The conflict of existence

 In reality, all existence is controlled by just two forces – the force of good and the force of evil. Different cultures refer to them differently - light and dark, white and black, or perhaps vying and yang (a representation of white and black).  I am sure there are also other terms I have not heard. All relate to some aspect of light.

What is darkness? The absence of light. In my 20s I spent some recreation time in spelunking (cave exploration). If you turn off all sources of light you are using, the cave becomes absolutely dark. You can put something right in front of your eye, but you will not be able to see even the faintest outline of your finger. This is a blackness you will never see on the surface. You may stand in the middle of a desert with both sun and moon on the opposite side of the earth, and no moisture in the sky to reflect light from surface sources. Even here you will never experience such a blackness, because the stars provide enough light to see your finger before you eye. Similarly, something white is reflecting all colors of the rainbow, while something black is absorbing all colors of the rainbow.

 Likewise, evil can be said to emit no goodness at all. The 'color' black absorbs all light waves and emits none. Or, like darkness, evil lurks in locations where it has minimal contact with goodness. In other words, the force of evil is a vacuum, sucking in anything good and releasing none.

I guess the conflict between good and evil, could be compared to the view I am seeing out the window. The light of morning sun has driven darkness into deep crevices. White snow is brightly reflecting the sunlight. There are morning shadows across the snow, dulling the reflection brightness. I see bare grey trees, and I see some green evergreens. Our life can be like that. You probably have known some people who are filled with the joy of life and are ready to help when needed – brightly reflecting the goodness of life. You likely know others whose goodness is shaded. They are willing to give when asked, but they face problems making them less free to reflect the goodness of life. Then there are those grey individuals, who are basically good, but have some (often hidden) dishonorable characteristics. Finally, there are “green” people who are constantly praised for an involvement which is good, but who otherwise reflects no goodness at all (and who may be covering evil actions elsewhere).

Perhaps one reason for the Star Wars popularity is these movies’ effective capture of the conflict between good and evil, with which we are constantly confronted.

Is our universe intertwined with another one?

 

Life as a human is an interesting period of time. Every person is the same, but different. And, in many ways, humans share characteristics with all animals. With some, we share many characteristics, but others with few. For example, all animals, whether worm or Elephant, have a brain which organizes and controls life. As we work upward to more and more complex animals, the brain also becomes more complex. When we get to humans, the brain takes care of all body needs. Once everything is in order, they tend to focus one or all of six questions every time something new comes before them. The questions: Who, What, Why, Where, When, and How. Many questions associated with our home, the Earth, have been answered. There is one very difficult question, however, that has become high on our list. Basically, it is ‘the nature of our universe.’ Bits and pieces of the answer have been collected. Complex computers have been able to theoretically reverse movement of the many stars, and calculate the time our universe was born. This is currently called “The Big Bang.” But what actually happened? It does appear that Einstein’s theory, energy = mass times speed of light squared (E = MC²) is correct, although reversed. It should be M = E/C². Therefore, the ‘Big Bang’ was not an explosion, but the sudden appearance of an unbelievably immense quantity of energy. Based on the chemistry we now know, it is assumed that this energy first created hydrogen, from which larger elements would then have been created.

Where would that energy have come from? That is a question that is probably unanswerable. What we can say is that, from the elements that were created our universe is built using four-dimension components – height, depth, distance, and irreversible time. We may argue on how much time it took to happen, but we know that a nice big solid ball was created and we call it Earth. Another, much larger and hotter ball, was also formed, and it keeps us warm. We look into the night air, and we see many distant big hot balls, which we call stars. All of this is slowly moving around, and we call it our universe. Thus, we are comfortable with what we have worked out. There may also be other separated universes, but they are of no concern to us.

There is one thing that does concern us, though. Periodically, people report seeing unusual, undesirable things in the air. Officially, they have been ignored and called imagination. Pictures and solid descriptions, however, keep cropping up. Furthermore, they have been observed coming out of water and even solid land. As we look into history, we find many more strange things. Construction with immense, cut stones. Things built on arithmetically precise calculations that no one would have been using at the time. Knives found in pyramids that were identical to those used today in hospital surgery. Reports and stories of people nine feet tall. Stories of strange ‘persons’ that looked nothing like today’s humans – and usually called gods. No longer can reports of unidentified flying objects be ignored. But how can one explain them?

