2/11/11

chaos and complexity theory and the dillemma of free will and God's omniscience. Nikos Mar





Even if you do not   trust  Bible , this topic has interesting  ideas and concepts   for the nature of FREE WILL .Perhaps you can adapt many ideas to your personal cosmology .....- Some people claim that if God is omniscient then He  knew what Adam and Eve would decide to do before they actually do it ...-when they have chosen  to sin against Him-.  This would also mean that a number of pre-existing details were effecting to their ability to choose , and God could know them and make prognosis. Of course if things were so God would be unjust and we will all wonder if they had free will at all.  From the other hand if he could not make prognosis then He is not omniscient and this would be an issue of loosing his prestige as the master of universe - actually i would not have any problem of not trusting him if he was no omniscient ..this is a fear of some people only...Behind this classic contradictory problem and dilemma there are the issues of free will and omniscience  which are classic controversial topics . I was personally enlightened on these issues as i was reading the chaos complexity theory and in the following text i will share what i have learned in brief with my no fluent syntax as a no native English speaker . 
  Due to our common experience we know that every result has a logic cause which pre-exists . So the more causes we know the most possibilities we have to know the result of a procedure and make prognosis . This is named the CAUSE AND RESULT PRINCIPLE . Therefore from the other hand if the origin of our personal decisions is in  pre-existing unconscious -or subconscious- procedures  then where is the free will? 
.- It is known from physics that in a closed system if there are 3 particles that are interacting then the results of the equation of movements will be for ever no periodical . This equation is called no linear. It means that we will have for ever new events  and not a repetition  of past periodical patterns of movements. Ιf someone wanted to know the future of this system he would have to continue estimating for ever as the system exists for ever and new things would always be there to estimate. Now multiply this with all the existing particles in nature and we realize the no- linear nature of our world . Even the smallest detail finally in long term effects  the systems procedure and a specific result appears instead of an other.  A well known  example is the one which describes how a nation was defeated in a war because a nail which was not well nailed and came out of the horseshoe of a basic warrior's horse during a crucial battle......etc.  This basic chaos theory conclusion informs us that the nature of our world is no linear = always new things happen and every detail is important in long term and effect to the reality's development . If there was a creator who wanted a perfect development without conflicts for His creation then there would be a basic problem that he would face because of the no linear nature of the Nature. As this system exists for ever there would be always the possibility off unwanted developments that would be against the systems ideal standards of safety  and the creators prospects.These unwanted side effects would not have been designed by Him but would be the result of an interaction of the existing unlimited even trivial details in a  no-linear type of equation of cosmos . The creator would decide to estimate the initial equation of his creation in order to see random conflicts in future...and then would make some corrections to the  initial equation of his creation.- i use the word random not as something without cause but from the point of view of the creator who does not take the initiative to examine the equation in detail as it is no practical- .
 As this creation is made to exist for ever.... the creator would have a dilemma : if he wanted to protect his creation for ever by making initial corrections then he would have to estimate this equation to the end............but it has no end!!!!  the system is eternal in the same way the creator is ......so the creator has to estimate for ever before he actually starts to create in order to find the proper corrections and always new and more data will have to be calculated as the time never ends and the equation is no linear no periodical and new circumstances emerging.  So the creator has two options 1: calculate for ever and never start creating or 2: calculate the basic and necessary factors ,then start creating and let the development  of the system in the influence of unknown details  and physical interactions. Later  as the system is evolving when ever something unwanted happens the creator can interfere by making corrections and guide the system according to his will . 
 Actually bible describes God acting in this second way. Yes its obvious that God has created our world and this is a sign that he has decided not to see the equation of the creation to the end BECAUSE IS NOT PRACTICAL AS IT IS ETERNAL AND EVEN IF HE COULD SEE THINGS TO CORRECT ,THERE WOULD BE UNLIMITED MORE AS TIME NEVER ENDS AND THE SYSTEM IS NO PERIODICAL NO LINEAR. This really make sense because bible describes God having feelings and frustrations like with his people of Israel when they were for many years going against his will. So how one who knows exactly what will happen can have such feelings? Actually that would be hypocritical and unreasonable or at least boring for God ..Also there are other places in bible that God appears as someone who has to make a test to know if some one is loyal ..like with Abraham . Why someone who already know has to make a test to know? nBut the most convincing for me is the story in Genesis 18: 20." Consequently Jehovah said: “The cry of complaint about Sod´om and Go·mor´rah, yes, it is loud, and their sin, yes, it is very heavy. 21 I am quite determined to go down that I MAY SEE whether they act altogether according to the outcry over it that has come to me, and, if not, I CAN GET TO KNOW it.”  So He did not know exactly even he had some information and was able to make a research and SEE how things were exactly there and decide after what to do. Yes God has the ability to make prognosis but he use this selectively when it is practical and fair .God in same way DID NOT know what Adam and Eve would decide and this is not a weak point of his omniscience .This enlightenment make us to understand God more and deletes the contradiction of this issue. Ok .....- you might say- but where is the free will if there is only a complex system with strict determinism where everything is a result of unknown unconscious pre-existing causes other than our will? What is actually free will? ..-.This is important because we would feel that their punishment would be fair only if they made their choose with free will and they were no like robots just obeying in a unconscious influence which even God did not decide to know in detail. .................................. FREE WILL I will give an example..We all know that salmon fish is floating in a opposite direction to the float of the river and as far it reaches a small waterfall it jumbs up climbing the waterfall in order to go to the lake and sperm its eggs....It is easy to see the metaphor ..........In India the people call the float of the river KARMA and this is the determinism ..everything that is guiding our life due to the principles of pain and pleasure ,cause and result. How the determinism effects to us? in this way....we feel forced to act in a way to avoid pain and seek pleasure in here and now .This is called the principle of pain and pleasure . Usually due to our experience this is destructive in long term . BUT WE ARE NOT ONLY THIS. I will use again the example of the river and the waterfall to illustrate the karma factor.It is so easy and tempting to just leave our body floating with the river but the result is an unavoidable destructive fall in the waterfall that is near.Free will is equivalent if we decide to swim like the salmon to the opposite direction of the float of the river until we find a save place to get out ..but this is painful . So free will is the ability we have to Choose to act in an opposite way of the one that is comfortable .By choosing comfort we are under the low of KARMA -risky development - , Free Will is the path that set us free of karma effect.We all know that choosing to do the opposite of that we like because is is comfortable is difficult and painful.....but there are thousands of examples of people who made the commitment with pain and succeed to set them self free from strong addictions for example.But there are thousands more who did not make it even they wanted to or made efforts in this direction.It will be more easy to understand if we compare the power of will with our muscles.We may have strong muscles if we exercise them or wicked ones if we do not.In same way even the ability to exercise our free will is there we may have a strong power of will if we exercise our ability to stand more pain and avoid pleasure when is proper or a wicked will if we just leave our self float in comfort . But there is an other important issue in free will an other perspective . We usually describe someone that has no free will with ROBOT. Robots like classic pc can decide only according to the programs that they have installed in their memory.These robots can react only is occasions that are described in their programs in a automatic way and cannot take an initiative to find solutions to problems that there are not any known solutions in their memory.As we told before the nature of our world is the UNCERTAINTY .There are always new problems and new different challenges to fight in order to survive .So if the creator wanted to have existences that can survive in uncertain environments it would be a total failure to choose robotic technology.The existences should have a brain that can learn from experience and able to take initiatives to find solutions in new circumstances.A brain like this is able to take decisions .Yes the karma factor is very strong in me and forces me to follow my bad habits like overeating. But I AM THE ONE WHO I WILL DECIDE WHAT I WILL FINALLY DO  I can try to stand the pain of abstinence  i can exercise my free wills muscles to stand more pain. As time pass  i WILL BE MORE ABLE TO take the control of my appetite and my self. In the other hand if i just let my self to the destructive karmic pleasure I WILL NOT CULTIVATE MY FREE WILL. Scientists imitate our free brain with new technologies in artificial intelligence that is named neuron nets ..parallel processors that can learn and decide under new circumstances .These neuron nets can find solutions only by experience and by correcting mistakes . Similarly to us there is no guaranty that the solution these systems will find will be  perfect as it is rare to have eternal time to search and study a problem and the data are continuously changing .Moderate solutions usually are enough and considered successful .If we now compare all these elements we see that yes we have a free will in our options but it has to be cultivated and it has no omniscience..for that change is a slow process usually.We see our free will in the ability we have to choose between two motives the weaker . - like to stop overeating- Also in the ability we have to study new circumstances in uncertain environments and be creative as we find no pre-existing solutions-if we were robots this option would not be available-.In order to cultivate the muscles of our will we need strong motivation. This motivation might sometimes come from pain of our faults or the faith we have as we prospect happiness following a VISION in which we put FAITH IN . The prospect of the long term sure happiness , the faith in our vision and the HOPE we gain as we succeed slowly -slowly in our goals to reach that vision are crucial factors to cultivate our free will and gain PATIENCE and the emotional intelligence of keeping our motivation alive till we will fulfill  it .  
What we would say now for our initial dilemma about Gods omniscient and Adams and Eves free will? 1) God does not choose to know everything even he can make prognosis because this is not practical and clever     -similar some one who is strong does not choose to lift everything he see around him -         This is called selective prognosis.  But someone would say that even he does not choose to make prognosis physics let us know that the details that make someone act in one way or an other are pre-existing and unconscious.    We can see that even there was the KARMA factor for Adam to choose something that was attractive and easy he had the ability of FEEDBACK TO his intentions to see inside him ,to make a farther research for this problem , he could make an other discussion with God and inform God what did the Satan -snake - told him - actually he could confront God and Satan and make a safer conclusion as he was informed that if he would disobey he would lose his life and his loving wife.  Let us remember that the neuron nets and brains are experience systems .This means that we learn in many ways and with our mistakes .Life teaches us that  this is  not a game and our decisions can have unbearable long term results. We also do not learn only of our own mistakes but from others too.So we all learn from Adams and Eves mistakes .Actually we improve our free will ass we meditate the consequences of their bad ,irresponsible ,naive,selfish, decision and the long term benefits   the whole humanity.God new that the repetitions of Him self would appreciate more and more this valuable gift of free will even with mistakes also and we would have the intension to become more careful and responsible by empiricism and as they will be experiencing the pain of naive attitudes.YES THIS IS THE FREE WILL DEVELOPMENT PROCEDURE..In future we will also discus an other aspect of this issue which is that in a point of view Adam and Eve were Little Unlucky comparing with us because even perfect in dna they were new to all this experience process We learned alot actually of their mistakes .If they were born now and they could see all the bad results of these naive short- sighted choose from a third person view and they had a new chance they could make more responsible decisions. For now i only say that if God did not make his commitment to punish their sin how he could educate his creatures to become responsible and careful by knowing that a small bad decision can bring a painful unbearable future?And this is the really nature of our nature. Is God omniscient?  Please  try to find if this word  EXISTS AT ALL in bible.It is important to see if this is a way that He describes Him self or it is a human invantion that creates more problems of the one that wants to solve- by giving Him prestige-. Do you need a omniscient captain to guide the ship that you use to travel and go to your vacations? If that captain did not know what ever is happening to every Small piece under the sea and how the animals are behaving there at every  time would that captain be unable to manage that ship in safety? I hope you easy see where is the point?A God with the GREATEST INVENTORY OF WISDOM and knowledge in universe WHO IS LOVE and has omnipotence would not be the most proper source to trust  ?
Before i finish there are some more points here ..In a next post i will analyse more the problem of unconscious effect to our ability to decide..BUT i have to notice that we make the mistake of reduction-ism...and we lose the point ..in fact we have to perceive our self as a wholeness If we over analyse things we lose the ability to understand the existence and importance of the emerging qualities of the interaction of all parts to an entity. Free will is the emerging entity of all these subconscious and unconscious thinking processes in companion with the real time feed back as we can observe our thoughts and modify them comparing them with the inventory of our personal experiences .Free will is not a hidden independent individual entity.It emerges trough all these complex interactions of the microbiological mental and environmental processes. Even if we live in a deterministic universe where the principle of cause -effect-result is developing the top equation of life ,our beliefs can change our future and it is obvious that God did not wrote a personal fate for us. How would you feel by thinking that if someone believe in karma may do the less to change his life as he believes that what ever he does he cannot change his fate? Don't you think that if he could believe that he has the key to change his future's development his life would become different and actually more fruitful? 


