Was the universe created by God?

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Science and Philosophy

 

Scientists use mathematical models to describe something, specifically those models can be used to make predictions and can be tested by experiments or observations.

 

Scientists never claim absolute knowledge. Unlike a mathematical proof, a proven scientific theory is always open to falsification, if new evidence is presented. Even the most basic and fundamental theories may turn out to be imperfect if new observations are inconsistent with them. Critical to this process is making every relevant aspect of research publicly available, which permits peer review of published results, and also allows ongoing review and repeating of experiments and observations by multiple researchers operating independently of one another. Only by fulfilling these expectations can it be determined how reliable the experimental results are for potential use by others.

 

Isaac Newton's Newtonian law of gravitation is a famous example of an established law that was later found not to be universal - it does not hold in experiments involving motion at speeds close to the speed of light or in close proximity of strong gravitational fields. Outside these conditions, Newton's Laws remain an excellent model of motion and gravity. Since general relativity accounts for all the same phenomena that Newton's Laws do and more, general relativity is now regarded as a better theory.

 

For Hegel there are no independent truths and nothing is true by itself, alone. Every truth is sustained by and based on other truths. His method looking for truth is known as “Dialectic”.

 

I understand that my knowledge and capability of thinking will not allow me to seek “The Absolute Truth”. However, I am still trying to draw a picture as if the universe was not created by God. If I accept that the universe was created by God, then I do not need to think hard for I have got all the solutions for every questions. Descartes declared” I think therefore I am”. I think so I feel my own existence. I also feel I am not free at all as I have been always under the control of my own desires, fear, anxiety, social norms, etc. but I have entirely the freedom to think. This freedom is a real one for no one can stop me to think.

 

God or Creator

 

Einstein believed in God. He called his god is a Cosmological God who once created the universe, does not intervene with His creation again. So I think his god does not interfere with our human world in any activities. He believed that there was a beginning and an ending of the universe. His god is more a creator rather than a god.

 

For Spinoza, God is equated with substance that is Nature. On the other hand, God does not create anything that is different from Him, so He is Nature himself in another sense. Being does not mean being that is created by god, but simply God’s being. Man is not free and the world does not have a teleological end; everything is necessary and causally determined. Man is a slave because he believes he is free while being drawn along by necessity. Only one type of freedom remains open: knowledge. So the terms God, substance, Nature and Being describe the same thing.

 

For Hegel, being, through its internal movement, has hurled us into nothingness, and nothingness into being, and we cannot remain stationary in either of the two. Being has passed into nothingness and nothingness has passed into being. This is becoming. Hegel’s God, the absolute, exists only in a state of becoming. Hegel concludes, it can be said that the content of the Logic (pure reason) is the exposition of God as He is in His eternal essence, before the Creation of nature. This implies that God could be an entity as an “Absolute Law” before the creation of the universe. God does not interfere with the world. God is only a Creator.

 

God is the supreme being, creator and the ruler of the universe. The creator is an entity or being to cause something to exist. God, as the ruler of the universe, He will intervene with our human world. He will judge our thought and behavior whether we are good enough to enjoy the eternity. However, Einstein’s Cosmological God is only a creator and once the universe was created, he will leave His creation alone. The universe is self-sufficient and is capable to continue to exist. The creator would not interfere with our human affairs.

 

Every thing, says Spinoza, in so far as it exists in itself, tends to persevere in its being. The desire or longing to continue to exist forever is the actual essence of the thing. Thus, to be means to want to be forever, to have a longing for eternity. For Schopenhauer, every object in the world manifests itself as a longing or will to be. In other words, man is entirely controlled by the will to live. The ego can be perceived as a body but also as will. Thus, reality is will.

 

The will to exist is the essence of the universe. Every living and non-living things have struggled to exist by all means and they long for eternal existence. Thus the will to exist could be the First Cause for the existence of the universe. Again the will is just another name of God or Creator. The singularity starts the Big Bang. Before singularity would the “Will” be the First Cause or Prime Mover as suggested by Aristotole? It is known that at singularity all the laws of science will break down if General Relativity is correct. Therefore I would tend to think that before singularity spacetime could not exist. Perhaps there is only nothingness. What is nothingness? Is the will to exist is a nothingness? According to the Book of Genesis written by Moses, God created the universe by his word. Is that the “word” and the “will” means the same thing?

 

Scientists have proved that the universe is expanding from the “Red Shift” phenomenon. If the total amount of spacetime is included in the universe, then what is the substance beyond the universe? When the universe is expanding, the stars are moving away from the center of the universe. If the space is finite then the expansion of the universe has a limit. Einstein has introduced a Cosmological Constant in his General Relativity so that the model of the universe is a static one. If the space is infinite, then the universe could be expanding forever if it is necessary. However, according to the general theory of relativity there must have been a state of infinite density in the past, the big bang, which would have been a beginning of time. Similarly, if the whole universe re-collapsed, there must be another state of infinite density in the future, the big crunch, which would be an end of time. If Einstein is right, there must be a God or Creator who has created the universe.

 

Aquinas follows Aristotle in claiming that there must be something which explains why the universe exists. Since the universe could, under different circumstances, conceivably not exist, its existence must have a cause. It must be something that exists by necessity. If the universe has always existed, it still owes that existence to Aristotle’s Uncaused Cause. In other words, the existence of the universe requires an explanation, and an active creation of the universe by a being outside of the universe—generally assumed to be God—is that explanation. Bertrand Russell had once said “ I cannot prove that there is not a God, I ought to add equally that I cannot prove that there are not the Homeric gods. ”For most of his adult life, Russell thought it was very unlikely that there was a god.

 

Kierkeggaard wrote: How did I get into the world? Why was I not asked about it, why was I not informed of the rules and regulations but just thrust into this world? How did I get involved in this big enterprise called actuality? Why should I be involved? Isn’t it a matter of choice? And if I am compelled to be involved, where is the manager—I have something to say about this. Is there no manager? To whom I make my complaint? Based on this, Heidgger, and later Sartre, dubbed the term “throwness” to describe this idea that human beings are exposed to or “thrown” into existence – in that we have no choice to come into existence. Sartrean existentialism argues man exists without purpose, finds himself in the world and defines the meaning of his existence. Identities are constructed by the individual consciousness only. An “identity” can include beliefs, projects, and various other things of value. Satre argues that no one else, including God if He existed, can choose your “identity” for you. So Sartre and some other existentialism believers deny the existence of God.

 

In the meantime, let us not to argue whether God does exist or not. Different philosophers have different concepts about God. Let me make a bold assumption that the concept of God is different from that of Creator. The Creator once created the universe He has left His Creation alone for the Creation is self-sufficient. However, God would watch and care our human world and He will make judgements whether our thought and behavior will satisfy Him. He is the only being who will decide every human being’s destiny—whether one can enjoy eternal life or throw him into the hell after death.

 

Formation of the universe

 

The age of the universe from the time of Big Bang is estimated to be about 13.7 billion years and most of the estimates are in the range of 13 – 15 billion years. The Big Bang started as a singularity where the universe was a single point. Singularity is a point in spacetime in which gravitational forces cause matter to have an infinite density and zero volume. Spacetime is a model that combines three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time into a single construct called the space-time continuum, in which time plays the role of the 4th dimension.

 

During the earliest era of the big bang, the universe is believed to have formed a hot dense plasma. As expansion proceeded, the temperature steadily dropped until a point was reached when atoms could form. During the first hundredth of a second, the quarks that comprise protons and neutrons were not yet joined together, and a dense, superheat mix of quarks and gluons, with some electrons thrown in was all that could exist. During the early phases of the big bang, equal amount of matter and anti-matter were formed. However, through a CP-violation, physical processes resulted in an asymmetry in the amount of matter as compared to anti-matter. This asymmetry explains the amount of residual mater found in the universe today, as nearly all the matter and anti-matter would otherwise have annihilated each other when they come into contact. In Quantum theory, particles can be created out of energy in the form of particles/antiparticle pairs. The total energy of the universe is exactly zero. At present the universe contains about 74% dark energy, 22% dark matter and only 4% matter.

 

Prior to the formation of the first stars, the chemical composition of the universe consisted primarily of Hydrogen (75% of total mass) with a lesser amount of Helium(24% of total mass). The big bang left behind a background flux of photons and neutrinos. The temperature of the background radiation has steadily decreased as the universe expands. Our sun burns hydrogen into helium radiating energy as heat and light. The protons and neutrons would have been converted into helium nuclei and started combining atoms to form atoms of many other elements.

 

It was thought that the nucleus of the atom was made up of electrons and positively charged particle called the proton.. In 1932 Chadwick discovered that the nucleus contained another particle, called the neutron, which had almost the same mass as a proton but no electrical charge. However, about 20 years ago, a particle called quark was discovered. A proton or neutron is made up of three quarks. Everything in the universe can be described in terms of particles. These particles have property called spin. All known particles in the universe can be divided into two groups: particles of spin 1/2, which make up the matter in the universe and particles of spin 0, 1, and 2, which, give rise to forces between the matter particles. Are these particles the ultimate building blocks of the universe? According to String Theory or M-theory, the super-string could be the elementary particle. It took more than 10 billion years before the stars and planets had formed. The earth was initially very hot and without an atmosphere. In the course of time it cooled and acquired an atmosphere from the emission of gases from the rocks. This early atmosphere was not one in which we could have survived. It contained no oxygen, but a lot of other gases that are poisonous to us such as hydrogen sulfide. There are, however, other primitive forms of life that can flourish under such conditions. It is thought that they developed in the oceans, possibly as a result of chance combinations of atoms into large structures, called macromolecules. In this way a process of evolution was started that led to the development of more and more complicated, self-reproducing organisms. The first primitive forms of life consumed various materials, including hydrogen sulfide, and released oxygen. This gradually changed the atmosphere to the composition that it has today and allowed the development of higher forms of life such as fish, reptiles, mammals and ultimately the human race.

 

Theories of Relativity.

Galileo's Theory of Relativity

 

Galileo formulated his principles of relativity, which state:

1 - the laws of physics can be applied to the measurements made relative to any inertial frame, and they will produce correct results, and

2 - the correspondence between the coordinates in one inertial frame and the coordinates in another inertial frame is given by the Galilean coordinate transformation

 

Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity

 

The theory of special relativity proposed by Einstein states:

1 - same as 1 in Galileo's theory

2 - the speed of light is the same in all inertial frames,

3 - the correspondence between the coordinates in one inertial frame and the coordinates in another inertial frame is given by the Lorentz coordinate transformation

 

Special Relativity and General Relativity

 

Albert Einstein introduced the Special theory of relativity in 1905 and General Relativity was developed in the years 1905-1915. The concept of motion is relative. We can speak the motion of an object, but only relative to or by comparison with another. There is no “absolute” notion of motion. Motion is relative. The laws of science are the same for all freely moving observers, no matter what their speed. The speed of light in a vacuum is the same for all observers, regardless of their motion or the motion of the source of light. Nothing may travel faster than the speed of light.(The speed of light is 670 million miles per hour)

 

There are no absolute space and time. The three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time into a single construct called the space-time continuum, in which time plays the role of the 4th dimension. Space-time is curved. The presence of matter “curves” spacetime, and the curvature affects the path of free particles and even the path of light. Bodies like the earth are not made to move on curved orbits by a force called gravity. Instead they follow the nearest thing to a straight path in curved space, which is called geodesic. The geodesic is the shortest path between two nearby points. The light no longer travels in straight lines in space. General relativity predicts that light should be bent by gravitational fields.

 

Gravity, according to Einstein, is the warping of space and time. In the absence of any matter or energy, Einstein envisioned that space would be flat. The sun, like the bowling ball, warps the fabric of space surrounding it, and the earth’s motion, like that of the ball bearing, is determined by the shape of the warp. The earth is kept in orbit not because it is due to the action of force from the sun; rather it is the warping of the spacial fabric caused by the sun’s presence. The earth rolls along a valley in the warped spatial fabric. It follows a path of least resistance in the distorted region around the sun. The more massive an object is, the greater the distortion it causes in the surrounding space. This implies that the more massive an object, the greater the gravitational influence it can exert on other bodies. However, influence becomes weaker as the distance between objects becomes larger. Similarly, the earth, being a massive body in its own right, also warps the fabric of space and thus the earth in the same way keeps the moon in orbit, and it is also how the earth keeps each of us bound to its surface. Newton had stated that gravity must be caused by an agent. The agent of gravity, according to Einstein is the fabric of the cosmos. Einstein showed that objects move through space (spacetime, more precisely) along the shortest possible paths or the paths of least resistance. If the space is warped, such paths will be curved. “Mass grips space by telling it how to curve, space grips mass by telling it how to move” said by the famous physicist John Wheeler.