One explanation that has been suggested is that another universe is intertwined with us. But why can’t we see it if that is the situation? First of all, we are in a huge three-dimensional ‘box’, working under unidirectional, irreversible time. We can’t conceive of anything outside this box. But is it possible? Physicists have suggested that there might be 10 dimensions. Consider: if we were in contact with a two-dimensional universe, they might see spots as we passed through their flat universe, but could only actually see us if our path happened to coordinate with their two dimensions. If we were to be in contact with another universe in a different ‘box,’ we would, likewise, only see them if they move within our dimensions. In addition, if we are in contact with another universe there is nothing that would prevent it being formed in a completely different system. We live in a box, as already indicated, and have no ability to conceive anything different. But our whole universe is built from nothing more than energy. Who is to say that something entirely different might also be created from energy?

When I was in school, the electron (about 4 x 10^-10 centimeters diameter) was considered the smallest item possible. Since then, the electron has been split, and several smaller units observed for less than a second before disappearing completely. All considered, these can be assumed packets of negative energy. So far as we know, every element in our universe, from hydrogen[1] to Lawrencium,[2] is constructed of similar but larger positive protons collected in groups, called nucleus, and surrounded by negative electrons. We cannot envision any other system, but if everything in our universe is actually constructed of energy, why couldn’t some other universe have a different construct? What about space, though? Wouldn’t we be bumping into solid items in the other universe? Not necessarily! Everything seen is not as solid as it seems. In reality, everything, from smallest to largest, is mostly air. A few elements have been actually measured. Oxygen, one of the most common element components of rock, plants, and animals, has been measured. The Oxygen atom is far too small to see, and if the nucleus were enlarged to the size of a ping pong ball, the eight electrons would be buzzing around the nucleus in an orbit with diameter of two football fields. Of course, the nucleus and electrons will be much closer, in our eye, but the solid to air relationship would still be the same. It is difficult for us to vision this but, providing there is no chemical or electric interaction, there is plenty of room for two objects to pass through each other. In fact, Jesus did exactly that (John 20:19).

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[1] The smallest element, with one proton and one electron

[2] The largest element ever found or created, with 103 protons in the nucleus and 103 electrons buzzing around it like bees. The nucleus also contains either 157 or 163 neutrons (uncharged protons). Lawrencium is created in the laboratory, and is never found in nature.

I AM

I am. Two words, three letters – no object, no adjective, no adverb, no modifier of any kind – just “I am.” The shortest sentence in the English language, but a very powerful sentence. Today, we might use it in the place of “yes” in answer to certain questions. Within Judeo-Christian history it has a much greater meaning. Moses asked who he should say was sending him back to Egypt, perhaps thinking it might be Ra or one of the other Egyptian gods. The answer he received was, tell them, “I am has sent me to you.” (Exodus 3:14) As a result, “I am” became sacred, and any person using the sentence was stoned. Later, Jesus said, “before Abraham was born, I am!” (John 8:58). The implication of his words was not missed by his audience, and they were ready to stone him.

Let’s think about this for a moment. The implications are huge. I am. Not I was, or I will be. Simply, I am. These two words really say that, in no way is God restricted by time. To Him, everything is in the present – there is no past, and there is no future in His world. No past and no future also means there was no beginning and there will be no end. In other words, He exists in a timeless environment of some kind. This is a concept completely incomprehensible to us because we are imprisoned by a unidirectional, irreversible time and cannot conceive of anything else. Yet, this concept clarifies a very difficult dichotomy within Judeo-Christianity. That is: God gave us freedom of choice, but before we were born he had plans for us. How can there be both freedom of choice and predestination? Suddenly this becomes clear. We cannot understand how a timeless existence works, but if God knows no time, he knows both what options will confront us and what our decisions will be long before we are confronted by the necessity of making a choice!

