The Spirit Runs Through It

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THESPIRITRUNSTHROUGHIT 2

The Spirit RunsThrough It

A Study Of Creation

Glenn E. Grunenberger

"Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit ofscience becomes convinced that a spirit is manifest inthe laws of the Universe--a spirit vastly superior to

that of man, and one in the face of which we with ourmodest powers must feel humble."

ALBERT EINSTEIN, The World As I See It


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3 FOREWORD

Copyright 2009

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used orreproduced in any manner whatsoever without the writtenpermission of the Publisher. Printed in the United States ofAmerica.


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ContentsForeword......................................................................5

Introduction..................................................................8

The Wisdom of Genesis..............................................19

The Growth of Language............................................22

Man Takes Control......................................................28

Constructs..................................................................37

Constructs For Understanding The Spirit....................42

A Comprehensive Example.........................................48

Comparisons..............................................................51

An In-depth Look At The Spirits Activity....................57

Matter Matters............................................................64


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5 FOREWORDCausality....................................................................68

Laws of Nature...........................................................79

Learning.....................................................................85

Determinism vs. Free Will..........................................92

Morality and Ethics.....................................................97

Religion....................................................................104

Life and Death..........................................................108

Summing Up.............................................................114

Foreword

SOMETIMEAGOAS I was perusing a photo album which

documents the lives of my now grown children, I was

struck by the change in structure of their bodies. From

newborn, to crawler, to toddler, and then on through

elementary school, high school and college, and finally

to middle age, the transitions were amazing.

On another day I probably would not notice such

changes because of my familiarity with human

development, but seeing the entire progression spread

out before me brought the forcibly to my attention.


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THESPIRITRUNSTHROUGHIT 6We see similar transitions in other organisms: the

infant to adult growth of mammals, the egg to adult

life cycles of reptiles, and most dramatically, the egg

to larva to pupa to imago (adult) transformations ofthe insects. In the vegetable kingdom we are familiar

with the dramatic change from seed to carrot, and

from acorn to fully grown oak tree. As I thought about

it, I soon realized that an even more remarkable

transition had occurred that didnt show in the

pictures, and that was the change that had taken

place on the inside of the children. Although both boys

had grown up in similar surroundings, they have

completely different likes, dislikes, loves, hates,

prejudices, interests, beliefs and worldviews in

general.

While this transition is not as apparent in other

species, it is obvious that something like it occurs. The

newborn fawn does not fight other fawns for the

attention of a doe as does the mature stag, nor does

the salmon fingerling swim up the river to its birth

place like the adult salmon. And the larva does not flit

from flower to flower like the adult butterfly.

In a like manner, changes occur in the outward

trappings of societies. New York City, for example, iscompletely different from the New York City that

George Washington and Benjamin Franklin knew. And

the New York City of the founding fathers in no way

resembled ancient Rome or the tent villages of our

Native Americans. Each society remakes the physical


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7 FOREWORDworld to its own specifications, which change

continually.

Similar to the invisible change in individuals, there

is a continuous change in the unseen culture which lies

beneath each society. New fads, morals, systems,

governments, commerce, architecture, etc. come and

go. In the early 1700s most colonists believed in the

divine right of kings to govern; todays Americans

believe in democracy and individual freedom. In the21st century medical science is far more popular as a

cure for illness than the blood-letting of the 18th

century. Some cultures believed that a certain dance

would cause rain to fall; others believed that human

sacrifice would relieve drought.

In the following pages we shall explore these

transitions and determine what relationships, if any,

might exist between them.


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Introduction

THATTHEREAREUNSEEN actions behind visible events is a

fact familiar to everyone. For example, we see leaves

flying about and bushes shaking, and since we know

that these events do not happen through the internal

efforts of leaves or bushes, we attribute them to theaction of the invisible wind.

Likewise, when we drop an object to the ground,

we know that the object did not fall of its own accord;

we say it fell because of the invisible pull of gravity.


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9 INTRODUCTION

Sometimes we even attribute a visible event to the

action of an invisible entity when we know there is no

invisible entity present. For example, we say, It is

raining. Our senses can see, hear and feel rain, but no

matter how hard we try, they cannot detect it.

Of course, there are also visible actions behind

many transitions. Here is a thought experiment

concerning a common event:

1.) Imagine a site on which a new home

is scheduled to be built. Materials and

supplies have been delivered and are

awaiting the arrival of the construction

crew. There are stacks of lumber, piles

of bricks, skids of wallboard, crates of

glass, buckets of paint, kegs of nails,

coils of wire, lengths of pipe, everything

that will go into the new construction.

A contractor agrees to complete the

building. He hires carpenters,

bricklayers, painters, electricians,

plumbers and any other subcontractors

he needs, and eventually the building is

completed.

A new entity, a house, has been introduced into

the universe. The collection of materials and supplies

has been given a new structure. They would have lain

there forever unless some outside creative action,

supplied by the contractor and his crew, occurred that


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transcended and transformed them. All the materials

are included in the new structure, but they now

perform functions that would have been impossible for

unaided nature to accomplish.