 

Gravity distorts time as well as space. Strong gravitational fields, such as those just outside a black hole cause the flow of time to slow enormously. To someone high up, it would appear that everything down below was taking longer to happen. Twins paradox: If one of the twins went for a long trip in a spaceship at nearly the speed of light when he returned he would be much younger than the one who stayed on earth. The length of a ruler made to move in space at a speed of 90% of light will be much shorter to the observer who stays on earth.

E = MC2

 

Before Einstein the concept of space and time are separate and absolute. Einstein’s work showed they are actually interwoven and relative. In the same way Einstein asserted that the energy (E) of an abject and its mass (m) are not independent concepts. We can determine the energy from the knowledge of the mass by multiplying the mass twice by the speed of light. The faster something moves the more energy it has.

 

Entropy

 

According to the Second law of thermodynamics, the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value. A finite universe may be considered an isolated system so its total entropy is constantly increasing. It has been speculated that the universe is fated to a heat death in which all the energy ends up as a homogeneous distribution of thermal energy, so that no more work can be extracted from any source. Entropy is a measure of the disorder of a thermodynamic system. For example, the combined entropy of a cup of hot water in a cool room is less than the entropy of the room and the water after it has cooled, because the heat from the hot water is more evenly distributed. A system that is more “disorder” is equivalently also a system with lower amount of energy available to do work.

 

Black holes

 

A star that was sufficiently massive and compact would have such a strong gravitational field that light could not escape as any light emitted from the surface of the star would be dragged back by the star’s gravitational attraction before it could get very far. Such objects are what we now called black holes because it turns to be black voids in space. A cold star of more than about one and a half times the mass of the sun would not be able to support itself against its own gravity. Eventually, when the star has shrunk to a certain critical radius, the gravitational field at the surface becomes so strong that the light cones are bent inward so much that light can no longer escape. Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking showed that according to general relativity, there must be a singularity of infinite density and space-time curvature within a black hole. At this singularity the laws of science and our ability to predict the future would break down. In 1971 Stephen Hawking proved that any stationary rotating black hole would indeed have such an axis of symmetry. So after gravitational collapse a black hole must settle down into a state in which it could be rotating.

 

Quantum Mechanics

 

When Heisenberg discovered the uncertainty principle, physics turned a sharp corner, never to retrace its steps. Probabilities, wave functions, interference, and quanta all involve radically new ways of seeing reality. In classical physics, it was believed that if one knew the initial state of a system with infinite precision, one could predict the behavior of the system infinitely far into the future. According to quantum mechanics, however, there is a fundamental limit on the ability to make such predictions, because the inability to collect the initial data with unlimited precision. The uncertainty principle is taken to mean that the physical universe does not exist in a deterministic form—but rather as a collections of probabilities. Up to date it seems Heisenberg’s view has been the better at explaining physical subatomic phenomena. The uncertainty principle asserts that a similar frantic shifting back and forth of energy and momentum is occurring perpetually in the universe on microscopic distance and time intervals. Even in an empty region of space the energy and momentum are uncertain. They fluctuate between extremes. This inability to know both the positions and velocities of elementary particles implies that microscopic realm is intrinsically turbulent.

 

Although light is made up of waves, Planck’s quantum hypothesis tells us that in some ways it behaves as if it were composed of particles: it can be emitted or absorbed only in packets, or quanta. Quantum mechanics is based on the uncertainty principle. In this theory particles no longer had separate, well-defined positions and velocities that could not be observed. The uncertainty principle implies that particles behave in some respects like waves: they do not have a definite position but are “smeared out” with certain probability distribution. A photon processes a duality between waves and particles in quantum mechanics. Planck’s constant (denoted h) is a physical constant that is used to describe the sizes of a quanta. It plays a central role in the theory of quantum mechanics and is named after Max Planck. It is used in measuring energy emitted by a light photon such as in the equation E = hv, where E is energy, h is Planck’s constant and v is frequency.

 

The electromagnetic force is the force that the electromagnetic field exerts on electrically charged particle. It is the electromagnetic force that holds electrons and nuclei together in atoms and which hold atoms together to make molecules. The electromagnetic force operate via the exchange of messenger particles called photons.

 

There are four forces of nature, namely gravity, the force particle of which is graviton, electromagnetic, the force particle of which is photon, strong force, the force particle of which is gluon and the weak force, the force particle of which is bosons. Only the weak gauge bosons have mass but the other three forces do not have mass. Gravity is responsible for keeping the earth in orbit around the sun. The electromagnetic force is the force driving all of the conveniences of modern life—lights, computers, TV, telephones etc. The strong force is responsible for keeping quarks “glued” together inside of protons and neutrons and keeping protons and neutrons tightly crammed together inside atomic nuclei. The weak force is responsible for the radioactive decay of substances such as uranium. All four forces are directly associated with principles of symmetry.

 

As gravitational fields are reflected by curvature, these quantum fluctuations manifest themselves as increasingly violent distortions of the surrounding space. The random quantum mechanical undulations in the gravitational field correspond to such severe wrappings of space that it no longer resembles a gently curving geometrical object such as the rubber-membrane. John Wheeler coined the term quantum foam to describe the frenzy revealed by such an ultramicroscopic examination of space (and time)—it describes an unfamiliar arena of the universe in which the conventional notions of left and right, back and forth, up and down (and even of before and after) lose their meaning. It is on such short distance scales that we encounter the fundamental incompatibility between general relativity and quantum mechanics. The notion of smooth spatial geometry, the central principle of general relativity, is destroyed by the violent fluctuations of the quantum world on short distance scales. Calculations that merge the equations of general relativity and those of quantum mechanics typically yield one and the same ridiculous answer, infinity.

 

Einstein never think that the universe was governed by chance. His famous statement is “God does not play dice” Einstein was wrong. Electrons—and everything else for that matter—cannot be described as simultaneously being at such –and-such location and having such-and-such speed. The probability that the electron arrives at any chosen point on the screen is built up from the combined effect of every possible way of getting there. This is known as Feyman’s “sum-over-paths” approach to quantum mechanics. Quantum-mechanical uncertainty tells us the universe is a teeming, chaotic, frenzied arena on microscopic scales.

 

General Relativity vs. Quantum Mechanics

 

General theory of relativity describes the force of gravity and the large-scale structure of the universe. (1 with 24 zeros miles). Quantum mechanics deals phenomena on extremely small scales, such as millionth of a millionth of an inch. These two theories are known to be inconsistent with each other.

 

General relativity describes force that of large, astronomical distance scales and implies that the absence of mass means that space is flat. But if we examine the microscopic properties of space, say distances small than Planck length (1 x 10-33 cm), the quantum mechanics do not support this concept radically. Everything is subject to the quantum fluctuations inherent in the uncertainty principle. The random quantum mechanical undulations in the gravitational field correspond to such severe wrappings of space that it no longer resembles a gently curving geometrical object such as the rubber-membrane analogy. The notion of a smooth spatial geometry, the central principle of general relativity, is destroyed by the violent fluctuations of the quantum world on short distance scales. Calculations that merge the equations of general relativity and those of quantum mechanics yield a ridiculous answer – infinity.

 

String Theory

 

Although the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics are not consistent with each other, they have been proved to be true and sound. The great and fast advancements of our new technologies and inventions have been indebted to these theories. We are indebted to them for an entirely new view of the universe and the world we are living in. Brian Greene has said “We are all, each in our own way seekers of the truth and we each long for an answer to why we are here.” He has a great vision that the String Theory will be a Unified Theory of Everything.

 

Matter is composed of atoms, which in turn are made from quarks and electrons. According to string theory, all such particles are actually tiny loops of vibrating string. Just as the strings on a violin, each of the preferred patterns of vibration of a string in string theory appears as a particle whose mass and force charges are determined by the string’s oscillatory pattern. The electron is a string vibrating one way, the up-quark is a string vibrating another way, and so on.

 

The theory will describe a universe that evolves to a form in which a background of coherent string vibrations emerges, yielding the conventional notions of space and time. Such a framework, if realized, would show that space , time and dimension are not essential defining elements of the universe. Through studies in M-theory, we have seen glimpses of a strange new domain of the universe lurking beneath the Planck length, possibly one in which there is no notion of time or space. At the opposite extreme, we have also seen that our universe may merely be one of the innumerable frothing bubbles on the surface of a vast and turbulent cosmic ocean called the multiverse.

 

String theorists are attempting to adjust the Standard Model by removing the assumption in quantum mechanics that particles are point-like. By removing this assumption and replacing the point-like particles with strings, it is hoped that string theory will develop into a sensible quantum theory of gravity. Moreover, string theory appears to be able to "unify" the known natural forces (gravitational, electromagnetic, weak nuclear and strong nuclear) by describing them with the same set of equations.

 

Could the initial configuration of the universe just happens by chance?

One possible answer is to say that God chose the initial configuration of the universe for reason that we cannot hope to understand. This would certainly have been within the power of an omnipotent being but if he had started it off in such an incomprehensible way, why did He choose to let it evolve according to laws that we could understand? The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order. The probability of finding it in any other configuration: the initial state of the universe is chosen purely randomly. If the universe is indeed spatially infinite or if there are infinitely many universes, there would probably be some large regions somewhere that started out in a smooth uniform manner. Could it be that we are living in region that just happens by chance to be smooth and uniform?

 

There are two versions of the anthropic principle, the weak and the strong. The weak anthropic principle states that in a universe that is large or infinite in space and time, the conditions necessary for the development of intelligent life will be met only in certain regions that are limited in space and time. One example of the use of the weak anthropic principal is to explain why the big bang occurred about ten thousand million years ago—it takes about that long for intelligent beings to evolve.

 

A strong version of the principle: According to this theory, there are either many different universes or many different regions of a single universe, each with its own initial configuration and perhaps, with its own set of laws of science. In most of these universes the conditions would not be right for the development of complicated organisms.. “Why is the universe the way we see it?” The answer is then simple: If it had been different, we would not be here.

 

The Origin of Life

 

Life on Earth might have evolved from non-life sometime between 3.9 and 4.1 billion years ago. Origins of life, thought to have possibly occurred over the last 13.7 billion years in the evolution of the known universe since the big bang. Charles Darwin made the suggestion that the original spark of life may have begun in a "warm little pond, with all sorts of ammonia and phosphoric salts, lights, heat, electricity, etc. present, that a protein compound was chemically formed ready to undergo still more complex changes". He went on to explain that "at the present day such matter would be instantly devoured or absorbed, which would not have been the case before living creatures were formed." In other words, the presence of life itself prevents the spontaneous generation of simple organic compounds from occurring on Earth today – a circumstance which makes the search for the origin of life dependent on the sterile conditions of the laboratory.

 

The basic chemicals from which life was thought to have formed are methane (CH4), ammonia (NH3), water (H2O), hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbon dioxide (CO2) or carbon monoxide (CO), and phosphate (PO43-). Molecular oxygen (O2 ) and ozone (O3) were either rare or absent. The biologist John Desmond Bernal, pointed out. The basic chemicals from which life was thought to have formed are methane and suggested that there were a number of clearly defined "stages" that could be recognized in explaining the origin of life.

 

Stage 1: The origin of biological monomers

Stage 2: The origin of biological polymers

Stage 3: The evolution from molecules to cell

 

A monomer is a small molecule that may become chemically bonded to other monomers to form a polymer. A polymer is a substance composed of molecules with large molecular mass consisting of repeating structural units, or monomers, connected by covalent chemical bonds.

 

The “Miller-Urey experiment” used a highly reduced mixture of gases - methane, ammonia and hydrogen, under the influence of energy such as ultraviolet light – to form basic organic monomers, such as amino acids – the building blocks of proteins.

