"Origins - Cosmic Beginnings and Human Ends - Where Science and Religion Meet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dobson John)

Origins
Copyright й 1993 by John Dobson

This essay has been reprinted from:
Cosmic Beginnings & Human Ends: Where Science & Religion Meet
From Open Court Publishing Co., 1995


This essay is John Dobson's answers to a Questionnaire from the 1993 Parliament of Religions


QUESTION #1: What are your views on cosmic beginnings, particularly with reference to the origins of the universe, of life, and of homo sapiens?


THE ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE

For one who feels that the Big Bang cosmology is not well supported by the observational evidence, and for one who suspects that the Universe may not have had a beginning at all, any discussion of "cosmic beginnings" with respect to the "origin" of the Universe must take on a rather odd look. If the Universe could be "actual", i.e. if it could have arisen through some process of physics, then its beginning could be considered to be a "happening in time" and a discussion of "origins" would be in order. But if, as I have suggested, the Universe might be apparitional, rather than actual, then the discussion of origins must take the form of an investigation into the nature of the apparition. We must know what might be behind the apparition, what are the consequences of such an apparition, and whether they correspond to what we see. Also, we should see whether or not the notion that the Universe is apparitional might help to explain some of the things which heretofore we have had to take for granted.

For instance, Newton's laws of motion take inertia for granted. Special relativity takes space and time for granted. General relativity takes gravity for granted. Quantum electrodynamics takes electricity for granted as well as Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Pauli's Verbot (Pauli's exclusion principle). But must we take all this for granted? Or can we, with the Advaita Vedantins, put an apparitional first cause under our physics?

Although in the Big Bang models everything we see must be traced back to the original fireball, in a Steady State model everything must be traced back to the primordial hydrogen, made of electricity and inertia, and falling together by gravity to galaxies and stars. And the question is: can we understand that this primordial hydrogen with its gravity, electricity, and inertia could arise apparitionally from what underlies the apparition? And can we, in the light of this apparitional model, understand why the electron doesn't sit down on the proton in a hydrogen atom (in spite of the enormous electrical attraction between them), and why the spin-one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics? (i.e. why they obey Pauli's Verbot?)

To ask what might exist behind such an apparition is to ask what might exist in the absence of matter, energy, space and time, and it is easy to get an answer to that question in terms of negation. In the absence of time we are left with the changeless, since change can take place only in time. And since smallness and dividedness can exist only in space, in the absence of space we are left with the infinite, the undivided.

So what I am suggesting is that by seeing what we see as if in space and time, we might have mistaken the changeless, the infinite, the undivided for something else. And the question is whether that something else could be expected to take the form of the Universe as we see it. I am suggesting that the nature of the apparition is seeing what we see as if in space and time, and that what's behind the apparition is the changeless, the infinite, the undivided. So our remaining question is: what would be the consequences of such an apparition, and do these consequences correspond to what we see?

Now this apparitional causation, as I call it, was analyzed a long time ago in India by the Advaita Vedantins and the Buddhists, and they came to some very interesting conclusions. They pointed out that in order to mistake a rope for a snake you must fail to see the rope rightly (as in the twilight). This they called the veiling power of tamas. Then you must jump to the wrong conclusion (that it's a snake). This they called the projecting power of rajas . But also they pointed out that you must have seen the rope to start with (in the partial light of twilight) or the mistake might have taken some more arbitrary form. This they called the revealing power of sattva. The length and diameter of the rope are simply misinterpreted as the length and diameter of a snake.

This apparitional causation was referred to by the Vedantins as vivarta , and it was contrasted with parinama , transformational causation, (as when milk is transformed into buttermilk, or as when gravitational energy is transformed into kinetic energy in the downward swing of a pendulum). What we ordinarily think of nowadays as causation is what the Vedantins called parinama . It involves the transformation of energy from one form to another without any change in the amount. And it is governed by the conservation laws. The energy that goes into a process at the beginning comes out at the end. The form may change but not the amount. Now, since the Universe is made out of energy, it cannot have arisen by transformation, except from energy. It cannot arise from nothing. You can get a Universe out of a Universe by transformational causation, but you can't get it out of nothing. However, it can arise from the underlying existence by apparition.

