A GNOSTIC CHRISTIANITY

Transcription

1 Oct. 9, 2014; 4 pm. Seminar at the Department for the Study of Religions, University of Szeged, Petőfi Sándor avenue 30-34, Petőfi building, first floor, room II. A GNOSTIC CHRISTIANITY Some developing observations of a heretic Christian and heretic scientist Laszlo B. Kish

2 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

3 GNOSTICISM: based on Gnosis, the knowledge of transcendence arrived at by way of interior, intuitive enlightening. source: internet dictionaries AGNOSTIC: a person who holds that the existence of the ultimate cause, such as God, and the essential nature of things are unknown and unknowable; or that human knowledge is limited to experience. source: internet dictionaries DOGMATIC: a person who's knowledge is neither gnostic, nor agnostic but instead based on dogmas of an institution even against gnosis or experience. Before we proceed let us honor a few great gnostic Christians killed by dogmatists.

4 In the honor of three great Gnostic Christian martyrs: 1. Giordano Bruno, who was declared heretic because (among others) he had the gnosis that the stars are remote suns; other civilizations may live around them; and denied the Trinity. He was burned at the stake by the Church in Galileo Galilei, who was declared as heretic even by scientifically by his scientist colleagues; put on trial by the Church because he proved with measurements that the Earth revolves around the Sun. Then he was found "vehemently suspect of heresy", he was prohibited to do science (publish) anymore; was forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest, 8 years, until he died. Conclusion: While the Church should always seek the truth in a humble way, it should never seriously interfere with scientific truth and should say apology for doing these anti-christian actions in the name of the Church against these great truth-seekers.

5 3. Jesus of Nazareth, the most influential truth-seeker, who was tortured and put to death on a cross (arranged by the Church-of-that-time) because he had the gnosis of being the chosen messenger of God who delivers the good news of God's infinite love/mercy and, by that, to make people feeling free with faith in heaven, and to have real life on earth. The crimes of the Church against Bruno, Galileo and the other truth-seeker heretics were as evil and serious as those against their great forefather: Jesus.

6 Note: even a gnostic must be agnostic in some respect: It is impossible to objectively prove the existence of God while we are living in this material world. Otherwise everybody would be believer. The proofs are subjective/personal. Therefore, they may even change (evolving faith, etc.) God can be known by internal enlightening; this is the gnostic view. However, God is infinite thus, here on earth, infinitely more are unknown about God than known. Finite-size brain can carry only finite amount of information. Before we proceed, let's state that the key feature of science, logic, can be used in spiritual analysis. Note: In debates, when some Bible scholars are losing due to logical self-contradictions, as a last resort, they often claim that logic should not be used in discussions about God.

7 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

8 One of the key assumptions: Logic Logic does work and we should use it in our analysis about matters of God as: Examples: Logic is the use of valid reasoning (Wikipedia) (inductive reasoning, abductive reasoning, and deductive reasoning) - Basis: Choosing between falling to a temptation or to resist it, is a 1-bit logic decision. - If we give up logic, there is no reason to choose the right instead of the wrong, and even their own meaning, right/wrong, may not well be defined. - The word "because" is used 1147 times in the Bible (KJV) and 148 times in the Gospels. - Jesus's teachings are logical. Mt 19:21 Jesus said to him, If you want to be perfect, then sell what you own. Give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then follow me!

9 I can't resist to cite some essential teachings of Jesus full of logic protocols: Matthew 5: 44 I, however, say to you--love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you, 45 That you may become Sons of your Father who is in Heaven; for he causes his sun to rise upon bad and good alike, and sends rain upon the righteous and upon the unrighteous. 46 For, if you love only those who love you, what reward will you have? Even the tax-gatherers do this! 47 And, if you show courtesy to your brothers only, what are you doing more than others? Even the Gentiles do this! 48 You, then, must become perfect--as your heavenly Father is perfect. Matthew 6: 6 When you pray, go to your room and close the door. Pray privately to your Father who is with you. Your Father sees what you do in private. (Then) He will reward you. 32 If you love those who love you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you help those who help you, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners do that too. 34 If you lend anything to those from whom you expect to get something back, do you deserve any thanks for that? Sinners also lend to sinners to get back what they lend. 35 Rather, love your enemies, help them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then you will have a great reward. You will be the children of the Most High God. Because, he is kind to unthankful and evil people.

10 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

11 Axioms in physics. They are like dogmas in a religion except that axioms can be killed. Experimental observations Theory Axioms Synthesis and Induction (gnosis) If the Comparison shows a deviation between theoretical and experimental results then the old Axioms are killed. (provided the experiments and theory are done correctly!) Thus scientists are not like dogmatists (or they should not be like them). They listen to experiences and gnosis.

12 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

13 An incomplete system of axioms about God: 1. God is infinitely powerful, omnipotent, omniscience, etc, and He is unique with these characteristics. 2. God is perfect: never makes any error, his wishes are perfect and their realizations, too. 3. God is perfectly good (loving). 4. God created the world.

14 An incomplete system of axioms about God: 1. God is infinitely powerful, omnipotent, omniscience, etc, and He is unique with this characteristics. 2. God is perfect: never makes any error, his wishes are perfect and their realizations, too. 3. God is perfectly good (loving). 4. God created the world. Examples: From 1-3, it follows that there is no Hell; because, if there is Hell, then God is either not loving or, if he is loving, He is not omnipotent or flawless. From 1-4, it follows that every nanosecond of our life is determined at God's level, including our sins; and, at God's level, we don't have a free will. It is so because then things happen in the most idealistic way. We have seemingly free will at the human level because of our limited knowledge of the past, presence and future. Any freedom would allow errors and deviations from the perfect way.