I am. Not I am here, or I am there. Simply, I am. In other words, God is not restricted by a three dimensional space. He just is. If you can figure out how this works, let me know! Again, this is a concept completely foreign and incomprehensible to us because we live in the prison of three dimensional space. However, if this is true, the belief that God is everywhere at the same time (omnipresent) becomes a reasonable reality. Furthermore, the combination of his no time and no space existence makes the belief that He is all knowing (omnipotent) becomes a reasonable reality. Perhaps it makes some other incomprehensible beliefs understandable; I haven’t extended my thinking beyond this current discussion.

I have postulated a possible analogy in a past blog, but in reality we have no option but to make guesses about how this all works, based on our weak understanding of our own existence. The day may come that we will look around us and exclaim, “Oh, THAT’S how it works!” And at that point we probably won’t care any longer. 

Now, returning to “Before Abraham was born, I am.” Today, that is a pretty innocuous statement, but 2000 years ago it fell on the crowd like a thunder clap, and reverberated through them like the sound of a perfect bell. Today, there are those who say Jesus never claimed that he was God. Wrong! This was an unequivocal statement to, “I am God.” It was not misunderstood by those hearing him. Standing before them was a man who just claimed to be God. This was sacrilegious, and the crowd immediately reacted appropriately, picking up stones to stone him. 

As I indicated, we are imprisoned in a box of three dimensional space and unidirectional, irreversible time. We can conceive of nothing else. It is obvious that God lives somewhere outside this box, and is not constrained by it. In recognition of our inability to understand, Jesus also refers to himself as son. He prayed to the Father. Then he said that he had to return to the Father before he could send the spirit to his followers. We talk about, and accept, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as being three in one. But we don’t, and can’t, understand this – and understanding is a basic desire of humans.

I believe “Before Abraham was born, I am” was the only recorded time that Jesus unequivocally said he was God, but there are other recorded statements that imply this. John 10:30 – “I and the Father are one” was sufficiently understood by those hearing him that, once again, they were ready to stone him. Jesus also indicated the oneness in the prayer recorded in John 17 (verses 11 and 21). (In our “enlightened” world, psychiatrists would probably say Jesus has psychiatric problem and needs help!)   

One of the basic tenants of Christianity is that Jesus was both 100% human and 100% God. This is something that can only be accepted through trust – it cannot be explained.  Over the last 2000 years, there have been multiple heresies developed which attempt to circumvent the fact. A few of these heresies:

-          The Holy Spirit was placed upon the man, Jesus, when he was baptized, and it left him when he was crucified.

-          Jesus Christ was God’s first creation.

-          Jesus Christ was brother of Satan.

-          And other . . .

While they are presented in a way that sounds good to the ear, a critical examination of the scriptures quickly exposes their errors. We are left with the only explanation possible being that Jesus was the Christ, and that he was God. We can never fully understand this so long as we are imprisoned in our space-time box.

How long were Israelites in Egypt?

I am a Scientist, and I am a Christian. Their constant arguments are an irritation to me. If God is creator and supervisor of our world, their conclusions CANNOT disagree! But the two groups are constantly doing exactly that. Scientists have the tendency to reject the idea of God, and claim everything came about evolutionally, not via creation. Conversely, few Christians understand scientific methods, and they discount anything that might disagree with the bible and their interpretation of it.

Time has become a favorite ‘war’ subject for Christians, so I will use that as an example. God, living in a no-time ‘universe,’ has revealed methods of measuring time, although scientists don’t accept that viewpoint. Christians are inclined to say, “If it doesn’t agree with what is written in the bible, the measurement is wrong!”

As I said, time is one of the greatest sources of disagreement. Let’s look at just one situation. Christians and Hebrews both say that the Israelites spent 400 years in Egypt, a span recorded in both Bible and Hebrew records. The problem, though, is that Biblical dates can’t be historically verified until about 1050 BC, when Saul became king. This would have been about 400 years after Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt. If we turn to Egyptian historical verification, we find that Thutmose I reigned 1506-1493 BC, and his only son had died, leaving his daughter as next in line. She became Queen Hatshepsut. To become Pharaoh, however, a woman was required to have a son who would follow her when he became old enough to fill the position. This fits perfectly with the story of Moses, and Josephus’ Book 2 tells the story of his being trained to become pharaoh. (Josephus names Moses’ adoption mother as Thermuthis.) Eighty years later, the Pharaoh Moses dealt with was probably Thutmose IV, who reigned about 1400-1381 BC, less than twenty years. (Ramses II has been suggested, but he was pharaoh about 200 years later, which doesn’t fit into Israel history.)