 

Evolution by Natural Selection

 

Charles Darwin presented the first hypothesis, explaining the observations of evolution, which have stood up to extensive and repeated testing. Darwin’s theory is therefore properly termed a Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. Evolution as explained by Natural Selection is the theory, not evolution itself. Darwin’s theory of evolution is based on five key observations and inferences drawn from them, as summarized by the biologist Ernst Mayr:

 

1) Species have great fertility. They make more offspring than can grow to adulthood.

2) Populations remain roughly the same size, with modest fluctuations.

3) Food resources are limited, but are relatively constant most of the time. From these three observations it may be inferred that in such an environment there will be a struggle for survival among individuals.

4) In sexually reproducing species, generally no two individuals are identical. Variation is rampant.

5) Much of this variation is heritable.

 

From this Darwin infers: In a world of stable populations where each individual must struggle to survive, those with the “best” characteristics will be more likely to survive, and those desirable traits will be passed to their offspring; and that these advantageous characteristics are inherited by following generations, becoming dominant among the population through time. They were more adapted to their surroundings. This is natural selection. Darwin further infers that natural selection, if carried far enough, makes changes in a population, eventually leading to new species. He puts forward myriad observations as demonstrations of this, and also claims that the fossil record can be interpreted as supporting these observations. Darwin imagined it might be possible that all life is descended from an original species from ancient times. Modern DNA evidence is consistent with this idea.

 

Further evidents to prove the Theory: Evolution occurs whenever a new species of bacterium evolves a resistance to an antibiotic which previously was lethal to that bacterium. Evolution is the observation that biological organisms evolve. In other words, descendants are seen to have gone through a type of genetic modification process when compared to their ancestors. The modification is most often the result of natural genetic synthesis, and the differential traits manifested may be translated into changes in the genetic composition of the population. As the populations of organisms change over time, the organisms are often observed to be well suited to their environments, and many different species of organisms resembling each other closely, are indicative of evolution

 

Charles Darwin ‘s theory of evolution by natural selection is satisfying because it shows us a way in which simplicity could change into complexity, how unordered atoms could group themselves into ever more complex patterns until they ended up manufacturing people. Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” is really a special case of a more general law of survival of the stable. The universe is populated by stable things. A stable thing is a collection of atoms that is permanent enough or common enough to deserve a name. Salt crystals tend to be cubes because this is a stable way of packing sodium and chloride ions together. In the sun the simplest atoms of all, hydrogen atoms, are fusing to form helium atoms, because in the conditions that prevail there the helium configuration is more stable. A crystal such as a diamond can be regarded as a single molecule since its internal atomic structure endless repeated.

 

Before the coming of life on earth, some evolution of molecules could have occurred by ordinary processes of physics and chemistry. There is no need to think of design or purpose or directness. If a group of atoms in the presence of energy falls into a stable pattern it will tend to stay that way. The earliest form of natural selection was simply a selection of stable forms and rejection of unstable ones.

 

Replicator

 

At some point a particularly remarkable molecule was formed by accident. We call it the Replicator. It had the extraordinary property of being able to create copies of itself. The small building blocks were abundantly available in the soup surrounding the replicator. Now suppose that each building block has an affinity for its own kind. Then whenever a building block from out in the soup lands up next to a part of the replicator for which it has an affinity, it will tend to stick there. They will join up to form a stable chain just as in the formation of the original replicator. This process could continue as a progressive stacking up, layer upon layer. This is how crystals are formed. The replicator would act as a template but during copying process, they occasionally make mistakes, and it is ultimately these mistakes that make evolution possible. Evolution is something that happens, in spite of all the efforts of the replicators to prevent it happening.

 

When the replicators became numerous, building blocks must have been used up at such a rate that they became a scarce and precious resource. There was a struggle for existence among replicator varieties. Ways of increasing stability and of decreasing rivals’ stability became more elaborate and more efficient. Some of them break up molecules of rival varieties chemically and use the building blocks to make their own copies. Other replicators protected themselves, either chemically or by building a physical wall of protein around themselves. This may have been how the first living cells appeared. Replicators began to construct for themselves containers, vehicles for their continued existence. The replicators that survived were the ones that built survival machines for themselves to live in. Evolution has been taken place for four thousand million years and the ancient replicators have had built their most suitable and safe survival machines for them to live in. They are in you and in me; they created us, body and mind; and their preservation is the ultimate rationale for our existence. They survive by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines. The survival machines embraces all animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.

 

The Primeval Soup

 

Chemists have tried to imitate the chemical conditions of the young earth. They have put the substances such as water, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia in a flask and supplied a source of energy like ultraviolet light or electrical sparks. After a few weeks of this, a weak brown soup containing a large number of molecules more complex than the ones originally put in., amino acids have been found-the building blocks of proteins. About four thousand million years ago, the organic substances became concentrated, perhaps in drying scum round the shores. Under the influence of energy such as ultraviolet light from the sun, they combined into larger molecules. They are building blocks of the genetic molecule, the DNA.

Nucleotide

 

 

A nucleotide is a chemical compound that consists of 3 portions: a heterocyclic base, a sugar, and one or more phosphate groups. In the most common nucleotides the base is a derivative of purine or pyrimidine, and the sugar is the pentose (five-carbon sugar) deoxyribose or ribose. Nucleotides are the monomers of nucleic acids, with three or more bonding together in order to form a nucleic acid.

 

Genome

 

In biology the genome of an organism is its whole hereditary information. More precisely, the genome of an organism is a complete DNA sequence of one set of chromosomes

 

DNA

 

The general structure of a section of DNA, Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid. A DNA molecule is a long chain of building blocks which are small molecules called nucleotides. It consists of a pair of nucleotide chains twisted together in an elegant spiral- a “double helix” The nucleotide building blocks come up only four different kinds, whose names are shortened to (A) Adenine, (T) Thymine, © cytosine, and (G.) guanine These are the same in all animals and plants. What differs is the order in which they are strung together. A “G” nucleotide from a man is identical in every particular to a “G” nucleotide from a snail. DNA contains the genetic information that is inherited by the offspring of an organism; this information is determined by the sequence of base pairs along its length .Between the two strands, each base can only “pair up” with one single predetermined other base: A+T, T+A, C+G and G+C are the only possible combinations; that is, an “A” on one strand of double-stranded DNA will “mate” properly only with a “T”. DNA is not a single molecule, but rather a pair of molecules joined by hydrogen bonds. Each strand of DNA is a chain of chemical “building blocks”, called nucleotides. A strand of DNA contains genes, and areas that regulate genes. Genes can be viewed as the organism’s “blueprint”. Our DNA is distributed among the cells in every parts of our bodies. There are about a thousand million millions cells making up an average human body. Every one of those cells contains a complete copy of the body’s DNA. This DNA can be regarded as a set of instructions for how to make a body. A chromosome is a very long, continuous piece of DNA which contains many genes, regulatory elements and other intervening nucleotide sequences. Each cell in human being contains 46 chromosomes. They are visible under a microscope as long threads, and the genes are strung out along them in order.

 

DNA molecules do two important things. Firstly, they replicate ; they make copies of themselves. This has gone on non-stop ever since the beginning of life. When you were first conceived you were just a single cell which contains one master copy of the DNA. These cell divided into two containing the identical DNA. Successive divisions took the number of cells up to billions. At every division the DNA codes were faithfully copied, with scarcely any mistakes. The DNA indirectly supervises the manufacture of a different kind of molecule- protein. Genes indirectly control the manufacture of bodies. A body is the genes’ way of preserving the genes unaltered. A given part of the body will be influenced by many genes, and the effect of any one gene depends on interaction with many others. A gene may be defined as any portion of chromosome that potentially lasts for enough generations to serve as a unit of natural selection. Some genes act as master genes controlling the operation of a cluster of other genes. Sexual reproduction has the effect of mixing and shuffling genes The 46 chromosomes consist of 23 pairs of chromosomes. We receive each chromosome intact from one of our two parents, in whose testis or ovary it was assembled. The sex cells in the sperms or eggs are unique among our other cells in that, instead of containing 46 chromosomes, they contain only 23.Every sperm cell or egg cell made by an individual is unique. During the intercourse between man and woman, several million sperms sailed into the mother but only one is successful to reach the mother’s egg. Then a baby, boy or girl will be conceived.

 

Mutations are the results of the cells’ attempts to repair chemical imperfections in this process, where a base is accidentally skipped, inserted, or incorrectly copied, or the chain is trimmed, or added to.

 

The segment of DNA(a helix chain of 6 ft.containing 3.2 billion codes; it takes 11 months to read all the codes) is called a gene

 

Every person's DNA, their genome, is inherited from both parents. The mother's mitochondrial DNA together with twenty-three chromosomes from each parent combine to form the genome of a zygote, the fertilized egg. As a result, with certain exceptions such as red blood cells, most human cells contain 23 pairs of chromosomes, together with mitochondrial DNA inherited from the mother.

 

DNA contains suger, nitrogen and phosphate. It gives instructions to the cells to produce proteins. Among human beings 99.90% of DNA is the same. The 0.1% of DNA equals to 3 billio pairs of bases. The twins have 100% same DNA. Parents/child is 99.95% (1,500,000 base pairs)

Rat 90% Pig 98%

 

Protein

 

A protein is a complex, high-molecular-mass, organic compound that consists of amino acids joined by peptide bonds. Proteins are essential to the structure and function of all living cells and viruses. Proteins are essentially polymers made up of a specific sequence of amino acids. The details of this sequence are stored in the code of a gene. Through the processes of transcription and translation, a cell reads the genetic information and uses it to construct the protein. In nutrition, proteins are broken down through digestion back into free amino acids for the organism.

 

RNA

 

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is a nucleic acid polymer consisting of nucleotide monomers, that acts as a messenger between DNA and ribosome, and that is also responsible for making proteins out of amino acids. RNA polynucleotides contain ribose sugars and predominantly uracil unlike deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA), which contains deoxyribose and predominantly thymine. It is transcribed (synthesized) from DNA by enzymes called RNA polymerases and further processed by other enzymes. RNA serves as the template for translation of genes into proteins, transferring amino acids to the ribosome to form proteins, and also translating the transcript into proteins.

 

Unlike DNA, RNA is almost always a single-stranded molecule and has a much shorter chain of nucleotides. RNA contains ribose, rather than the deoxyribose found in DNA (there is no hydroxyl group attached to the pentose ring in the 2' position whereas RNA has two hydroxyl groups). These hydroxyl groups make RNA less stable than DNA because it is more prone to hydrolysis. Several types of RNA (tRNA, rRNA, mRNA) contain a great deal of secondary structure, which help promote stability.

 

Messenger RNA is RNA that carries information from DNA to the ribosome sites of protein synthesis in the cell. Once mRNA has been transcribed from DNA, it is exported from the nucleus into the cytoplasm (in eukaryotes mRNA is "processed" before being exported), where it is bound to ribosomes and translated into its corresponding protein form with the help of tRNA. After a certain amount of time the message degrades into its component nucleotides, usually with the assistance of RNA polymerases.

 

CELL

 

Our bodies are made up of trillions of cells. Every tissue from muscel to nerves has specialized cells that enable us to move, think or grow. Cells vary in shape and size but each has a nucleaus that contain the human genome. The human body produces 60 billion new cells each day.

 

Every type of cell in the human body contains a complete copy of all the genes needed to code for a person. Genes spells out biological instrutions that direct the development and the maintenance of everything from eye,color to the arrangement of body parts. Every living thing from a bacterium to a whale has genes.

Nature of the mind

 

Both philosophers and psychologists remain divided about the nature of the mind. Some take what is known as the substantial view, and argue that the mind is a single entity, perhaps having its base in the brain but distinct from it and having an autonomous existence. This view ultimately derives from Plato, and was absorbed from him into Christian thought. In its most extreme form, the substantial view merges with the theological view that the mind is an entity wholly separate from the body, in fact a manifestation of the soul, which will survive the body's death and return to God, its creator.

 

Others take what is known as the functional view, ultimately derived from Aristotle, which holds that the mind is a term of convenience for a variety of mental functions which have little in common except that humans are conscious of their existence. Functionalists tend to argue that the attributes which we collectively call the mind are closely related to the functions of the brain and can have no autonomous existence beyond the brain, nor can they survive its death. In this view mind is a subjective manifestation of consciousness: the human brain's ability to be aware of its own existence. The concept of the mind is therefore a means by which the conscious brain understands its own operations.