THERE ARE 2 MORE REASONS THAT GOD  COULD NOT BE OMNISCIENT.
1)  In order to be able to estimate the future he should know all the atoms of the universe
a)where they are 
B)  in what direction they move and 
c) with what speed. 
  Quantum mechanics have explored this problem and found that this is impossible .In order to have a CORRECT data of both direction and speed you need to emit an energy  against all these atoms and after the reflect back to estimate its position and speed and direction (LIKE RADAR DOES)
 Though in order to have an accurate information this energy should have high speed ..though this would mean more power and more distortion to the atoms initial speed and direction.......so the effort you do to estimate changes the real future of the future ..!!!!!!!!!...
2)Even if God could bypass this problem  the information data should include his spiritual body smalest pieces interactions too  and his brains also .Even if he could accumulate such detailed  data all this information should be stored somewhere  and the storage mechanism should be also included in analysis.  SO HE WOULD ACCUMULATE DATA FROM EVERYTHING INCLUDING HIM SELF      BUT     ALL THESE DATA SHOULD RUN IN A NEW DISCONNECTED REMOTE  OF THE UNIVERSE AREA WITH NO FEEDBACK   FOR THE RESULTS OF THE RUNNING EQUATION WOULD GIVE INFORMATION THAT CHANGE THE FUTURE OF THE SYSTEM AS  INTERFERES WITH HIM ADDING FACTORS FROM A NEW UNKNOWN AREA WHICH SHOULD ALSO BE CO-ESTIMATED .This is impossible as in maths we know that a summation can not contain its self. IF WE WANT A SUMMATION TO INCLUDE ITS SELF  WE CREATE ITS TIME A NEW BIGER ONE THAT AGAIN  DOES NOT INCLUDE THE NEW WHOLE SUMMATION . PRACTICALLY GOD SHOULD HAVE OTHER UNIVERSE TO MAKE THE EQUATION OF OUR UNIVERSE AND FROM THE POINT HE WOULD INTERFERE WITH THE RESULTS AND LEARN THEM THE NEW  REMOTE OTHER UNIVERSES CONDITIONS  WOULD CHANGE WITH NEW DATA THE TOTAL EQUATION (FUTURE OF OUR SYSTEM ) AND SO  SHOULD BE INCLUDED TOO   IN THE ESTIMATION  WHICH SHOULD BE STORED IN A 3D  NEW REMOTE AREA AND HAHAHHA     THE SPIRAL CONTINUES FOR EVER.  THE ATTEMPT TO BECOME OMNISCIENT IS IMPOSSIBLE AND NOT NECESSARY.
AND AS WE SAID INITIALLY EVEN AND THIS IF HE COULD DO IT  BECAUSE THE TIME IS ETERNAL AND THE EQUATION NO LINEAR (ALWAYS CHANGING)  HE SHOULD BE ESTIMATING F0R EVER WITHOUT CREATING ANYTHING IF HE WANTED NOTHING WRONG TO TAKE PLACE EVER  ( By CORRECTING THE INITIAL FORM OF THE EQUATION)    So God  estimates the basic things  before create   and then let the details to develop the equation using interactions during the process  to correct things and also gave us  the MUSCLES of free will that can be cultivated  through experience and His  discipline education teaches visions promises etc.SO HE ALSO USES US TO INTERFERE AND CHANGE THE EQUATION FUTURE WITH OUR FREE WILLS INITIATIVES ACCORDING HIS PRINCIPLES AND EXAMPLE.
          It makes real sense why God is not talking too much    -or at all-  interfering with us   but uses angels and prophets representing  Him......the less he interferes the more he can predict the system being out of it according to what we discussed.