So far, our Hebrew time schedule is in agreement with Egyptian history, so let’s move on. Exodus 12:40-41 says, “Now the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years. At the end of the 430 years, to the very day, all the Lord’s divisions left Egypt.” If we now go 400 years back in Egyptian history, we come to Pharaoh Amenemhat III, who reigned 1860-1814 BC. His reign is regarded as Egypt’s golden age. His father, Senusret III, ruled from 1878 BC to 1839 BC, his military campaigns having given rise to an era of peace and economic prosperity.  The campaigns had reduced the power of regional rulers. Amenemhat III helped develop and inherited a country revival in craftwork, trade, and urban development.

This should be about the time Joseph and his father’s entire family entered Egypt. The limited description of the Egypt given in the Bible, however, does not seem to fit into this picture of Egypt in the 1800s BC. Furthermore, archeologists have found no evidence of Joseph during this period (more on this in a moment). Looking a bit deeper, in Genesis 15:13, we find: “Then the Lord said to (Abraham), “Know for certain that for four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own and that they will be enslaved and mistreated.”(NIV) Then, in his ‘goodbye sermon,’ Steven says: “God spoke to (Abraham) in this way: ‘For four hundred years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and they will be enslaved and mistreated. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they will come out of that country and worship me.” (Acts 7:6-7, NIV)

Returning to the introduction to Exodus, we find: “Now Joseph and all his brothers and all that generation died, but the Israelites were exceedingly fruitful; they multiplied greatly, increased in numbers and became so numerous that the land was filled with them. Then a new king, to whom Joseph meant nothing, came to power in Egypt. ‘Look,’ he said to his people, ‘the Israelites have become far too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them or they will become even more numerous and, if war breaks out, will join our enemies, fight against us and leave the country.’ So they put slave masters over them to oppress them with forced labor, and they built Pithom and Rameses as store cities for Pharaoh.” (Exodus 1:6-11)

This passage fits perfectly with what we know about Pharaoh Amenemhat III. He did not seem to be a warrior, and would be logically concerned that some of the countries his father had defeated might reorganize and attack the Egyptian empire. The Hebrews had no real allegiance to Egypt, so it is also logical to think they might find it advantageous to join the invaders. In addition, his expansion plans were extensive and here was a group of potential slaves to do the building.  It therefore becomes apparent that the Hebrews were held in slavery for 400 years. This was not the period from Joseph to Moses! So, how long were Abraham’s descendants really in Egypt?

Let’s now return to Joseph. Egyptian Archeologists searched for evidence of his existence, but could find nothing within the time span he was supposed to live.  However, when the Step Pyramid was excavated, on the base of King Djoser’s statue an inscription was found, saying, “Imhotep, Chancellor of the King of Lower Egypt, Chief under the King, Administrator of the Great Palace, Hereditary Lord, High Priest of Heliopolis, Imhotep the Builder, the Sculptor, the Maker of Stone Vases …” That sure sounded like the Bible description of Joseph, but Christians said, “No, that can’t be. King Djoser ruled somewhere between 2682 BC and 2648 BC. That is about 800 years before Joseph.”

Since that discovery, Imhotep has been extensively researched. The more we understand him, the more it becomes obvious that, yes, this was Joseph, and the Bible only touches on his impact within Egypt. Imhotep has been described as “A commoner by birth who advanced to the position of one of the most important and influential men in Egypt through his natural talents.” He was the architect of King Djoser’s Step Pyramid. He was considered a god of science, medicine and architecture. He was a priest, vizier to King Djoser and the next three kings, Poet, physician, mathematician, astronomer, and architect. There is now a couple of TV programs focused on Imhotep, and it is apparent that the writer of Exodus did not ‘tell all.’ Had he done so, the focus would have been on Joseph, not God! Among other things, the archeologists found surgery implements exactly like those used today!! Pretty good evidence of alien contact in Egypt – the name was God, and he worked through Joseph.