The Brain

 

The brain is not only important as the site of reason and intelligence, it is also the source of cognition, emotion, memory, and motor, and other forms of learning, and it controls and coordinates most sensory systems, movement, behavior, but it also controls homeostatic body functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, fluid balance, and body temperature. Some behaviors such as simple reflexes and basic locomotion, can be executed under spinal cord control alone.

 

Most brains exhibit a visible distinction between grey matter and white matter. Grey matter consists of the cell bodies of the neurons, while white matter consists of the fibers (axons) that connect neurons. The axons are surrounded by a fatty insulating sheath called myelin, giving the white matter its distinctive color. The outer, visible layers of the brain are the cortex, and consist mainly of grey matter.

 

Mind and Brain

 

A distinction is often made in the philosophy of mind between the mind and the brain, and there is some controversy as to their exact relationship, leading to the mind-body problem. The brain is defined as the physical, biological matter contained within the skull, responsible for all electrochemical neuronal processes. The mind, however, is seen in terms of mental attributes, such as beliefs or desires. Some suggest that the mind exists in some way independently of the brain, such as in a soul. Others, such as strong AI theorists, say that the mind is directly analogous to computer software and the brain to hardware.

 

Neuron

 

Neurons are a major class of cells in the nervous system. Neurons are sometimes called nerve cells, though this term is technically imprecise, as many neurons do not form nerves. In vertebrates, they are found in the brain, the spinal cord and in the nerves and ganglia of the peripheral nervous system, and their main role is to process and transmit neural information. An important characteristic of neurons is that they have excitable membranes that allow them to generate and propagate electrical signals.

 

Many neurons are highly specialized, and they differ widely in appearance. Neurons have cellular extensions known as processes which they use to send and receive information.

 

The soma, or 'cell body', is the central part of the cell, where the nucleus is located and where most protein synthesis occurs.

 

The dendrite, is a branching arbor of cellular extensions. Most neurons have several dendrites with profuse dendritic branches. The overall shape and structure of a neuron's dendrites is called its dendritic tree, and is traditionally thought to be the main information receiving network for the neuron. However, information outflow (i.e. from dendrites to other neurons) can also occur.

 

The axon, is a finer, cable-like projection which can extend tens, hundreds, or even tens of thousands of times the diameter of the soma in length. The axon carries nerve signals away from the soma (and carry some types of information in the other direction also). Many neurons have only one axon, but this axon may - and usually will - undergo extensive branching, enabling communication with many target cells. The part of the axon where it emerges from the soma is called the 'axon hillock'. Besides being an anatomical structure, the axon hillock is also the part of the neuron that has the greatest density of voltage-dependent sodium channels. Thus it has the most hyperpolarized action potential threshold of any part of the neuron. In other words, it is the most easily-excited part of the neuron, and thus serves as the spike initiation zone for the axon. While the axon and axon hillock are generally considered places of information outflow, this region can receive input from other neurons as well.

 

The axon terminal, a specialized structure at the end of the axon that is used to release neurotransmitter and communicate with target neurons.

Priori

 

A priori is a Latin phrase meaning "from the former" or less literally "before experience". In much of the modern Western tradition, the term a priori is considered to mean propositional knowledge that can be had without, or "prior to", experience. It is usually contrasted with a posteriori knowledge meaning "after experience", which requires experience.

 

For those within the mainstream of the tradition, mathematics and logic are generally considered a priori disciplines. Statements such as "2 + 2 = 4", for example, are considered to be "a priori", because they are thought to come out of reflection alone.

 

The natural and social sciences are usually considered a posteriori disciplines. Statements like "The sky is usually mostly blue", for instance, might be considered "a posteriori" knowledge.

 

Modern use of a priori began with Immanuel Kant who offered the distinction between synthetic and analytic truths to supplement the distinction between a priori and a posteriori knowledge. He argues that propositions known a priori are necessarily true, while propositions known a posteriori are contingent, because a priori knowledge has always been true, according to Kant (e.g. two plus two equals four). A posteriori propositions will depend on external conditions, which may change in time, making the proposition false (e.g. Jean Chrtien is Canada's Prime Minister, which was once true but is now false).

Intuition

 

Intuition is an unconscious form of knowledge. It is immediate and often not open to rational/analytical thought processes. Intuition differs from an opinion since opinion is based on experience, while an intuition is held to be affected by previous experiences only unconsciously. Intuition also differs from instinct, which does not have the experience element at all. Intuition is trans-intellectual, while instinct is pre-intellectual. A person who has an intuitive opinion cannot immediately fully explain why he or she holds that view. However, a person may later rationalize an intuition by developing a chain of logic to demonstrate more structurally why the intuition is valid.

 

Intuition is one source of common sense. It can also help in induction to gain empirical knowledge. Sources of intuition are feeling, experiences and knowledge.

 

In the philosophy of Immanuel Kant, intuition is one of the basic cognitive faculties, equivalent to what might loosely be called perception. Kant held that our mind casts all of our external intuitions in the form of space, and all of our internal intuitions (memory, thought) in the form of time.

 

Intuitionism is a position in philosophy of mathematics derived from Kant's claim that all mathematical knowledge is knowledge of the pure forms of the intuition - that is, intuition that is not empirical

 

 

A Short Revision

 

Different scientific facts and views from different scientists and philosophers have been illustrated in the above writings. Now it is time for me to review the materials and make a summary.

 

One thing we are quite sure that the universe had not been created in six days according to the Book of Genesis of Old Testament. A process of evolution has been taken in a very long period of 13 – 15 billion years since the time of Big Bang for the universe including this earth to be made as what we can observe today. It took more than 10 billion years before the stars and planets had formed. Life on earth might have evolved from non-life about 4 billion years ago. According to the general theory of relativity, the Big Bang would have been a beginning of time. One day, if the whole universe recollapsed , the big crunch, this would be the end of time. If Einstein is right, there must be a creator who has created the universe.

 

Scientists have proved that the universe is expanding and could be expending forever. This is not in consistent with Einstein’s concept of the universe. So he introduced a Cosmological Constant in his General Relativity so that the model of the universe is a static one. “God does not play dice” said Einstein. He believed that the universe is smooth and everything is in order. Einstein as a scientist has provided a solution to Aristotole’s First Cause or Prime Mover.

 

However, Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and quantum mechanics is not in consistent with Einstein’s ideal concept about the universe. The uncertainty principle is taken to mean that the physical universe does not exist in deterministic form but rather as a collections of probabilities. The inability to know both the positions and velocities of elementary particles implies that in microscopic realm the universe is intrinsically turbulent. It is a teeming, chaotic, frenzied arena on microscopic scales.

 

Although the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics are not consistent with each other, they have been proved to be true and sound. Scientists have tried to merge the equations of general relativity and those of quantum mechanics yield a ridiculous answer—infinity.

 

This is a good time for the String Theory to be postulated, as some scientists believe that it will be a Unified Theory of Everything. According to string theory, all elementary particles are actually tiny loops of vibrating string. Space, time and dimension are not essential defining elements of the universe. Our universe may merely be one of the innumerable frothing bubbles on the surface of a vast and turbulent cosmic ocean called the multiverse.

 

The weak anthropic principle states that in universe that is infinite in space and time, the conditions necessary for the development of intelligent life will be met in certain regions. According to the strong anthropic principle, there are many universes and the complicated organisms could exist in one of them where the necessary conditions are provided. Would it be possible that the initial configuration of our universe just happens by chance?

 

Whether the universe was created or it just happens by chance, one thing could not be wrong that the universe has taken 15 billion years to evolve. We owe Charles Darwin a lot for his Theory of Evolution by Natural Selection. He believed that all life is descended from an original species from ancient times. Modern DNA evidence is consistent with this idea. Evolution occurs whenever a new species of bacterium evolves a resistance to an antibiotic which previously was lethal to that bacterium. Descendants are seen to have gone through a type of genetic modification process when compared to their ancestors. Before the coming of life on earth, some evolution of molecules could have occurred by ordinary processes of physics and chemistry. There is no need to think of design or purpose or directness. If a group of atoms in the presence of energy falls into a stable pattern it will tend to stay that way. The earliest form of natural selection was simply a selection of stable forms and rejection of unstable ones.

 

Life might have started about 4 billion years ago. At some point a particularly remarkable molecule was formed by accident. It had a property of being able to create copies of itself. We call it replicator. The replicators protected themselves, either chemically or by building a physical wall of protein around themselves. Experiment of the “The Primeval Soup” showed that in the presence of water, carbon dioxide, methane, and ammonia kept in a flask under the influence of the ultraviolet light for few weeks, amino acids have been found. Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins. Later, large molecules were formed. They are the building blocks of the genetic molecule, the DNA. The DNA molecules have had built their most suitable and safe survival machines for them to live in. They survive by the name of genes, and we are their survival machines. The survival machines embrace all animals, plants, bacteria and viruses.

 

When you were first conceived you were just a single cell which contains one master copy of the DNA. Successive divisions took the number of cells up to billions. DNA gives instructions to the cells to produce proteins and in turn to build our whole body. The segment of DNA is called a gene which is 6 ft long containing 3.2 billion codes. Human beings and other living things cannot survive for a long time, say 100 to 500 years but genes can survive over many billion years or forever through the selected survival machines. Indeed genes are our masters and we survive for the benefit of genes.

 

If one day our whole world were destroyed by the nuclei wars and nearly all human beings and living things had been terminated, the genes could still survive. However, all our four or five thousand years’ civilization will be terminated as the genes do not encode any of our culture and pass to new generations. Our glorious civilization will be totally ruined but the genes are immortals. Life and culture are insignificant but the survival of genes. Genes of all different species in this earth will fight for survival under the law of Natural Selection.

 

Human beings are the master among all the living things in this earth because we can think. Our ancestors starting from Stone Age had started to make weapons to get food and protect themselves from being killed by other animals. Later different tribes were formed as they knew this was a better way to struggle to survive in the world ruled by the “jungle laws”—Survival of the fittest. Battles between tribes happened all the time and the strongest tribe would rule the other tribes. In this way small tribes would be “united” and became a country. Different norms, cults, laws and religions were established to keep the people in the country to live more in harmony. Human beings need to adapt themselves to the ever-changing environments where they live in. Man is entirely controlled by the will to live or longing for eternity. They have been forced or stimulated to think. There are always interactions between man and nature. Through thinking our civilization has been evolved up to present stage. One important question which has kept in my mind for a long time and I could not get a better explanation. Why does the pig whose DNA is 98% similar to that of human beings could not at least have 50% intelligence as what we have? Does God or Creator has a role to be played in this part?

 

The brain is the physical, biological mater contained within the skull, responsible for all electrochemical neuronal processes. The mind, however, is seen in terms of mental attributes, such as beliefs or desires. It is much more easy to define the brain but difficult for the mind. The brain is contained in our skull but we do not know where is the mind situated. Some suggest that mind and soul is the same thing. The mind of a child is deferent from that of an adult as far as knowledge and the way of thinking concerned. If the mind and soul are the same things, then there were at least two souls in one’s life. If the soul, as an entity, could survive the body’s death and return to God, then which soul should be counted? If the soul is immortal then the mind is immortal too.

 

Aristotle stated that the mind is a term of convenience for a variety of mental functions. The mind is closely related to the functions of the brain and can have no autonomous existence beyond the brain. The concept of mind is therefore a means by which the conscious brain understands its own operations.

 

More thought on the mind and the processes of thinking.

 

1) Language has its limitation and it could be a barrier to our thinking process or reasoning.

 

2) The notes used to compose a piece of music (excluding songs, for song containing words.) are clear and distinct. So music could be considered as a kind of languages which expresses ideas and emotion more distinct and accurate.

3) Mathematics is a language, which expresses our abstract ideas with pure reasoning. According to Kant mathematics are priori and intuition by nature. It is the language of science. However, it could not be a priori on following arguments. Since mathematics is a language, it is natually made by human being. Directed by our brain, our five senses will get in touch with different experiences. When the sun rises and sets, we call it one day. Next day will be another day. One plus one is two. Later we invented ten figures, one to ten. Different combinations of the figures result billions of numbers. A right angle is 90 degrees and the sum of a triangle must equal to 180 degrees because we make it to be like this. Anyway, methamatics is the most acculate language used to describe any scientific theory or proposition.

 

4) Before thinking we have discovered with intention or without intention the things or events which we have encountered with. There are three kinds of discoveries, namely:

 

a) To discover by necessity accompanied by our instinct to assist us to survive and to achieve a more comfortable life.

 

:) To discover through chances to encounter incidences to assist us to achieve better living conditions and satisfy our emotional and biological needs.

 

c) To discover on purpose to seek knowledge.

 

Through our thinking we invent skills, technologies, systems of management, etc. to enable us to live a more comfortable life and to satisfy our emotional needs. Any invention, which makes our life more comfortable at that moment, will appear to us that it is true and significant. The new invention appears to us a new reality.

 

Thinking is a biological process manipulated by our brain and stimulated by our five senses, which are our eyes, ears, nose, tongue and the whole body. Our conscious and unconscious are the reservoir to store all the events occurred in our lifetime. All our memory is stored in our brain. Both of our conscious and subconscious mind make judgements for the knowledges we have acquired.

 

5) Mind is priori as well as posteriori. Intuition is a sudden awareness that arises from the subconscious mind.

 

The mind is a form, which exists in the nothingness.

 

A composer composes a piece of music (not song) and the musicians make use of the musical instruments to play the music. The composer, the transcript, the musicians and the instruments are human beings and things. What is the nature of the music? We can hear it but we cannot touch it. We could listen to it and feel its existence.

 

(a) Thinking is a biological and electrochemical function of our brain. The brain stores different kinds of informations. The mind based on the informations makes judgements.

 

(:) Our conscience could be part of the mind. Existence could be classified Substance-existence and Non-substance existence. The mind belongs to Non-substance existence, like music.

 

6) Where is the mind situated? We feel its existence, like the existence of space. There are two schools of thinking. (a) The concept of the mind is a means by which the conscious brain understands its own operations. (:( The mind is directly analogous to computer software and the brain to hardware.

 

If the mind is analoguous to computer software, then who makes the programm? Unquestionably, it must be God. Once we come to God, every questions could be solved and we don’t need to think and search for truth any more.

 

Dreams are so valid when we are dreaming. In our dream we also think and feel sad, happy, frightened and worried. However, dreams are composed of chaotic episodes. When we are sleeping our brain is functioning. Could it be the dream a reflection of the brain? Could it be the mind a reflection of the brain too? A girl needs a mirror to do her make-up on her face. Her brain is working and we say she is thinking.The result of thinking, like the image of the girl’s face (after her make-up) in the mirror, is a reflection. The reflection is the main property of mind. No software is needed to drive the mind to think.

 

The Mind

 

Methametics is a language of science; so is the mind a special language of the brain. Just for convenience, I call it a brain-lanaguage. Its purposes are as follows:

 

(a) It gathers the informations or instructions from the brain.

(:eek: According to the necessity or situation at that moment, it tries to make the best arrangement from the informations to form an idea or concept.

© Simutaneously, the idea or concept is sent back to the brain which will make judgement or decision.

(d) Action is taken not by the mind but the brain.

(e) Stimulated by our five senses the mind restrieves useful informations from the memory stored in the brain. The mind will use the informations to create ideas and concepts.

(f) Once again the ideas or concepts are sent back to our brain to carry out instructions.

 

The mind is not an entity like the soul or spirit which survives us and enjoys eternity.

 

Heaven and Hell

 

If we are capable to describe what the heaven and hell look like, then they could possiblily only exist in our mind. The sources that enable us to know what are they, should come from our experiences in life, just like happiness and sadness. People who might have suffered in the hell would have been burnt by fire because we think this is one of the most untelerable sufferings. Likewise, if we could enter the heaven, we will not worry about food, accomodation, etc. but enjoy the peace of mind, without any earthly worries. Both heaven and hell exist in our human world because we have created them in our mind. If we believe in God and behave what God wants us to do, we will have the blessings from God. In reality, good people always suffer more than the bad. Indeed, God has nothing to do with us. Once we are born, Natural Selection and our genes have controlled us and we term this as Fate.

 

The above “Short Revision” needs to be ended here as I wish to talk more about the topics concerning this earthly world.

Sigmund Freud

 

Sigmund Freud's Theory is quite complex. His writings on psychosexual development set the groundwork for how our personalities developed. He believed that different driving forces develop during three stages that play an important role in how we interact with the world.

 

Structural Model (id, ego, superego)

Id

 

According to Freud, we are born with our Id. The id is an important part of our personality because as newborns, it allows us to get our basic needs met. Freud believed that the id is based on our pleasure principle. In other words, the id wants whatever feels good at the time, with no consideration for the reality of the situation. When a child is hungry, the id wants food, and therefore the child cries. When the child needs are to be changed, the id cries. When the child is uncomfortable, in pain, too hot, too cold, or just wants attention, the id speaks up until his or her needs are met.

 

The id doesn't care about reality, about the needs of anyone else, only its own satisfaction. If you think about it, babies are not real considerate of their parents' wishes. They have no care for time, whether their parents are sleeping, relaxing, eating dinner, or bathing. When the id wants something, nothing else is important.

 

Ego

 

Within the next three years, as the child interacts more and more with the world, the second part of the personality begins to develop. Freud called this part the Ego. The ego is based on the reality principle. The ego understands that other people have needs and desires and that sometimes being impulsive or selfish can hurt us in the long run. It is the ego's job to meet the needs of the id, while taking into consideration the reality of the situation.

 

Superego

 

By the age of five, or the end of the phallic stage of development, the Superego develops. The Superego is the moral part of us and develops due to the moral and ethical restraints placed on us by our caregivers. Many equate the superego with the conscience as it dictates our belief of right and wrong.

 

In a healthy person, according to Freud, the ego is the strongest so that it can satisfy the needs of the id, not upset the superego, and still take into consideration the reality of every situation. Not an easy job by any means, but if the id gets too strong, impulses and self- gratification take over the person's life. If the superego becomes too strong, the person would be driven by rigid morals, would be judgmental and unbending in his or her interactions with the world.

 

Topographical Model

 

Freud believed that the majority of what we experience in our lives, the underlying emotions, beliefs, feelings, and impulses are not available to us at a conscious level. He believed that most of what drives us is buried in our unconscious. The Oedipus and Electra Complex, were both pushed down into the unconscious, out of our awareness due to the extreme anxiety they caused. While buried there, however, they continue to impact us dramatically according to Freud.

 

The role of the unconscious is only one part of the model. Freud also believed that everything we are aware of is stored in our conscious. Our conscious makes up a very small part of who we are. In other words, at any given time, we are only aware of a very small part of what makes up our personality; most of what we are is buried and inaccessible.

 

The final part is the preconscious or subconscious. This is the part of us that we can access if prompted, but is not in our active conscious. It is right below the surface, but still buried somewhat unless we search for it. Information such as our telephone number, some childhood memories, or the name of your best childhood friend is stored in the preconscious.

 

Because the unconscious is so large, and because we are only aware of the very small conscious at any given time, this theory has been likened to an iceberg, where the vast majority is buried beneath the water's surface. The water, by the way, would represent everything that we are not aware of, have not experienced, and that has not been integrated into our personalities, referred to as the unconscious.

 

Human Nature

 

Confucius did not speak directly on such issues as the nature of human beings, the rights of the people against tyrannical rulers, and the influence of the supernatural in human affairs. Two of his 4th and 3rd century BC disciples, Mencius and Xunzi , did much to clarify these issues.

 

Mencius asserted that human nature is good and that it can be developed not only by study, as Confucius had taught, but also by a process of cultivating one’s innate (inborn) tendencies. By this, Mencius meant cultivating our inclination toward compassion for the suffering of others, our disdain for doing what is wrong, and so forth. Like Confucius, Mencius believed that the Zhou rulers held their position under a doctrine known as the Mandate of Heaven; Heaven was thought to be the impersonal authority governing all the operations of the universe. Since the Mandate of Heaven was expressed by the acceptance of a ruler by the people, Mencius stated that if the people rose up and overthrew a tyrant, it was proof that Heaven had withdrawn its mandate. In the name of Heaven, Mencius claimed for the Chinese people the right of rebellion.

 

Xunzi took an exactly opposite view of human nature; he asserted that humans have no innate dispositions that are genuinely virtuous. Xunzi was, however, sufficiently optimistic to believe in people’s unlimited capacity for improvement. He taught that through education, the study of the classics, and the practice of ritual, virtue could be acquired and order could be reestablished in society. Xunzi also argued that ritual practices are for the sake of shaping and expressing human emotions rather than influencing Heaven or ancestral spirits.

 

The differences between Mencius and Xunzi might be summed up as follows. Mencius thought virtue was something that must be developed, as a tree grows from a sprout. Xunzi thought that human beings must be reshaped, as a piece of wood is carved into a useful object.

 

I agree with Xunzi that humans have no innate dispositions that are genuinely virtuous. In fact we are inborn with only the “will to survive” as long as possible. Our personality or dispositions are decided by our genes and be reshaped ourselves to live in a better way than our competitors fellowmen.

 

Biology of love

 

Biological models of sex tend to view love as a mammalian drive, much like hunger or thirst. Helen Fisher, a leading expert in the topic of love, divides the experience of love into three partly-overlapping stages: lust, attraction, and attachment. Lust exposes people to others, romantic attraction encourages people to focus their energy on mating, and attachment involves tolerating the spouse long enough to rear a child into infancy.

 

Lust is the initial passionate sexual desire that promotes mating, and involves the increased release of chemicals such as testosterone and estrogen. These effects rarely last more than a few weeks or months. Attraction is the more individualized and romantic desire for a specific candidate for mating, which develops out of lust as commitment to an individual mate forms. Recent studies in neuroscience have indicated that as people fall in love, the brain consistently releases a certain set of chemicals, including pheromones, dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin, which act similar to amphetamines, stimulating the brain's pleasure center and leading to side-effects such as an increased heart rate, loss of appetite and sleep, and an intense feeling of excitement. Research has indicated that this stage generally lasts from one and a half to three years.

 

Since the lust and attraction stages are both considered temporary, a third stage is needed to account for long-term relationships. Attachment is the bonding which promotes relationships that last for many years, and even decades. Attachment is generally based on commitments such as marriage and children, or on mutual friendship based on things like shared interests. It has been linked to higher levels of the chemicals oxytocin and vasopressin than short-term relationships have.

 

Romantic love

 

Even though there often appears to be traces of romance and love being intertwined in various cultures and socities throughout history, Gary Zukav, best selling author of Seat of the Soul and Soul Stories, views romantic love as being an illusion, stating that the concept of romantic love can never be truly fulfilling. He states that "Romance is your desire to make yourself complete through another person rather than through your own inner work.", thusly isolating the idea of romance from the concept of "true love." His argument is that "real love" is more beneficial than romantic involvement alone.

 

Romantic love may, then, be a sexual love that attempts to transcend, in some cases entirely, mere needs driven by physical appearances, sexual desire, or material and social gain. This transcending, ultimately, implies not just that personality is more essential, which could be considered a truism, and a view that might appear without much regard to virtue, ranging from the noble to the most shallow character. Rather, romance tends to strive to see, or suppose it can see, personality as attractive in a fundamentally higher sense.

 

Romantic love is contrasted with Platonic love which in all usages precludes sexual relations, yet only in the modern usage does it take on a fully asexual sense, rather than the classical sense in which sexual drives are sublimated. Sublimation tends to be forgotten in casual thought about love aside from its emergence in psychoanalysis.

 

Tragedy and other social issues of romance

 

The tragic contradiction between romance and society is most forcibly portrayed in Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, in Flaubert's Madame Bovary, and of course Romeo and Juliet. The female protagonists in such stories are driven to suicide as if dying for a cause of freedom from various oppressions of marriage.

 

Later modern philosophers such as La Rochefoucauld, Hume and Rousseau also focused on morality, but desire was central to French thought, and Hume himself tended to adopt a French worldview and temperament. Desire in this milieu meant a very general idea termed "the passions," and this general interest was distinct from the contemporary idea of "passionate" now equated with "romantic." Love was a central topic again in the subsequent movement of Romanticism, which focused on such things as absorption in nature and the absolute, as well as Platonic and unrequited love in German philosophy and literature.