15 An incomplete system of axioms about God: 1. God is infinitely powerful, omnipotent, omniscience, etc, and He is unique with this characteristics. 2. God is perfect: never makes any error, his wishes are perfect and their realizations, too. 3. God is perfectly good (loving). 4. God created the world. How about the Comparison of the corresponding theory and experiences: Here on earth, this comparison works only by subjectively, and via gnosis. Faith says that there will be objective experiences that will fulfill these axioms after we die.

16 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

17 Mt 24:2 Jesus said to them, You see all these buildings, don t you? I can guarantee this truth: Not one of these stones will be left on top of another. Each one will be torn down. This is true for the info storage media carrying the scriptures (and even for the information in them, too). Potential well. Energy diagram of stable systems, for example, a molecule at the surface of a solid body. It is only a question of time when the body will fully disintegrate by itself. Bounded State Bounded State at finite temperature Free State ν(e) = f c exp E kt E E E Note: the same happens even at zero temperature due to quantum tunneling but unimportant as zero temperature is impossible.

18 Second law of thermodynamics In a closed non-equilibrium system (such as the world) the entropy can only increase. From an information-theoretical point of view, this means that the amount of uncertainty is always increasing whatever we do, even when we are learning and understanding things. Luckily: this is an example where physics breaks down about spiritual matters. It does so because the information theoretical entropy has no spiritual quality measures. Thus uncertainty is for example the location and velocity of water and CO 2 molecules you exhaust while you understand an important message from God. While the information (uncertainty) contained by those molecular locations and velocities can be much more than the information we have just understood, their spiritual and humane values are negligible compared to the understanding we developed.

19 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

20 i) Physical miracles of a given time, are often everyday-events in the future. ii) Even spontaneously, many events that seems to be impossible can happen with astronomically low probabilities; see the potential-well picture. iii) Thus a religion cannot be built on physical miracles of the past, which cannot even be proven that they have ever happened. iv) What are then religion-miracles and when are they happening? They are proper coincidences which have low probability to occur. They don't violate the laws of physics but they support some religious experience through this coincidence. They have always been happening! Because they don't violate the laws of science, they can never be an objective proof of the existence of God. But they can be a confirmation of faith of a human in a subjective manner.

21 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

22 Physical informatics. How about errors in information storage media including the brain of men rewriting the scriptures and info storage media containing scriptures? Energy dissipation limits of switches, memories and binary (yes/no) control. Energy used to trigger the bit change cannot be saved. State 0 State 1 (or State 1) (or State 0) E E

23 Errors (the thermally activated ones) are threshold-crossing phenomena: State 0 (or State 1) Thermal excitation Bit error E E E Error frequency in the low-error limit: ν(e) f c exp E kt Due to smaller E, this is usually much faster process than the fundamental disintegration of materials described above but has the same nature.

24 Energy barrier of two-state switches and memories with fixed error rate. Minimum energy dissipation of a control step. Energy used to trigger the bit change cannot be saved. Zero probability of errors requires infinite energy for a single yes/no decision!!! Within the correlation time of thermal excitation: E min kt ln 1 ε kt ln 1 ε E potential barrier in switches and memories for each switch/memory operation! L.B. Kish, "Moore's Law and the Energy Requirement of Computing versus Performance", IEE Proc. - Circ. Dev. Syst. 151 (2004) In a minimal model quantum system, the same result for the classical limit: R. Alicki, "Stability versus reversibility in information processing", HoTPI 2013 E min kt ln 1 ε For longer operation times t o than the correlation time : τ (independent errors add up in small error limit) Kish LB, Granqvist C-G (2012) Electrical Maxwell Demon and Szilard Engine Utilizing Johnson Noise, Measurement, Logic and Control. PLoS ONE 7(10): e46800 L.B. Kish, C.G. Granqvist, "Energy requirement of control", EPL 98 (2012) t o τ

25 Content: 1. Gnostic or Agnostic? The relative amount of human knowledge about God. 2. Logic. If we choose fishing in muddy water instead of logic, we are lost. 3. How do axioms in physics work? Experiments => Induction (to create axioms) =>deduction (from axioms) => comparing with experiments 4. Let us try to create the axioms of God (incomplete system of axioms) and how about deductions and experiments? 5. What can we learn from a potential well? Everything disintegrates. Second law of thermodynamics: increased order creates more disorder. 6. How about miracles? Can we build a religion on physical miracles in the past? Only informatics miracles count. 7. What can we learn from a double potential well? Escape from the well: bit errors 8. Can be a holy man on earth? Is God physical or unphysical?

26 Some conclusions: 1. The perfect decision (Yes/No) to resist temptation would require infinite energy in a physical brain. 2. Because human brain is physical, it is impossible to have a perfect (holy) man on earth who does not commit errors (falls into sin) because the probability of such logical decision cannot be zero. The brain of such a hypothetical holy man would be unphysical. 3. God is perfect, which means error-free decisions, thus He and His information processing must be unphysical. 4. Physical miracles are allowed by physics (with low probability) thus they can never be an objective evidence for the existence of God. Evidence about God is always subjective and the matter of faith. 5. Humans don't have free will at God's level (because God is omnipotent and perfect). Humans have seemingly free will at their own levels due to their limited knowledge and understanding of facts. 6. Using logic, whenever it is possible, is essential in spiritual matters, too. Otherwise even the good and evil and the related actions are not defined. 7. If God exists then there is no Hell or it is empty. 8. A God-seeker must be gnostic and agnostic, too. Pure dogmatists can't see the truth. //. END of talk