I will now confidently say that the time between Joseph and the Exodus was not four hundred years, but the descendants of Abraham were in Egypt for about 1200 years. This also makes more logical the growth of the Hebrew nation from Jacob’s 70-person family to between two and three million that went with Moses. (There were 600,000 men of fighting age, so total count including elderly, women, and children had to be at least 2 million.)

Covid-19 pandemia

 This assessment, written by Bill O'Reilly, differs from what we are hearing elsewhere. O'Reilly is known for not posting something like this without doing some serious research on the subject!
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China’s Bio weapon, and Pelosi..

My wife Angie will tell you that I study history and world events fluently every day. I have studied China for many years. To get answers I need to questions, I call many I know in Washington on Capitol Hill (from my tenure on two Presidential campaigns and Presidential talks) and I ask them for straight up answers to better understand what affects us as a nation.

Well, in 2016 America elected a new Sheriff: Donald J Trump. For decades the Chinese walked all over America but the new President said “not anymore”. Trump literally strangled China’s economy to the point their economy was in its worst free fall ever. Trump negotiated a new 50 billion trade agreement. He had Xi by the proverbial balls. America’s economy was on fire and unstoppable. President Xi Jingping knew he could not beat the USA militarily and he knew any domesticated economic attack would fail as our economy was too strong. He had to act. But how?

Enter the USA democrats led by Pelosi and Schiff. Impeachment. A hoax. A distraction for our people and President. Xi Jingping and his thugs see this. They aren’t stupid. They have very intelligent intellectual thinkers in their government. Now you must understand , the Chinese regime are truly Barbarians. Notice I did not say ALL CHINESE. The Chinese people are a good people. I enjoy my interactions with them.

The communist regime has millions of its own citizens slaving in gulags simply for speaking against the government or openly practicing Christianity. Knowing they could not attack us openly they needed to be coy, like a deceptive fox. In my opinion, I believe the regime released a biological weapon upon the world that doesn’t kill everyone, but kills “enough,” especially the elderly and in-firmed. Back in WW 2 Hitler thought the same way. He got rid of what he considered the useless and rejects of society.

Trumps task force uses models to figure things. Xi used and uses “models” too. China's president figured that if he killed a few of his own (a few hundred thousand to them would be a few out of 1.4 billion people) and spread the virus to other nations (especially to the USA) they would “level the economic playing field” and not have fired a shot.

Losses of his own people were acceptable costs of a new war. When China’s own doctors attempted to sound the warning, they were immediately silenced. In fact one died and another has simply disappeared. Trump and the other allied leaders indeed KNOW this is what happened. They have under reported their own deaths. Trump knows he cannot outrightly seek retribution. His news conference today showed me this when he balked publicly about no outright retribution over Xi’s handling of this and he immediately brought up the “trade deal”. However, Trump wasn’t being weak, he too was now being coy. We know this was a biological weapon. The food market story is bullshit.

Xi knows we know it. Trump also today announced he sent two battle groups of destroyers and other ships to sea several days ago to fight drugs and rogue actors like Iran should they try anything.

I say he did this to show Xi he knows what has transpired (we have the greatest intelligence assets) and that they (the Chinese) should rethink further action. Politics is premier. We cannot overtly attack China for what they have done as we would also suffer greatly. We all know this.

But China has temporarily achieved its goal. America was literally consumed by Trumps phony impeachment brought by the ultra left democrats (supported by democrat rank and file and one Republican Mitt Romney) and Xi Jingping saw an opening. He took it. Xi did what Trump usually does...he walked onto the world stage and threw a grenade into the “room” and left. It exploded in the form of this worldwide pandemic. It brought the USA and the rest of the world to its knees and leveled the economic playing field.

Our economy is now near depression. Xi didn’t fire one bullet. Trump needed to up his game of chess and putting our Naval ships to sea was his next move. He said he is a “war” President. He is.

But now on not one but two fronts. One front is the virus and the other front is the Chinese. While the Saudi’s and Russians are screwing with oil prices they aren’t overtly doing what this pandemic is doing. The drug smuggling story for dispatching the Naval Force is bullshit and the world knows it. I am of the opinion Trump can indeed bring us back from this catastrophe albeit with a changed playing field.

