Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.


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Deism :

An Enlightenment era response to the Roman Catholic version of Theism, in which the supernatural deity interacts and intervenes with humans via visions & miracles, and rules his people through a human dictator. Deists rejected most of the supernatural stuff, but retained an essential role for a First Cause creator, who must be respected as the quintessence of our world, but not worshipped like a tyrant. The point of Deism is not to seek salvation, but merely understanding.
                                                           [ click here for What Deism Is ]

Deist :
Deism can be described as a rational, science-based worldview with pragmatic reasons for believing in a non-traditional non-anthro-morphic deity, rather than a faith-based belief system relying on the imaginative official myths of a minor ancient culture. So a Deist does not live by faith, but by reason. However, on topics where science is still uncertain (see Qualia), Deists feel free to use their reasoning powers to develop plausible beliefs that lie outside the current paradigm.                                                            [ See Neo-Deism ]

Dualism; Duality :
Descartes’ Dualism argued that the real world was composed of two “substances” : physical spatial Body and metaphysical non-spatial Soul. But modern Science is based on Materialistic Monism. Now Quantum science has theorized that the foundation of reality is non-spatial non-local fields of potential energy, that seem more like Soul than Body. So the Enformationism worldview is both monistic and dualistic. The single “substance” of our world is metaphysical EnFormAction, which is equivalent to all-pervading fields of energy or spirit. But all things we know with our physical senses are bodies, that are atomistic in the sense that they can be added & divided.

GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY

Chaos :
In ancient Greek creation myths Chaos was the void state preceding the creation of the universe or cosmos. It literally means "emptiness", but can also refer to a random undefined unformed state that was changed into the orderly law-defined enformed Cosmos. In modern Cosmology, Chaos can represent the eternal/infinite state from which the Big Bang created space/time. In that sense of infinite Potential, it is an attribute of G*D, whose power of EnFormAction converts possibilities (Platonic Forms) into actualities (physical things).
                                                            [see  1]    [ click here for popup ]

Consciousness :
Literally : to know with. To be aware of the world subjectively (self-knowledge) and objectively (other knowing). Humans know Quanta via physical senses & analysis, and Qualia via meta-physical reasoning & synthesis. In the Enformationism thesis, Consciousness is viewed as an emergent form of basic mathematical Information.
                                                [ see Note 2 & 3; see Post 34 & 35 ]

Cognitive Dissonance :

Cognitive dissonance is the mental discomfort (psychological stress) experienced by a person who simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values. The occurrence of cognitive dissonance is a consequence of a person's performing an action that contradicts personal beliefs, ideals, and values; and also occurs when confronted with new information that contradicts their beliefs, ideals, and values.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Cultural Evolution :

Cultural evolution” is the idea that human cultural change –– that is, changes in socially transmitted beliefs, knowledge, customs, skills, attitudes, languages, and so on –– can be described as a Darwinian evolutionary process that is similar in key respects (but not identical) to biological/genetic evolution.                          [ See Oxford Research ]

3. Awareness :
The Enformationism theory implies that the universe may be permeated by generic information that takes many forms, one of which is Consciousness. But while that sounds like Panpsychism, I don’t think atoms know what’s going on in any sense remotely like human consciousness. But there is another way to look at the universal mind.
   At its root, Awareness may be essentially a positive or negative mathematical Ratio between a stable state (rest), and a dynamic state (motion). All things tend toward the rest state, but are deflected away by original momentum of the Big Bang, or by collisions with other moving or static things.
   From that abstract perspective, Consciousness is merely a complex form of basic information (energy) exchange. It manifests on the human scale as Attraction or Aversion. The Ancient Greeks called it “Love” or “Desire”. And scientists call it “Force” or “Energy”. As an attractive force we call it gravity or magnetism.
   So, consciousness and awareness emerge from fundamental interactions of physics, that cause things to “perceive” other things, and to react : like a billiard ball at rest, which responds to the energy of a moving ball, by aversion. Or like a magnet, it responds to other magnets depending on the polarization, by moving away or pulling together.
   For humans awareness is intimately related to self-consciousness, and imagery. But on the sub-atomic scale, it may be nothing more than addition & subtraction.

1. Chaos
    as Latent Potential :
“Eternity” & “Infinity”, as all-encompassing universals and generalities, are obviously ideal & unreal concepts. But we find them useful for logical reasoning because they must exist, in some sense, in order for the real & actual things to exist. That logical “sense” can be defined as Latent Potential, in that it is unmanifest creative power. The actual manifest form of that dormant energy is what I call EnFormAction.

2. Mind as Awareness &    Consciousness, Soul &    Spirit :
In the Enformationism theory, Mind is a generic term for an information processor. Every physical object in the world has some ability to process information in the form of Energy. Animated beings have evolved the additional ability to extract meaning in the sense of Awareness of their surroundings. Some animals also possess self-awareness. But as far as we know, only human animals have evolved the rational faculty that the ancients called “soul” : the creative power to Enform.

The convenient concept of crazy Chaos :

   In a literary sense, Chaos is synonymous with :
disorder, disarray, disorganization, confusion, mayhem, bedlam, pandemonium, havoc, turmoil, tumult, commotion, disruption, upheaval, uproar, maelstrom, etc. But in creation myths, it was the unformed creative potential (Void, Abyss, Forms) from which the enformed Cosmos was created.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_(cosmogony)

   In a scientific analogy, Chaos is equivalent to the universal Quantum Field : a theoretical model of the mathematical source of physical particles. Quantum Field theory was devised to deal with baffling infinities that ended attempts to calculate Quantum quantities. Eventually, physicists resorted to symbolism rather than calculation. The immaterial field was imagined as a void of ghostly Virtual Particles that had the potential to become Real Things under certain conditions.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_field_theory

   But in the Enformationism myth of cosmic origins, Chaos represents a timeless state of statistical Potential : mathematics made real. It’s not a crazy commotion of atoms, but merely a static state of Mind in meditation. It symbolizes the eternal Mind of G*D with infinite creative potential, that triggered by Will or Intention, actualizes certain possibilities. Enformed Cosmos emerges from formless Chaos.

What Deism IS :

1. Not an organized Religion. It’s a personal philosophical worldview, based on the best information available from universal history & science, but not from sectarian scriptures.

2. Not a form of Paganism or Nature Worship. Most Deists appreciate the wonders of Nature, but do not personify Mother Nature as a deity.

3. Similar, but not identical, to Panpsychism. The Deist worldview holds that Minds (souls) are not an afterthought, but were integral to the original design. Hence, metaphysical Life & Mind emerge at the appropriate point in the long-term development of physical Evolution.

4. Not a fatalistic faith in a Do-nothing Deity. The axiomatic Great Architect seems to have designed a program for evolution of a world intended for some un-known ultimate purpose. But apparently, S/he did not intend to create an idyllic Garden of Eden, but an evolving Cosmos. Since there is no objective sign of divine intervention (miracles) – apart from folk myths and dramatic embellishments of gossip – Deists assume that G*D’s sole supernatural miracle was limited to creating the world system ex nihilo. Within that on-going system, G*D’s intervention is carried-out by creatures within the system, as proxies or avatars of the Do-everything Deity.

5. An Alternative to Atheism and Materialism :
http://bothandblog4.enformationism.info/page32.html