 

Hundreds of popular authors, poets, artists and musicians have written, painted or composed their books, paintings and master pieces of music about love. They have greatly

enriched the culture of mankind and from love we could see the beauty of life. What is the drive behind them? I believe it is the sublimation of the sexual drive which Freud termed it as libido.

 

Properties of romantic love include these:

 

It cannot be easily controlled.

It is not overtly (initially at least) predicated on a desire for sex as a physical act.

If requited, it may be the basis for lifelong commitment.

 

Anna Karenina(Tolstoy’s novel) is a married woman with a son. She felt in love at the first sight with a man. Both of the man and woman are handsome and beautiful. Without doubt they had been attracted to each other by their physical apperance. They had been entirely controlled by their own libido. At the beginning, they thought they could love each other without having sex but later it was the sex which made them crazy. Finally due to jealousy Anna Karenina committed suicide and to her this was a kind of lifelong commitment.

 

In the novel “A Tale Of Two Cities”by Charles Dickens, Sydney Carton sacrificed his life for the husband of his beloved Miss Manette under the French Guillotine. Miss Manette had never loved him but only treated him as a friend whom could be confided with. The last moment before he was beheaded by the Guillotine, he had shown not the least the fear of death. Instead, he had comforted and given support to a woman who were next to him to be beheaded. He looked sublime and prophetic - written in the last paragrath of the novel. The libido in him had been totally sublimated for a good course. He felt the greatness in him.

 

Leonarodo Da Vinci (1452 - 1519) one of the greatest painters in the human history , had once defenced himself against the charge of irreligion: Such carping critics would do better to keep silent. For that is the way to become acquainted with the Creator of so many wonderful things, and this is the way to love so great an Inventor. For in truth great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you know it but little you will be able to love it only a little or not at all. His investigations extended to practically every branch of natural science, and in every single one he was a discoverer or at least a prophet and pioneer. He pointed out that the sun does not move. Leonardo had prescribed the study of nature as a rule for the painter. The passion for study had become dominant, and he had no longer wished to acquire learning for the sake of art, but learning for the sake of learning.

 

He did not love and hate, but asked himself about the origin and significance of what he was to love or hate. He has investigated instead of loving.The stormy passions of a nature that inspires and consumes, passions in which other men have enjoyed their richest experience, appear not to have touched him. He had craved for knowledge and lost himself in admiration and filled with true humility. Freud belived that the instinct to investigate is due to sexual reinforcement. Through subliimation, the sexual drive has been replaced by other aims which may be valued more highly and which are not sexual.

Love is possessive

 

No lovers would like to share their partners with the third person. Lovers married or not would treat their partner as his or her own property. In the animal world, the animals have mattings with any partners they meet and would part without any sentiment after having satified their sexal needs. Animals are more generous as they do not have intention to possess any partner as their own properties. However, we human beings, get hold tightly on their own properties while looking for another partners to satisfy their sexal desire. It is our cultures which have been oringinated from religions and humanities to forbid us not to behave as animals do.

 

Animal Plus

 

Let us imagine that at one time, our earth were destroyed by the nucleus war or collided by a planet and all living things were annihilated. However, a little amount of the DNA or genes could survive this disaster. Then it will take another billion years to let human beings and other living things to be reborn but our present civilization will be completely wiped off. The first man to be born would be like our ancestors at the Stone Age starting everything from scratch again. What makes us different from animals is our civilization. Human beings are capable to create different cultures. We have found the basic unit, the family that is the foundation to build stable and prosperous societies. The reasons people marry vary, but usually include one or more of the following: legal, social and economic stability; the formation of a family unit; procreation and the education and nurturing of children; legitimizing sexual relations; public declaration of love. Without civilizations, we are just animals.

 

Beauty

 

In attractiveness studies, averageness is one of the characteristics of physical beauty in which the average phenotype, i.e. outward appearance, of the individual theoretically characterizes averaged phenotypes, thus indicating health and fertility. The majority of averageness studies and theories have to do with photographic overlay studies. Other factors involved in measuring attractiveness are symmetry and youthfulness.

In 1883, Francis Galton, cousin of Charles Darwin, devised a technique called composite photography. This phenomenon is now known as "averageness-effect", that is highly physically attractive tend to be indicative of the average traits of the population

 

 

Another feature of beautiful women that has been explored by researchers is a waist-to-hip ratio of approximately 0.70 for women. The concept of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR) was developed by psychologist Devendra Singh of the University of Texas at Austin. Physiologists have shown that this ratio accurately indicates most women's fertility. Traditionally, in premodern ages when food was more scarce, fat people were judged more attractive than slender.

 

Inner beauty is a concept used to describe the positive aspects of something that is not physically observable.

 

While most species use physical traits and pheromones to attract mates, humans claim to rely on the inner beauty of their choices. Qualities including kindness, sensitivity, tenderness or compassion, creativity and intelligence have been said to be desirable since antiquity. However new research comparing what humans claim to find attractive to their actual mating habits underlines the superficiality of "inner beauty," underlining the fact that the human animal relies on physical traits and pheromones just like every other animal to find a mate. That said, whether "inner beauty" does or does not measurably affect humans' mating habits, some traits classified as "inner beauty" do give an evolutionary survival advantage to either the individual or mating couple or group or all three.

 

In mathematics and the arts, two quantities are in the golden ratio if the ratio between the sum of those quantities and the larger one is the same as the ratio between the larger one and the smaller. The golden ratio is approximately 1.6180339887.

 

The subjective experience of "beauty" often involves the interpretation of some entity as being in balance and harmony with nature, which may lead to feelings of attraction and emotional well-being. "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder" is a common phrase attributed to this concept.

 

The characterization of a person as beautiful, whether on an individual basis or by community consensus, is often based on some combination of inner beauty, which includes psychological factors such as personality, intelligence, grace, charm and elegance, and outer beauty, which includes physical factors, such as health, youthfulness, symmetry, averageness, and complexion.

 

Symmetry may be important because it is evident that the person grew up in a healthy way, without visible genetic defects. Although style and fashion vary widely, cross-cultural research has found a variety of commonalities in people's perception of beauty. Large eyes and a clear complexion, for example, are considered beautiful in both men and women in all cultures. Some researchers have suggested that neonatal features are inherently attractive and thus likely to be found beautiful. Youthfulness in general is associated with beauty.

 

Animal studies show that diseased mothers give birth to offspring that show greater asymmetries. From human studies, it is known that women with asymmetrical breasts are less fertile than those with greater symmetry. increasing symmetry of face shape increases ratings of attractiveness for both male and female faces. These findings imply facial symmetry may have a positive impact on mate selection in humans. This, and other recent scientific findings, have been tested empirically on perceived "beautiful people" in Hollywood and researchers found that on a percentage basis the highest rating of symmetry was achieved by actress Cate Blanchett.

 

Youthfulness generally is associated with fertility. Men and women, however, have different fertility curves; subsequently, men and women age differently. Men, in some cases can continue to reproduce into their 70s, whereas for women, it is generally difficult to conceive past age 45. Outward physical appearance tends to exemplify inner fertility levels. In the early 20s, for example, the female breasts have become fully swollen, but have not yet begun to sag. Similarly, the age of maximum fecundity for the female, i.e. the age at which she is most likely to be successful at bringing her fetus to term is age.

 

In terms of mate trait desireabilities, aside from such common wants such as sincerity and faithfulness, "youthfulness" tops the list for men, whereas with women "economic capacity" is the highest rated.

 

Morality

 

Morality means an ideal code of conduct held to be authoritative in matters of right and wrong, whether by society, philosophy, religion, or individual conscience. There is no absolute concept of morality and henceforth, morality is not a universal concept that is adaptable to different tribes, races, and countries. Morality is made and designed by man at a time during which people could live together in harmony. Indeed, morality is a kind of laws but it is not to be enforced by punishments but by the conscience of every person living in that society at that time. People are taught to believe what is good and what is bad and they should behave what they have been taught since their childhood. Society only accept the good and reject the bad.

 

In Genesis. 19, when God decided to overturn and destroy the five cities of the plain, he sent angels to rescue Lot and his family (Lot was the nephew of Abraham). The men of Sodom sought to rape the angels (19:5). Lot offers the men his daughters instead, who he says are virgins (19:8), but the men are not interested, for they had been practicing homosexuality.

Two angels were sent to Sodom to forewarn Lot of the dreadful catastrophe about to happen. The angels took Lot, his wife, and his daughters by hand and drew them forcibly out of their house, saying, "Save yourselves with all haste. Look not behind you. Get as fast as you are able to the mountain, unless you be involved in the calamity of the city." Lot entreated the angels, who consented that he might retire to Zoar, which was one of the five doomed cities. His wife, looking back on Sodom, was turned into a pillar of salt.

 

“Our father is old, and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth: Come let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night: and the firstborn went in, and lay with her father.…Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father…..” Genesis,19

 

Lot left Zoar and retired with his two daughters to a cave in an adjacent mountain. In Gen. 19:30-38, Lot's daughters incorrectly believed they were the only females to have survived the devastation. They assumed it was their responsibility to bear children and enable the continuation of the human race. On two subsequent nights, according to the plan of the older daughter, they got their father drunk enough to have sexual intercourse with them, drunk enough that he is described as being unaware of what was happening. By him each became pregnant.

 

“Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country , and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. …And Abraham said, Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. And that indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.” Genesis 19, 20

 

Abraham was afraid that the king of Gerar would kill him if he did not give his wife to the king. At the time of Abraham woman was probably only a property of man. The men of Sodom wanted to rape the angels so Lot offered his daughters who were virgins, to the men. However, as the men were homosexual and the two girls escaped from being raped. Later, the two daughters had sexual intercourse with their father so that human race could continue to survive. Survival of the fittest is the criteria to establish the morality of man.

 

Virtue

 

Virtue is moral excellence of a person. A virtue is a trait valued as being good. The conceptual opposite of virtue is vice.

 

The four classic Western virtues are:

 

Temperance, prudence. fortitude, justice

 

This enumeration is traced to Greek philosophy, being listed by both Plato and Socrates.

 

In Christianity, the theological virtues are faith, hope and love.

 

Some virtues recognized by Western Cultures:

 

Ease of manner, courtesy, openness, and friendliness.

“Mercy” —Mildness and gentleness.

"Dignity" — A sense of self-worth, personal pride.

"Tenacity" — Strength of mind, the ability to stick to one's purpose.

"Fragileness" — Economy and simplicity of style, without being miserly.

"Gravity" — A sense of the importance of the matter at hand, responsibility and earnestness. "Respectability" — The image that one presents as a respectable member of society.

"Humanity" — Refinement, civilization, learning, and being cultured.

"Industriousness" — Hard work.

"Dutifulness" — More than religious piety; a respect for the natural order socially, politically, and religiously. Includes the ideas of patriotism and devotion to others.

"Prudence" — Foresight, wisdom, and personal discretion.

"Wholesomeness" — Health and cleanliness. “Sternness" — Gravity, self-control.

"Truthfulness" — Honesty in dealing with others.

 

Virtues of Islam

 

RIGHTEOUSNESS, GENEROSITY, CONTENTMENT, HUMILITY , KI NDNESS, COURTESY, PURITY, GOOD WISDOM, JUSTICE, RESPECT SPEECH, MERCY, DIGNITY, FIRMNESS, FRANKNESS, PATIENCE , SELF-RESTRAINT, PERSEVERANCE, BALANCE / MODERATION, UNITY, FRUGALITY, SINCERITY, LOYALTY, REPENTANCE, RESPONSIBILITY, SPIRITUALITY

 

Buddhist virtues

 

Buddhist practice as outlined in the Noble Eightfold Path can be regarded as a progressive list of virtues.

 

Right Viewpoint - Realizing the Four Noble Truths

Right Values - Commitment to mental and ethical growth in moderation

Right Speech - One speaks in a non hurtful, not exaggerated, truthful way

Right Actions - Wholesome action, avoiding action that would do harm

Right Livelihood - One's job does not harm in any way oneself or others; directly or indirectly (weapon maker, drug dealer, etc.)

Right Effort - One makes an effort to improve

Right Mindfulness - Mental ability to see things for what they are with clear consciousness

Right Meditation - State where one reaches enlightenment and the ego has disappeared

Virtues and values

 

Virtues can be placed into a broader context of values. Each individual has a core of underlying values that contribute to our system of beliefs, ideas and/or opinions. Integrity in the application of a value ensures its continuity and this continuity separates a value from beliefs, opinion and ideas. In this context a value (e.g., Truth or Equality or Greed) is the core from which we operate or react. Societies have values that are shared among many of the participants in that culture. An individual's values typically are largely, but not entirely, in agreement with their culture's values.