So if the "origin" of the Universe is apparitional, and if the nature of the apparition is seeing what we see as if in space and time, and if what's behind the apparition is the changeless, the infinite, the undivided, then the consequences of such an apparition would be that we would see the changeless as if changing, the infinite as if finite, and the undivided as if divided. But, because of the revealing power, we must have seen the changeless in the changing, and that is what I see as inertia; we must have seen the infinite in the finite, and that is what I see as the electrical charge of the minuscule particles; and we must have seen the undivided in the divided, and that is what I see as gravity. And thus far these consequences do correspond to what we see. And they also provide a possible explanation for gravity, electricity and inertia, which heretofore we have had to take for granted.

As I see it, the only reason the Universe is energetically wound up is because it is apparitional. (In an apparition the underlying existence must show through.) Otherwise the dispersed particles could stay dispersed. What would be the need for gravity if the undivided didn't have to show through in the apparition? And the minuscule particles could remain uncharged. What would be the need for the electrical charge if the infinite didn't have to show through in the apparition? And why should matter show inertia? Why should it fight every change in its state of motion except for the fact that the changeless has to show in the changes of the apparition? As I see it, gravity, electricity, and inertia are simply the nature of the underlying existence showing through in the apparition through what the Vedantins call the revealing power.

We see (as a pair of opposites) a gravitational "plurality" against an electrical "duality". That is, the gravitational rest energy of the proton is related to its separation in the gravitational field from all the rest of the matter in the observable Universe, whereas its electrical rest energy is related only to its smallness in the electrical field and to its separation from a single electron. But if the Universe is apparitional, something must prevent the demise of the electrical duality in the presence of the gravitational plurality. As I see it, that is why matter obeys Heisenberg's uncertainty principle. And likewise, something must prevent the demise of the gravitational plurality in the presence of the duality. And that, as I see it, is why spin-one-half particles obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, or Pauli's Verbot. (The demise of the electrical duality is not prevented for an electron and a positron or for a proton and an anti-proton. But in the presence of the gravitational dissimilarity of the electron and the proton in the primordial hydrogen, it is prevented by Heisenberg's uncertainty principle.) Similarly, two spin-one-half particles (i.e. protons, electrons, and neutrons) in the presence of that spin-duality cannot occupy the same energy state. (That is, they obey Fermi-Dirac statistics, i.e. Pauli's Verbot.) That's what prevents the gravitational collapse of a neutron star.

As I see it, the reason we had to take space and time, gravity, electricity and inertia, as well as Heisenberg's uncertainly principle and Pauli's exclusion principle for granted is simply because they all arise by apparition and not by any transformation. So in the absence of an understanding of the "first cause" we had no model on the basis of which we could understand them.

If there is anything to this suggestion, i.e. that the Universe might have arisen by apparition--that the first cause might be apparitional (and it's certainly counter- intuitive), then it would seem to me that in order to avoid representing any change in the changeless it must have arisen as pairs of opposites so that the total linear momentum, the total angular momentum and the total electrical charge of the observable Universe should be zero. If it could be shown that there is an overall residual momentum or electrical charge, I should deem this suggestion to have failed. And if, as this suggestion seems to imply, hydrogen is the primordial apparition, then it would seem that neither the proton nor the electron should decay. If they arise by apparition, how could they decay by transformation within that apparition? If it can be shown that the proton does indeed decay, then I should suspect that this suggestion may have failed.

It will be of no use to suggest that this is metaphysics and need not be taken seriously. Anything which influences the existence or behavior of what we see as matter is within the domain of physics.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


STEADY STATE vs. BIG BANG

Since this apparitional cosmology rather favors a Steady State model over the Big Bang Models, perhaps I should say something about what drives the cosmic expansion. Perhaps, also, I should discuss the source of the microwave background radiation and the "new hydrogen" needed to keep up the cosmic density. Then, too, I should say something about the helium abundance and about what has come to be called the "dark matter".