But Trump is a genius in chess and financial matters. He’s become a champ at international politics too. I am sure Trump can once again lead the economy to even stronger strength and greatness the it was . He can do it quickly I’m sure of it. He has proved it. Xi Jingping needs to be sent a message loud and clear. NEVER AGAIN. We need to bring all of our critical manufacturing back from China beginning with our medicines they were recently threatening to withhold. We can do it immediately. Again, another reason for Trump putting to sea such a sizable Naval Force. Sending a clear message.

We all must ride out the next few weeks. Then we and the world pick up the pieces and move on. The democrats who have given Xi this opening wrapped in a bow must pay a heavy price in November as they (the democrats) truly have cost and continue to cost America precious lives by the phony scandals. Nancy Pelosi continues to help the Chinese by her daily shameless attacks upon the President and meddling in stimulus packages as she did this last weekend. Yesterday’s statements she made were truly appalling and the lowest of low. I didn’t think she could go any lower. What a disgrace she is to our nation.

But, Pelosi aside, make no mistake, China must and will be taught a lesson the likes they have never seen before and Trump is the man to pull the trigger.

We the people must teach the democrats the same lesson at the polls. They (the radical wing of the party) are the enemy of a free America. I am certain of it. The entire democrat party of our forefathers is dead. Remember people, Trump indeed tried to warn us all of the Conavirus in his State of the Union Speech. He spoke of it. He said he was on top of it.

After he spoke , Nancy Pelosi ripped up the speech calling Trumps words “a manifesto of lies”. She disgraced the country and all of our fellow honored citizens present in the House Chamber. Well she now has American blood on her hands. She is very majorly responsible for these needless deaths as well as the Chinese. Her and Adam Schiff.

The left and democrats laughed as she tore up his speech. Well, as they laughed the disease he just spoke of in that speech came to our shores. Republicans and Democrats alike are now dying. Your family members and mine. Our grandparents and middle aged citizens alike. Bodies are being loaded in trucks with forklifts in Brooklyn outside of hospitals. No one is safe. Our liberty is for the most part suspended. As we bury our dead (without proper funerals) from this calamity let’s drive the nails into the coffin of the Democrat party as well in November.

It’s time people. Stand up for your rights and your country! Our Liberty and survival is at stake! I am praying for God’s blessing on our nation. But, God also gave us the ability to think for ourselves and it’s time we placed blame for all this death where it belongs: on the doorsteps of Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Xi Jingping directly. Wake Up America.

WAKE UP!

(written by Bill O'Reilly)

MENTAL FENCES

Fences - a word recently on many minds. There are many kinds of fences, both physical and mental. Basically, fences do one of two things – they either protect, or they contain. I grew up on a dairy farm with many wire fences. Some kept the cows at home, others protected garden and crops from destruction. In other words, they either contain or protect. On a broader scale, fences may be appropriately designed with people or smallest to largest animals in mind. All fences, however, have gates. They may be rarely, or frequently opened, and their function is to allow controlled passage without needing to tear down the fence.

There are also mental fences. People take a position and develop a fence to support their position. They very seldom, if ever, install a gate in their mental fence. In developing their position, they may listen to conflicting theories, but once a position is taken there is seldom a willingness to consider anything that conflicts with it. No matter how terrible their position turns out to be, or how logical a conflicting position may be, once their position has been established there is refusal to change. This is readily seen in politics, as well as many other aspects of life. One fence, very solid and well taken care of, is the creation/evolution fence. Each side is solid in belief, and in feeling that the other side is, basically, imbecilic in their beliefs. Personally, I believe both are correct, but they are like two blind persons feeling an elephant – and developing different pictures of the animal based on what they feel. For example, the sides on the creation/evolution arguments are looking at the same thing, but different aspects. On any observation, there are five questions, four ‘W’ and one ‘H’ questions. They are Who, Why, When, Where, and How. The creation side is looking only at Who (God) and Why (because He wanted to). They are minimally interested in the other three questions. The evolution side take a scientific approach, looking at Where, When, and How, with no interest in the Who and Why questions. The five questions must all be examined if a correct answer is to be obtained. One problem is that some giving here and there will be required, and neither is willing to give anything. Their fence remains very firm and cared for. I wrote a book on this controversy, “Scripture Versus Science: Reconciling God’s Ancient Wisdom with a Modern World View.” In it I attempted to show the unity path of considering all five questions. Neither side accepted if, with very few other than family and friends buying it. Christians tend not to be interested in anything on this subject that is not in the Bible. On the other hand, few evolutionists give any thought to the possibility of there being an all-powerful God.