 

Individual virtues can be grouped into one of four categories of values:

 

Ethics (virtue - vice, good - bad, moral - immoral - amoral, right - wrong, permissible - impermissible)

Aesthetics (beautiful, ugly, unbalanced, pleasing)

Doctrinal (political, ideological, religious or social beliefs and values)

Innate/Inborn (inborn values such as reproduction and survival, a controversial category)

A value system is the ordered and prioritized set of values (usually of the ethical and doctrinal categories described above) that an individual or society holds.

Virtue and vice

 

The opposite of a virtue is a vice. One way of organizing the vices is as the corruption of the virtues. Thus the cardinal vices would be folly, venality, cowardice and lust. The Christian theological vices would be blasphemy, despair, and hatred.

 

However, as Aristotle noted, the virtues can have several opposites. Virtues can be considered the mean between two extremes. For instance, both cowardice and rashness are opposites of courage; contrary to prudence are both over-caution and insufficient caution. A more "modern" virtue, tolerance, can be considered the mean between the two extremes of narrow-mindedness on the one hand and soft-headedness on the other. Vices can therefore be identified as the opposites of virtues, but each virtue could have many different opposites, all distinct from each other.

 

Altruism and Selfishness

 

Let me make a “scale” on one end of it is Altruism and on the other end is Selfishness. A bee could die for its own queen and race and this is an example that the altruism goes to the extreme. A man from a well-off family would not give a loaf to a child who is dying from hunger. This is another extreme example of selfishness.

 

Man needs to live together in harmony. While we struggle to work hard to better our life, we need to mind not to hurt other people’s well being. In a more ideal society, every person could survive and enjoy at least a basic living standard. The standard and value of different kinds of virtues are different from different societies. Virtues are designed and made by people. It is not necessary to set a goal that we need to be a virtuous person.

 

Our behavior is controlled by our thought. If we use the Scale of Altruism and Selfishness to measure and direct our thought before we act, we will not be far away from the acceptable morality of the society in which we live at that moment. By using this “Scale”, we will have more freedom to think and act. Knowledge and wisdom are the necessary tools to assist us to use the “Scale”.

Human Territorial Functioning (By Ralph B. Taylor)

 

What is the territorial instinct? According to Ardrey, it is the command to defend one’s property. The disposition to defend a territory is innate. The command to defend it is likewise innate. Thus to appropriate space is the territory principle.

 

There are three psychological factors that motivate territorial behavior : security, stimulation and identity. Security is provided by the safe locus of the territory. Stimulation is provided by the defense and interchanges that occur at the boundary. Identification is provided by the overall meaning of the territory. Besides territory, war also satisfies all three of these needs.

 

The territory imperative is pervasive, demanding and unavoidable. Conflicts and competition are inevitable, because we are just built that way. Differences in society, such as between the rich and the poor, merely mirror internal, genetically based differences in heritage. The poor in our society somehow deserve their position. Consequently, efforts at social reform, such as “ war on poverty” are fundamentally futile.

 

Religions of the proto-human

 

Religions were created to give proto-humans a feeling of security in an insecure world, and a feeling of control over the environment where there was little control.

 

For the first time, they became aware that their life was transient; they would die at some point in their future. This knowledge produced an intolerable emotional drain.

 

During their evolution from proto-human to full human, they developed questions about themselves and their environment:

 

What controlled the seasonal cycles of nature -- the daily motion of the sun; the motion of the stars, the passing of the seasons, etc.

What controlled their environment -- what or who caused floods, rains, dry spells, storms, etc?

What controls fertility -- of the tribe, its domesticated animals, and its crops.

What system of morality is needed to best promote the stability of the tribe?

And above all: what happens to a person after they die?

 

Living in a pre-scientific society, people had no way to resolve these questions. Even today, with all of our scientific advances, we still debate about the second last question, and still have no way of reaching an consensus on the last. But the need for answers (particularly to the last question) were so important that some response was required, even if they were merely based on hunches. Some people within the tribe started to invent answers based on their personal guesses. Thus developed:

 

The first religious belief system,

The first priesthood,

The first set of rituals to appease the Goddess,

Other rituals to control fertility and other aspects of the environment,

A set of behavioral expectations for members of the tribe, and

A set of moral truths to govern human behavior.

 

Religions today:

 

Some observers believe that the main function of religions today is to provide their followers with a feeling of security.

 

John Shelby Spong, retired bishop of the Episcopal Church, USA has written:

 

"Religion is primarily a search for security and not a search for truth. Religion is what we so often use to bank the fires of our anxiety. That is why religion tends toward becoming excessive, neurotic, controlling and even evil. That is why a religious government is always a cruel government. People need to understand that questioning and doubting are healthy, human activities to be encouraged not to be feared. Insecurity is something to be grasped and treasured. A true and healthy religious system will encourage each of these activities. A sick and fearful religious system will seek to remove them."

 

David C. James, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church & Diocesan Mission Center in Olympia, WA, wrote:

 

Many times when we think we are worshipping God, we are actually comforting our very fragile egos. I’m not so naïve as to assume that we build temple and erect altars to ourselves…directly. But our core need to been safe, secure and sound mandates that we construct reality systems that will support us.

 

Let me quote Bertrand Russell statement: “Religion is based, I think primarily and mainly upon fear – fear of the mysterious, fear of defeat, fear of death. Fear is the parent of cruelty, and therefore it is no wonder if cruelty and religion have gone hand in hand.”

 

Fear is one of several very basic emotions and it is an instinct. It is a survival mechanism, and usually occurs in response to a specific negative stimulus. With this instinct our anciently man could survive in the world ruled by jungle laws. If someone was struck by lighting, then they would think this was the act of God. Fear has overcome them by natural disasters such as flood, bush-fire, landslide, earthquakes and many others. Religions were created to give people a feeling of security in an insecure world, and a feeling of control over the environment where there was little control.

 

A plague, called The Black Death (1347 – 1350 AD) swept over Europe, causing widespread hysteria and death. One third of the population of Europe died. The primary culprits in transmitting this disease were oriental rat fleas carried on the back of the black rats. The Christian church said it was God’s will, but the reason for this awful punishment was unknown. “God have mercy upon us all!” said the bishop. As a matter of fact, there was nothing to do with God. God had nothing to forgive the people. The lack of medical knowledge had caused the plague. Ignorance had created fear that had overcome all the people in Europe. The virus H5N1 and SARS could have killed one fourth of the world population if our present medical knowledge could not cope with the spread of the virus.

 

Churches and temples in fact are organizations. Like political parties, they have their own goals and the party members have faith in their parties and their leaders. The way to run a church or a temple is similar as running a political party. Power struggle among the leaders of the church exists just like that in a political party. Churches of different religions claim their God is the only true God. In the history of mankind different kinds of wars have been started by different kinds of religions when their conflicts of interests could not be compromised.

 

Human beings were supposed to be created by God but according to Christian belief we are born sinners because our first parents Adam and Eve had committed the Original Sin. Our first mother Eve, disobeyed God and she ate the fruits from the Tree of the Kowledge of Evil and Good. After having eaten the fruits both Adam and Eve felt shameful for they found that they were naked. God does not want mankind to have any knowledge at all. Do we want our children to have more knowledge than ourselves? Shall we be jealous at our own children if they are more intelligent than us? On what ground that we should be born sinners ?

 

Sigmund Freud’s Concept of Religion

 

Humanity has suffered from three principle types of narcissism: the belief that we are the center of the universe, the belief that we are the center/goal of nature and the belief that we are always "master of our own house." For Freud, it is the feeling of helplessness, occurring in a number of different areas, namely external dangers, internal impulses, death, and society. As wish-fulfilling illusions, religious faith and gods had specific tasks.

 

They must exorcize the terrors of nature, they must reconcile men to the cruelty of Fate, particularly as it is shown in death, and they must compensate them for the sufferings which a civilized life in common has imposed on them.

 

The first, of course, would be the feeling of helplessness before the awesome and unpredictable powers of nature - mortal dangers from the external world. We are confronted in life by many uncontrollable dangers, from hurricanes to disease.

 

Freud made much of the similarities between religious rituals and obsessional rituals (for example, the compulsive need to wash your hands in a specific pattern every time), the latter of which functioned to protect the ego from the emergence of fantasies, desires, and especially sexual impulses which were normally repressed. In the ritual, however, they gain some partial expression and release.

 

Freud saw "neurosis as an individual religion, religion as a universal obsessional neurosis."

 

The suppression of certain instinctual impulses, exclusively components of the sexual instinct, are socially harmful instincts. Anyone who has noticed the Christian obsession with sexual matters, and particularly with the constant efforts to repress and deny most forms of sexual expression, will find that even if Freud is not entirely correct, he has certainly hit upon something important.

 

The issue of "illusion" is another very important part of Freud's critique of religion. At all times we must keep in mind that he drew a sharp distinction between "illusion" and "delusion," using only the former to describe religious beliefs. Illusions, including those of religion, are such not because of their content but by their sources. Calling religious beliefs illusions does not automatically deny them any sort of validity - they may, after all, even come true. Their problem lies in their source: undisciplined and uncritical human wishes.

 

Freud was particularly dismayed at attempts to defend religious faith by arguing that if they could not be absolutely proven wrong, then people are perfectly justified in believing them anyway. Ignorance is ignorance; no right to believe anything can be derived from it.

CHECKED *******************

 

Religion versus Philosophy

 

Before we try to understand how important is the role, played by religion in the world, let us examine the following data regarding the distribution of different kinds of religion and the population of different countries in the world.

 

The Christian Science Monitor newspaper in a 1998 article "Top 10 Organized Religions in the World" provides a further example, listing the largest "organized

religions":

 

1 Christianity 1.9 billion Has the most followers and most widespread presence of all well-recognized religions. Predominant religion in Europe, the Americas, Southern Africa, Oceania, and the Philippines.

2 Islam 1.1 billion A widespread religion with many countries majority Muslim, particularly in the Middle East, South Asia, Maritime Southeast Asia, Central Asia, North Africa, West Africa and some parts of Eastern Europe.

3 Hinduism 781 million Umbrella term for various Hindu denominations forming the majority in India, Nepal, North Eastern province of Sri Lanka, and the Bali & Java sub-province of Indonesia, parts of Latin America, Eastern Africa, Australia, USA and UK.

4 Buddhism 324 million Largely in East Asia and the Mainland Southeast Asia, and small parts of South Asia and Russia.

5 Sikhism 19 million Mostly in the Indian Punjab; also large numbers in other parts of India and the United Kingdom, the USA, Canada, Malaysia and Southeast Asia, Germany and East Africa.

6 Judaism 14 million A widespread religion with a majority in Israel; large populations in North America, Western Europe, and South America.

7 Bah ' Faith 6.1 million Youngest of the group of 10, second most widely dispersed religion after Christianity; fastest growing (percentage) of top 10.

8 Confucianism 5.3 million Mostly in China proper; and in Korea, Taiwan, Vietnam.

9 Jainism 4.9 million Mostly in India.

10 Shinto 2.8 million Mostly in (and formerly the state religion of) Japan.

 

The total number of belivers of different kinds of religions is about 4.157 billion.

 

 

World Population

 

The world population is the total number of humans on Earth at a given time. In September 2007, the world's population is believed to have reached over 6.6 billion[1][2]. In line with population projections, this figure continues to grow at rates that were unprecedented before the 20th century, although the rate of increase has almost halved since its peak, which was reached in 1963, of 2.2 percent per year. The world's population is expected to reach over 9 billion by the year 2050.

