supporting any other theory ever discovered.
Yet, for some reason, Darwin has been vilified by the religious zealots. Unfortunately, these zealots are able to convince a lot of people. A Gallup survey found only 39 percent of Americans believe in evolution. I’ve never been able to understand this. These religious zealots claim that Darwin and evolution are contrary to the Bible and undermines their religious beliefs. They point out that the Bible says the universe was created in six days, therefore there cannot be any evolution. The Bible, they say, is God’s word and must be interpreted literally.
But, these same people will work on Sundays, will lie, steal and even commit adultery without even thinking about it. Yet, all of these things are expressly forbidden by the Bible and are part of the ten commandments. Further, they will believe that the Earth orbits the Sun. But, if you are going to claim the Bible must be interpreted literally, then you must believe that the Sun orbits the Earth. The Bible is quite clear on this. These same people will even get their annual flu vaccinations. If you don’t believe in evolution, then you don’t need to get an annual vaccination. Without evolution, there would be only one flu strain and only one vaccination would ever be needed to protect you against it. And, we won’t go into how the Bible treats slavery, genocide, women’s rights, polygamy, and religious sacrifices, just to name a few topics.
This is hypocrisy of the worst sort and one of the reasons why I always think of these people as being anti-science. It is also one of the reasons why I left organized religion and am now a practicing Wiccan. Wicca, at least, has no problems with the advancement of science. If fact, it embraces it.
And science will advance. There is no ‘Mother Nature.’ The natural world is not sentient. It is what it is without us and will continue to be that way, whether we choose to understand it or not. The laws of nature will continue as they are, oblivious to the silly arguments of humans. Science is merely trying to understand what those laws of nature are. A majority of people denying evolution will not change the laws of nature. Nature marches on, with or without our consent.
Evolution is certainly one of those laws of nature. The evidence cannot be denied by anyone looking at the subject with an open mind. But, most people are not willing to do that. They have made up their minds based on things that have been told to them, almost all of which are either wrong, or distorted.
Here is a fact. Evolution is no more anti-religion than the Copernican theory that the Earth orbits the Sun. Four hundred years ago, the Catholic Church put Galileo on trial for defying orders to not teach or hold that theory. Today, most people would agree that the idea of the Earth orbiting the Sun does not threaten their religious beliefs. Four hundred years from now, people will be saying the same thing about evolution.
I hope you don’t wait that long. Accept that science and religion can co-exist.
Stimulus Bill Mathematics February 11, 2009
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I did a little math. The stimulus bill is now at $838 billion. This is about $2800 for every American alive today. The interest rate on a 30-yr treasury note is 3.47 percent. That means, if the stimulus package was to be financed entirely with treasury notes for 30 years, it would cost every American alive today about $7700 ($2.331 trillion total). Of course, some of the package (about 40%) is actually tax breaks, but since this will increase the deficit, that amount of money will still be funded with treasury notes.
Suggestion: Just give every American $2500 to spend as they see fit. This would cost $750 billion ($2.087 trillion over 30-years) and would do much more for the economy than giving it to the Friends of Congress.
2012 Fraud – More Comments January 27, 2009
Posted by physics309 in Musings, Nostradamus and 2012, Science.4 comments
I know that the year 2012 is going to be insane about this ‘end of the world’ topic, and I also know there really isn’t anyway to prevent it, but I have to try. Maybe I’ll get through to a few people that see how silly it is. The biggest problem I have is with people writing sensationalist books, trying to con people out of their hard-earned dollars.
Having said that, I would like to point out an news article I read about this topic. In particular, some very telling comments were made.
For instance, Lawrence Joseph wrote a book called “Apocalypse 2012″ and outlines “terrible possibilities.” The article says,
“But Joseph admits he doesn’t think the world is going to end. “I do, however, believe that 2012 will prove to be… a very dramatic and probably transformative year,” Joseph said. The author acknowledged he’s worried his book’s title might scare people, but said he wanted to alert the public about possible dangers ahead.”
This is all great. There are “possibilities.” Of course there are. There are terrible possibilities every day of every year. We don’t have to wait until 2012 for that to come true. Also, every year is transformative. Would anyone want to deny that 2008 was a significantly transformative year? Funny, no ancient cultures or psychics predicted that one.
Another of these people is half truthful:
Another author said the doom and gloom approach is a great misunderstanding of 2012.
“The trendy doomsday people… should be treated for what they are: under-informed opportunists and alarmists who will move onto other things in 2013,” said John Major Jenkins, whose books include “Galactic Alignment” and who describes himself as a self-taught independent Maya scholar.
Yes, the trendy doomsday people will move on to something, but so will the other trendy opportunists, such as John Major Jenkins.
Here is the basic facts. The Mayans had no idea there was any such thing as a center of the galaxy. The Mayan calendar doesn’t end in 2012, it is merely the end of a cycle. The Sun is eclipsing the center of the Milky Way every year and has been for decades.
Here are some other facts. There is a great possibility that something will happen in 2012. There is also a great possibility that something will happen in 2009, 2010, and 2011, as well as 2013, 2014 and every other year after that. Face it, something happens just about every year that we wish didn’t happen. This doesn’t have anything to do with Mayan, the center of the galaxy, or 2012. Its just life.
So, if you want to study the Mayans, learn about their rich and wonderful culture. Maybe make a trip to Belize or Guatemala and see their culture first-hand. But, for goodness sake, don’t waste your money by giving any of it to these charlatans.