When is a fact not a fact?

I am a physical scientist, and I spent 30 years of my life as a professor. One thing I observed is that most scientists are comfortable only when talking to other scientists. Those who are also professors spend substantial time training more scientists with whom they can be comfortable. There are a few who are interested and able to talk with the “uneducated.” I have now been retired for a number of years, with time to think about what we know and what we don’t know. My current objective is to give non-scientists some understanding of our world.

First, I should introduce myself. Most of my ancestors were in the United States by about 1800 and, so far as I know, all were farmers and blue-collar workers. My maternal grandfather spent one year in college, but, to the best of my knowledge, I am the first of my line to graduate from college and certainly the first to graduate with a PhD degree. (I do have one uncle who graduated from college and three aunts who were nurses.) When I graduated from High School my expectation was to spend my life as a farmer.  I dreamed of going to college, but neither my father nor I had the necessary resources. It would probably have been a mistake to have gone immediately to college anyway. Three years later life began to turn, and my dream became reality. After another nine years I officially became Dr. Harter, with expertise in Soil Chemistry.

One thing you should know about scientists – “fact” is not in their vocabulary. Or, perhaps, it shouldn’t be! Occasionally the word might be used for personal or financial reasons. Most basic concepts have been known for decades and, in many cases, centuries. Our job, then, is to refine what we know and better understand it. The basic agenda is to work from theories, or hypotheses. No theory can be satisfactorily proven true, but it can be proven false, so this is the basis of scientific work. Our hypothesis upon which a research program is: “If (A) is true, then (B) must be true.” We might feel that (A) is correct, but the research must be set up to test the truth of (B). We can never prove the truth of either (A) or (B), so additional tests are designed for (C), (D), (E), etc. until a convincing number are shown not to be false. At that point it becomes believed that (A) is probably correct, and often taken as being a fact. It can never, however, be considered a proven fact. Any time a correctly designed research study  proves the test theory false, the theory explaining (A) MUST be discarded and a new theory developed to explain the new information.

Discarding a known “fact” is not always easy. The earth was once thought to be flat, and center of the universe. As societies developed, a flat earth made less and less sense, so was discarded. Yet, there are still a few people who are certain that the earth is flat. Likewise, as the understanding of our relationship to heavenly bodies became increasingly understood, this center of the universe “fact” had to be abandoned. Any person who questioned the accepted position put himself at risk. Those who said the sun was actually the center were considered heretics. They were kicked out of the church, at best, and hung at worse.

The human nature is such that we need facts for a sense of security, and scientists are human (believe it or not!). It is only in scientific research that “fact” is (or should be!) forbidden. There are facts in our lives, many of which we have actually defined. For example, mathematics is full of facts, because we have designated them as facts. Base ten has been defined as fact for counting and calculating. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division were created for working with numbers – all and their functions are facts. All geometry and calculus functions are facts using these four functions. Computers must count using base two – they can only handle 0 and 1. (Printout, however, must be in base ten, because only computer programmers can think in base two.) Another group of facts: we use wood for building many things – fact. Wood comes from trees – fact. Trees grow from seed – fact. Seed is a fact and we can pretty well describe it, but to understand how it works is getting into science and theories – no facts.

This is how it works. Anything we create or define can be considered facts, because their existence was either created or defined by humans. Whether organic or inorganic, anything relating to things we have not actually created can never be considered factual, because we never completely understand formation and existence. In some cases, we can’t even study it, but are limited to observing related phenomena and, from that, create an appropriate theory. Those theories are most at risk of being discarded when related testable theories are shown to be false. 

- Dr. Robert Harter, Professor Emeritus, University of New Hampshire