 

 

 

The following shows estimates of when each billion milestone was or will be met:

 

Population 1 billion 2 billion 3 billion 4 billion 5 billion 6 billion 7 billion 8 billion 9 billion

Year 1804 1927 1961 1974 1987 1999 2011 2024 2042

 

The 17 most populous nations

 

Population by region, 2005

The 15 most populous nations From DSW-Datareport 2006 ("Deutsche Stiftung Weltbev lkerung"):

 

China: 1.32 billion (about 20% of world population)

India: 1.12 billion (about 17%)

United States: 300 million (about 4.6%)

Indonesia: 225 million (about 3.5%)

Brazil: 186 million (about 2.8%)

Pakistan: 165 million (about 2.5%)

Bangladesh: 147 million (about 2.3%)

Russia: 143 million (about 2.2%)

Nigeria: 135 million (about 2.1%)

Japan: 128 million (about 2.0%)

Mexico: 108 million (about 1.7%)

Vietnam: 87 million (about 1.3%)

Philippines: 86 million (about 1.3%)

Germany: 82 million (about 1.3%)

Egypt: 75 million (about 1.2%)

Ethiopia: 75 million (about 1.2%)

Turkey: 73 million (about 1.2%)

 

The total population of the above 15 nations is about 4.455 billion. The more updated world population (updated to 2007) is estimated to be 6.6 billion.

 

Based on the above data, we could estimate 63% of the world population is the believers of certain kind of religions. I think the percentage of the believers is much higher than that. Undoubtedly, religion has tremendous influence on our societies all over the world. We should not be surprised that morality is mostly built on the teachings of religions. Religion could satisfy people’s needs. When the emotions of fear and the feelings of being helplessness, God will help us to encounter the problems and at least will render us with great comfort. If the problems could not be solved after seeking help from God through praying, then this should be the will of God. We are bound to suffer and we accept the fate for the eternal happiness is waiting for us at the other world known as heaven.

 

What could the philosophers offer us? They tell us to seek the absolute truth and knowledge. They tell us to behave in the ways that they think are right. They are human beings just as what we are. On what ground that we should believe them.

 

Now we could draw a conclusion that influence of religion is greatly bigger than that of philosophy on the societies all over the world. The reason is simple. We mankind need religion.

Painful to be an atheist

 

What is the origin of man's religion? Why does every culture in the world worship some divine being? Anthropologists and historians have studied this question, and presently there are three primary theories: the subjective theory, the evolutionary theory, and the theory of original monotheism.

 

The subjective theory teaches that religion originates with man. Humans have a psychological need for a transcendent being that provides meaning and hope to their existence in this vast impersonal universe. Adherents of this view believe that this religious makeup exists below our conscious awareness. Cultures have various views of reality according to their experience, but the awareness and desire for religion is a universal phenomenon. They therefore conclude that this disposition lies in our subconscious. In other words, our beliefs about a transcendent being are not the result of external realities or interactions with such a being. Rather, these beliefs derive from our psyches.

 

These feelings are expressed in more concrete terms through symbols and attitudes, not through a set of defined belief systems. As a culture progresses, these symbols and attitudes are developed into a set of beliefs and practices.

 

Several proponents were important in promoting this theory. Friedrich Schleiermacher believed that religion began with a feeling of dependence. This led to a need for an object to depend on which resulted in the idea of God. Ludwig Feuerbach taught that the concept of God is really a picture of an idealized person. Sigmund Freud believed that God derived from the basic human need for a father image. The idealized father figure becomes our image of God.

 

The subjective theory may teach us about human nature, but it does not adequately explain the origin of religion or where this universal desire to know and understand God comes from. Dr. Winfried Corduan writes, "I may carry in my subconscious mind an abstract representation of God, but I cannot on that basis conclude that there is no independently existing, objective being that is God. God may have created me with that idea so that I can relate to God." Every effect has a cause. What is the cause of this powerful desire for a relationship with God? If we are the products of a divine creator, that would explain this universal drive in all mankind to know Him because He placed this desire within us.

 

The Bible provides answers to the questions the subjective theory cannot answer. Genesis 1 states that we are created in the image of God. Therefore, we were created in the image of God with the intent to have a relationship with Him. Romans 1:20 states that all men have ingrained in their hearts a knowledge of God. Chapter 2 states that our conscience testifies that a moral law giver exists. The desire for God is a basic part of human nature.

 

I have attempted to argue that the universe was not created by God and I have tried not to be biased to be against God while writing this essay. It is our human nature to believe in God. I might have a more peaceful mind if I do believe in God. However, the passion for seeking knowledge and truth is stronger in me. I do respect religions but wars raised by religions should not be happened and the passion for seeking knowledge and truth should not be affected by religions.

 

 

King Chung Lee

7 March, 2008

[Tormod]

Very interesting writing here. I love your conclusion.

[kcl0341]

Dear Tormod,

 

Thank you for your time in reading my article "Was the universe created by God?". Your comment has given me a lot of encouragement!

 

King Lee

kcl0341

[questor]

Very thoughtful, well constructed, insightful article. The usual concept of God

or other Deities (there are many) is a man -made idea and easily rejected by a person's abilities to reason. People have difficulty describing GOD. What does he look like? Where does he live? Where is heaven located? Simple questions, but not usually thought of by worshippers. In dealing with how the universe was created, people can not get away from trying to inject God into the equation, it seems to be hard-wired in their brains, and the discussion by either side will usually be an argument about the existence of God himself.

I myself believe the universe was created by some agent. If it was not, then it has always been here or it just happened from no cause. I have no theory on what the agent was, but it was all powerful by definition. I would assume an atheist would reject the idea of causation, because he doesn't want to deal with the possibility of an all powerful being. The agent may be imbedded in gravity or time-space, or all the natural forces and we may sometime figure out what it is. In the meantime, it makes for interesting conversation.

[cooloola]

In your conclusion you state there to be a universal drive in all mankind to know god and that a desire for god is a basic part of human nature. Well, call me inhuman but i have no such desire. I personally understand that as humans we differ from other creatures in a knowledge of our mortality and that's a frightenning thing, to know you will die. So how do you get around that? How do you carry on with this knowledge? You create god (in your own image, thus most gods are human like, even fatherly) and security is restored.

Myself, an atheist, has to battle this insecurity in other ways, but that's the cross we have to bear.

Whilst your paper covered alot of ground I don't think you sold the argument either way.

[Moontanman]

I liked your article, I was concerned that some of your support for your views are based on science that could change and that change would seem to affect your conclusion. For example, what if the Big Bang is shown to be yet another false start to explain the origin of the universe and something like Brane theory is shown to better support reality, would this change your premise in any way? However, to me, your ideas on why we pursue religion are spot on.

[kcl0341]

Dear Cooloola,

 

Thank you for your comment. Like you I am an atheist. We should fight against the fear that we will die one day and should not have any hope for eternal life after death. However, a large population need religion to support them to live on without fear and hope for eternal life. Seeking for knowledge is not so important for them.

 

King Lee (kcl0341)

[kcl0341]

I liked your article, I was concerned that some of your support for your views are based on science that could change and that change would seem to affect your conclusion. For example, what if the Big Bang is shown to be yet another false start to explain the origin of the universe and something like Brane theory is shown to better support reality, would this change your premise in any way? However, to me, your ideas on why we pursue religion are spot on.

 

Hi Moontanman,

 

Thank you for your interest in reading my article and your comment too.

 

If the theory of Big Bang is proved to be wrong, certainly my premise will not have any support. However, I must start from somewhere.

 

King Lee(kcl0341)

[pamela]

hi king Lee,

I thoroughly enjoyed reading your article and would like to present some non-atheistic points on a few of your comments-

you refer to being made in the image of God this does not necessarily mean to have a relationship with him- it can be

taken as

mind=energy

soul=force

body=mass

Science and the acceptance of a creator and or god can mesh together based upon your perception. Creator or God, can be the constant, and the why or what before the big bang or other theories.

There are various beliefs in Creationism that would lock god into a set of man made rules.Creating the world in six days for example.The concept of time was created by man and not necessarily god. In our thinking, doing this in 6 days or 6000 years is not valid as we know the earth to be much older.God does not subscribe to man made time-

A day IS AS a thousand years-this is not an absolute its conjecture.

 

you refer to the blessings of god, and how good people suffer more than bad. Is suffering bad? I for one, could not have gained much knowledge had I not suffered thru various circumstances. When I hike up a mountain, my body is physically suffering, yet the view at the top was well worth the pain.Not to mention, the beauty I saw along the way.

 

I do not walk in fear and hope as you commented to Cooloola, we live, we learn,we love, we pass thru the fabric to what is next. I seek knowledge and love in this universe.I love to learn and I learn to love-they are innertwined.I am not random, nor am I controlled by fate.I am because of the choices I make, and the energy that is released from that into the fabric of our universe.

[ldibart]

I do believe the universe to have been created by "GOD" an example is the photon this carries information in it to bring to our minds (through our eyes) and our minds decodes it so we have sight.."and the darkness comprehended it not"

 

so darkness is lack of information.

[Moontanman]

I do believe the universe to have been created by "GOD" an example is the photon this carries information in it to bring to our minds (through our eyes) and our minds decodes it so we have sight.."and the darkness comprehended it not"

 

so darkness is lack of information.

 

I am genuinely curious, what does this have to with God or how is any of this evidence for the universe being created by God?

[ldibart]

I am genuinely curious, what does this have to with God or how is any of this evidence for the universe being created by God?

 

OH sorry, I thought it was clear ... it is an outside source carrying information in itself, to be able to collect information and bring it to us, this to me shows a purpose and a point to it.

 

the purpose and point of the information being carried in it, is to deliver it to us so we can see..

 

why would this not be considered evidence?

[Moontanman]

OH sorry, I thought it was clear ... it is an outside source carrying information in itself, to be able to collect information and bring it to us, this to me shows a purpose and a point to it.

 

the purpose and point of the information being carried in it, is to deliver it to us so we can see..

 

why would this not be considered evidence?

 

Well first photons gather nothing, they are simply emitted by certain things and absorbed by others. they gather nothing. Secondly the human eye is blind to a lions share of photons in the universe so we are still in the dark to most of the universe. So i don't see how the existence of photons has anything to do with God.

[ldibart]

Well first photons gather nothing, they are simply emitted by certain things and absorbed by others. they gather nothing. Secondly the human eye is blind to a lions share of photons in the universe so we are still in the dark to most of the universe. So i don't see how the existence of photons has anything to do with God.

 

they do not carry information to our eyes? and our minds through our eyes, do not decode this information for us to see?..is this what you are saying?

[Moontanman]

they do not carry information to our eyes? and our minds through our eyes, do not decode this information for us to see?..is this what you are saying?

 

Photons do indeed carry information about a very small part of the universe but they gather nothing. They have no intent and they do not purposely go into our eyes. Are you suggesting that people who are blind are somehow not of God or are disconnected to God? We can gather much information that doesn't involve photons, is this information not of God?

[ldibart]

Photons do indeed carry information about a very small part of the universe but they gather nothing. They have no intent and they do not purposely go into our eyes. Are you suggesting that people who are blind are somehow not of God or are disconnected to God? We can gather much information that doesn't involve photons, is this information not of God?

 

 

They have no intent in themselves, the point I am trying to make is the intent was in the "maker" of the photon. the intent is shown in the photons ability to "carry information about a very small part of the universe" now of course a photon does plenty of other things as well..but I was isolating 1 of its abilities.

 

As far as your statement, that I somehow am suggesting people who are blind are disconnected to God, no of course not..

 

It only shows that we need eyes to help translate the information of the photon and if the eyes being part of the information system is damaged you can not decode it properly IE blind.

 

for the last question I believe God created all energies and anything these energies do was put in them with a purpose ..not that they are self aware.

 

more like, a programmer and his/her program the program shows the intent of the programmer.

[Moontanman]

They have no intent in themselves, the point I am trying to make is the intent was in the "maker" of the photon. the intent is shown in the photons ability to "carry information about a very small part of the universe" now of course a photon does plenty of other things as well..but I was isolating 1 of its abilities.

 

As far as your statement, that I somehow am suggesting people who are blind are disconnected to God, no of course not..

 

It only shows that we need eyes to help translate the information of the photon and if the eyes being part of the information system is damaged you can not decode it properly IE blind.

 

for the last question I believe God created all energies and anything these energies do was put in them with a purpose ..not that they are self aware.

 

more like, a programmer and his/her program the program shows the intent of the programmer.

 

Then we're perfectly aligned, I do not believe a God had anything to do with any of it. I can tell you many things about photons and where they come from and what they do, how and why our eyes detect them how that information is translated by the brain and none of these things require a god in any form at all. No needed for a god in the universe for it to exist.