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Laws? We Don't Need No Stickin' Laws

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Posted by Harvey on October 23, 2002 23:42:44 UTC

Phillip,

***So, you can break Universal laws at your own bidding? Those "... certain simple rules" are the rules that you must obey in order to drive your car to a particular destination. (From what I gathered...) that is what Yaniru meant by saying that.***

No, using the analogy that I mentioned, God is the 'driver' of the universe - not the 'laws' (I am just an infinitestimal auto part on that 'car'). And, as the 'driver', God can make or break whatever 'law' he chooses. The reason is that there are no such kind of ultimate physical laws in the first place. Laws, as I see it, are only 'just so' in that they are in response to God's will, they do not fully dictate God's will (although I'm not saying that God's will does not consider what the laws are and desires to maintain their predictiveness).

***Every choice that you make is based on laws, every decision, every photon that you 'see,' everything that will ever happen will happen based upon these laws.***

Not in my view. Everything you do, everything you decide, and every photon that you 'see', everything that will ever happen or will happen is based on God's will. It just so happens that the will of God includes certain lawlike behavior for the universe. However, there's nothing but God to stop the universe from being 'lawless'. For that matter, there's nothing but God to prevent the universe from 'not existing' the next Planck moment. This is all my opinion, of course.

***If the laws are known, and the position and values of every particle in existance, then it can be programmed into a computer... after all, the Universe, and anything beyond, is but a supercomputer. It only makes calculations based on the laws of itself. UIt cannot break these laws, and if it were to break a law, that law never was a law, just a coincidence based on other laws. Existance: a math problem. The Universe cannot, as far as I know, just make up stuff that doesn't agree with pre-determined laws. It cannot happen.***

This is all an illusion as far as I'm concerned. The 'requirements' of the universe are not self-imposed. The 'requirements' (if you want to call them that) are simply the way the universe appears to act (and as far as we know has acted up until now). However, I don't anything beyond God that can prevent the universe from changing course and behaving a different set of 'laws'. But, I would say, rest assured, the universe is not about to unravel, God prevents it from doing so.

***However, as far as I have thought, the Universe is the simplest, and most complicated computer that can calculate anything with any accuracy.***

Depending how you define the term 'calculate', the universe (i.e., the observable universe) does not calculate anything as far as we know. The material universe is a causal web of interconnected 'cells' of quarks, leptons, and other elementary particles (i.e., at least the observable universe appears to be made of such elementary particles). Perhaps one day we will be able to reduce this number to even fewer elementary particles (e.g., strings), but for now this is the most we know about the universe. As an interconnected web, the observable universe is a chain of occurring (apparent) particle events which behave in apparent lawlike fashion. We certainly don't know how simple or complex the process of interconnection and occurring events actually is. It might be that the human brain simplifies these processes because that's how our evolved brains process information.

***It is reality, it defines reality. Reality would be different if there were one particle less than there currently are.***

It all depends on how you define the word 'Universe'. If you mean everything that exists or could exist or did exist, then I would agree that the Universe is reality. However, if you mean the material universe, then there is every bit of indication that matter originated at the Big Bang and that 'something' preceded physical matter into existence. Therefore, in that sense, the physical universe of matter could not be reality in the full sense of the word since something caused it and came 'before' it.

Warm regards, Harv

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