In the beginning ...

“In the beginning … the earth was formless and void” (Genesis, 1; commentary by JMS, in the beginning there was chaos and the void and things have not changed much since, except that entropy has been increasing, which is paradoxical) “Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if thou hast the understanding. Who determined the measures thereof, if thou knowest? Or who stretched the line upon it? Whereupon were the foundations thereof fastened? Or who laid the corner-stone thereof” (The Book of Job, 38) “O world of spring and autumn, birth and dying! The endless cycle of idea and action, Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, and ignorance of the Word. All our knowledge brings us nearer to death, But nearness to death no nearer to God. Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information? The cycles of Heaven in twenty centuries Brings us farther from God and nearer to the Dust” (Choruses from the Rock, T. S. Eliot) What is reality and what can we know? I know that the square root of 2 is not a rational number. So much for rationality. I learned from my father than the ancient Hebrews had to approximate the value of  in order to build the temple in Jerusalem. We can approximate irrationality … well, the truth is that we embody irrationality. I believe that everything I see is real but what I see is what probably existed a few nanoseconds ago. Why believe the future will resemble the past? What evidence can exist to establish that the future (that which has not been experienced) will resemble the past (what has been experienced)? We think time moves in only one direction, yet in space we can walk back and forth, pacing, trying to understand who we are and why we are here. But we are told that time and space are interrelated … there is just space-time … and, by the way, it is curved. Why does HE/SHE/IT/THEY keep throwing curve balls? Why should there be light? Well, maybe HE/SHE/IT/THEY is faster than a speeding bullet but not faster than the speed of light … only nothing can go faster than the speed of light … remember that beginning … there was nothing … just chaos and the void … moving faster than the speed of light … OR, maybe in the beginning there was stuff and nonsense and things have not changed much since. Somewhere long ago I read that creation stories exist in many different cultures and religions around the world … is that not odd? I now suspect that rumors can travel faster than the speed of light. Who could know what there was in the beginning? What does ‘the beginning’ even mean? I met a girl and thought it was the beginning of something special. I might have been mistaken. But there is no mistake in my proof that the square root of 2 is not a rational number. Why should irrational numbers exist? Do they exist? I can count the pages in a book and determine whether there is an odd number or an even number of pages. Things that can be numbered must be odd or even. Must? How about the number of grains of sand on Pensacola Beach. Grains of sand, while small, can be counted and numbered, so the number of grains of sand on Pensacola Beach must be odd or even. Who will do the counting and how long will it take. Meanwhile, the tides come and gp while the “women come and go talking of Michelangelo” (my apologies to T. S. Eliot). Grains of sand are deposited on the beach and some are swept away while the counting continues. Sometimes, numbers are not only irrational … they are irrelevant. Where were you while I was counting the grains of sand on Pensacola Beach and measuring out my days with coffee spoons (I just can’t get J. Alfred out of my head). Wittgenstein said that what was mysterious (i.e., unknowable) was why there was anything at all (Tractatus, 6.44). The world … why should it exist … created in six days followed by a day of rest in some traditions … the Tractatus consisting of 6 propositions (with sub-statements) followed by the remarkable conclusion that what we cannot speak about [meaningfully] we must pass over in silence (see https://www.gutenberg.org/files/5740/5740-pdf.pdf). When one starts out in life (I started out much younger, by the way), one has no idea how it will end. I wonder, if there is a God who got things going, did HE/SHE/IT/THEY know how it would end or if it would end. Must it end? What happens when entropy reaches infinity? (Who could know? Some questions have no answer.

The rise and the fall

My older and wiser brother (Daniel Earl Spector, born Dec 19th in 1942, now resting in peace for several years) was one of the very few people I know who read The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (a six volume treatise by Edward Gibbon which is critical of Islam, Judaism and Christianity and ultimately blames both the rise and the fall on Christians although many factors contributed to the fall, including corruption, invasion, slave labor, economic problems, and the rise of Eastern empires – all currently existing factors). Were my brother still with us and available to advise those in and out of power, his advice would probably be to read Gibbon’s work and learn from history that greed and lies do not a stable society make. “Notice how the chest rises when praising one’s own accomplishments.” “Notice how the jaw drops when blaming others for real and imagined ills.” “Brow beating and chest pounding do not a truth make.” The unfilled need to be praised is betrayed by the fake news that one embraces. I remember my brother telling me more than 60 years ago that what happened in Nazi Germany could happen in America. I did not believe him then but have since come to my senses. It is happening here. And now. In plain sight. With no shame but lots of blame to go around and around and back again. I used to think the path to insight and knowledge was through logic and philosophy. My brother thought it was through memory and history. Someone said "It's not the earth the meek inherit ... it's the dirt" ... If one's worth is judged by the number and quality of one's friends, then I am amazingly wealthy. ... And yet in the midst of racism, intolerance, injustice, greed and hate there is beauty and innocence and grace ... and yet there is hope for this species called the race to the bottom ... mike see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceX5jJ5fggs also https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw