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V.J. Chalupa On Post-Modern Politics
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CHAPTER 18 EVERYTHING OUT OF
NOTHING - A METAPHYSICAL COMMENT (Notes
belonging to this chapter follow it immediately.) The
logical impossibility of an effect without cause ("the prime cause")
leads to the conclusion that explanation requires the utilization of another
explanatory principle, namely freedom. Reality exists because it is willed by
its creator. This answer while logically correct is empirically impossible: it
is a physical impossibility to create something out of nothing. Two explanations
have been devised to overcome this problem. (1) The Subject of Freedom acted on
existing primordial chaos - creation consists of imposing order on the chaos,
being is the result of this order. (2) Because creation of something out of
nothing is, under the laws of physics, an impossibility, and because reality
exists, it is logically necessary to assume that reality is a part of the
Creator. While
the dilemma of something arising from nothing is impossible to solve within the
framework of physics, it is possible to solve it within the framework of
mathematics. Mathematically it is possible to create something out of nothing by
dividing nothing (0) into plus and minus infinity, or rather plus and minus of
near-infinity (because mathematical manipulations with infinity are impossible).
The emergence of existence from nothing can be therefore expressed by two
equations (see annotations at the end of this chapter):
Nothing (non-existence, absence of being): 0=0.
Emergence of being: (∞ - 1/∞) = (∞ - 1/∞). This
equation symbolizes the thought that is the act of creation. (1)
To conceive such a thought requires logically a Mind able to formulate it, a
Mind beyond time and space because they are Its creation, a Mind that is Being {2}
and the only being besides whom there is nothing, absence of anything:
nothing does not exist, it literally is non-existence, nothing {3}. This Mind is omnipotent because only It exists and there
is nothing that could oppose It, and by this limitless power calls forth
existence and maintains it. From
this basic equation, an almost infinite number of equations can be derived
without violating its validity: from a simple 5 = 5 through a more complex
4+1=3+2, to a more diversified 111+2-54+1-45
= (333x4) - (72x18)+9-30 all the way to equations including integers and
differentials and other magic of modern mathematics. Insofar and because numbers
and symbols of equations represent like music various frequencies of vibrations,
it is possible to picture the universe as a gigantic symphony, a harmony of
spheres. Its
existence derives from one basic truth: being is better than non-being. Becoming
is the actualization of potentialities programmed into this symphony by its
originator, and like each symphony it begins, unfolds and ends. Assuming that
the unfolding of reality can be conceived as the implementation of laws of the
cosmic equation and its gradual solution, then its final form can be derived
from its basic principle that being
is better than non-being: it would not be return to its beginning --
nothingness-- by placing all the pluses and minuses in their purity on one side
of the cosmic equation: +(∞ - 1/∞) - (∞ - 1/∞) = 0, but
by placing them on opposite sides of the equation: [+](∞ - 1/∞) =
[-] (∞ - 1/∞). This solution preserves existence beyond time and
change by preventing its positive and negative values from combining and
collapsing into nothing. {4} An
act of will presupposes a goal, a purpose. The above quoted conclusion of
physics, namely the anthropic principle, can be accepted as its description, if
expanded by the understanding and appreciation of the creation through inclusion
of the knowledge and appreciation of the Creator: There is no better explanation
of the reason why the physical facts of the cosmos are those they are, except
the assumption that the cosmos aims at the creation of intelligent beings who
can comprehend and appreciate it and its Creator. On the other hand, it
discloses the nature of Him: the act of creation is a gratuitous gift to beings
who would otherwise never existed, to share in His life, perfection and
happiness. In
the equations expressing the unfolding of the physical universe there are pluses
and minuses: elements that implement the harmony of the universe, those of
becoming, and those of entropy. Life and man are a protest, a revolution against
this process of backsliding into nothing. But because man is a being endowed
with freedom, he can go both ways. He can be likened to a musician who was given
the freedom to enrich a symphony by his own improvisations. This leaves him the
freedom either to enrich it - or to disturb and disrupt it. It gives him even
the freedom to pronounce judgment on his Creator (5).The causality to which he is subjected limits his freedom (6)
and ties him to the perishability of matter, but the spark of freedom enhanced
by the intention of the Creator (7)
helps him to contribute worthily to the symphony of the spheres.
However, mankind has used this freedom to accumulate - in the past and in
the future -- such a monstrous heap of iniquities not only in the sleaziness of
private lives of individuals, but by organized mass destruction of lives
beginning with the extermination of entire tribes and ethnic communities to the
hundreds of thousands of the victims of Nazism, the tens of millions of lives
destroyed by Communism, the hundreds of millions of human beings killed by
abortion and the billions whose being was artifically prevented,
so that God Himself in the person of His Son had to assume on Himself the
sins of the world to bring the equation of good and evil in balance and to
return the unfolding of the Cosmos to its right path {8}. T.G.Masaryk,
a Czech philosopher and statesman, concluded
that the first duty of everybody was to seek understanding of the plan of
Providence and then to advance it by each action of everyday life. He called
this relationship "synergism of man with God". It is an acceptable way
to define absolute good and absolute evil: man's cooperation with the Creator's
plan of being is the absolute good, man's disrupting it, reverting being towards
nothingness, is the absolute evil. Such are, too, the absolute standards for
political action. Notes: (1)
John 1, vs.1-3. In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat
Verbum. Hoc erat in principio apud Deum. Omnia per ipsum facta sunt: et sine
ipso factum est nihil quod factum est. (in ipso vita erat, et vita erat lux
hominum: et lux in tenebris lucet et tenebrae eum non comprehenderunt.) (2)
"I am who am" - I am the
only Being. {3}John
1, vs.5: lux in tenebris lucet {4}
Coexistence of haven and hell "forever". (5)
John Paul II, Crossing the Threshold of Hope (6)
"original sin" manifesting itself in the darkening of reason and
inclination of the will to evil {7}grace
derived from God's decision that being is better than non-being expressed by his
will to save everyone, even sinners. (8) and continues to do so in the sacrament of the eucharistic sacrifice continuously through his Church.
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