Although Jesus used the following parable to

illustrate a different point, it is particularly apropos for

demonstrating how new living entities are introduced

into the universe, and how entities, living and non-

living, can interact with each other:

2.) A sower went out to sow. And as he

sowed, some seeds fell on the path, and

the birds came and ate them up. Other

seeds fell on rocky ground, where they

did not have much soil, and they sprang

up quickly, since they had no depth of

soil. But when the sun rose, they were

scorched; and since they had no root,

they withered away. Other seeds fell

among thorns, and the thorns grew up

and choked them. Other seeds fell on

good soil and brought forth grain, some

a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.

(Mark 13, 3-8).

In order to reach their full potential, seeds need to

have certain essential nutrients available: nitrogen,

phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, magnesium, calcium,

etc., as well as water for hydrogen and oxygen, and

open access to light and air.


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11 INTRODUCTION

For those seeds which fell upon the path, the

action of completely unrelated entities, the birds,

prevented access to the necessary nutrients.

Plants acquire the necessary nutrients through

their root systems. Although the rocky soil contained

the necessary elements for growth, the growth of the

roots was impeded by the nonliving rocks.

Consequently the plants were weak and quickly

succumbed to the heat of the sun.

Seeds that landed on thorn-infested soil faced a

double problem. The taller, stronger, faster growing

thorns ate up most of the nutrients in the soil, and also

prevented the seeds from receiving the necessary

sunlight and air.

And those seeds that fell on good soil combined

with the elements therein and grew into healthy

plants.

Without the introduction of seeds, all the nutrients,

sunshine, water, etc., would remain dormant forever.

And as illustrated by the action of the birds, without

the nutrients the seeds would just remain seeds

forever.

This begs the question: why should there be aninteraction? Why do not seeds just remain seeds,

nitrogen just remains nitrogenwater just remains

water, etc.? What invisible creative action causes

these apparently unrelated entities to transcend and

transform themselves into producing something that is


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more than just the sum of its parts: a brand new plant?

Some invisible creative activity must be at work.

A more complex process occurs as we consider the

animal kingdom:

3.) Shortly after a sperm penetrates an

ovum, their nuclear materials fuse to

form the required chromosomes of a

somatic cell. The fertilized ovum has

become a zygote. Depending upon the

particular species, the first of billions of

cell divisions occurs a few hours later,

and within days a fetus is formed.

Gathering all nutritional requirements

from the host-mother, the fetus

develops until the climactic moment of

birth.

There is no satisfactory reason why a sperm

should penetrate an ovum, or why a fertilized ovum

should metamorphose into a zygote, or why a zygote

should start dividing, or why nutritional elements

should not remain in the mothers blood stream, or

why any of this should occur. It just does. Again some

invisible creative activity drives the transformation.

The following is a case from history:

4.) Sir Isaac Newton had invented the

calculus, and had formulated his laws of

motion. One day he saw an apple fall

from a tree. He wondered why the apple


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13 INTRODUCTION

always fell toward the center of the

earth; why not fall sideways or upward?

He soon realized that if gravity

extended as far out from the earth as,

say, the moon, it must affect the

moons orbit. Upon calculating how

much of an effect earths gravity would

have on the moons orbit, he came upon

the concept that he called universalgravitation. Before Newton, probably

millions of men had seen apples fall to

the ground, but this was the first apple

to change the world since one fell in the

Garden of Eden.

Sir Isaac had all the necessary elements in place in

his brain: the mathematical procedures, the laws of

motion and the years of observation and analysis of

natural events. If he had not observed the fallingapple, it is likely that he never would have come upon

his revolutionary concept. However, when the apple

fell, some invisible creative process brought all these

elements into play, transcended and transformed

them, and a new concept was introduced into theworld. The creative activity was again at work.

It is important to note that the creative activity

does not judge the value of its output. Consider the

following:


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5.) Hester, a physical fitness devotee in

her mid-20s, ate all the right foods,

exercised regularly and got eight hours

of sleep every night. During her annual

physical checkup, the doctor discovered

a lump in her abdomen. After

exhaustive testing, she was diagnosed

with pancreatic cancer. An aggressive

series of treatments was begun, and thecancer soon went into remission. But

gradually it returned, and eventually

she succumbed to it at the age of 31.

Some unknown aspect of Hesters nature or

nurture combined with the cells of her pancreas to

create a chaotic growth. Chemotherapy, radiation, etc.

were able to halt the growth temporarily, but the

underlying pathological activity was too strong to

resist.

6.) Because his friends always raved

about his homemade ice cream, John

decided to start selling it. After

conducting an exhaustive market

survey, and meeting with a business

consultant, he drew up a realistic

business plan. Impressed with the plan,

his bank agreed to lend him the money

for the necessary equipment. He leased

a small shop in an area of heavy foot


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15 INTRODUCTION

traffic, and after three months, sales

and profits were doing even better than

he had anticipated.

Then a war broke out in South

America, and in one week the price of

sugar doubled. In addition, a surge in

the world wide demand for oil sent

diesel fuel prices skyrocketing; as a

result, higher transportation costsincreased the price for milk and eggs by

30% in one month.

John tried increasing his prices to

cover the higher costs, but the fuel

shortage was hurting everyone, and icecream was one of the first luxuries that

people gave up. Six months after the

grand opening, John was forced to close

his dream store.

All the conditions for a successful business

appeared to be in place for Johns ice cream store, but

any entity operates in a universe of competing

activities. As with the birds that ate the seeds in our

second example, so did superficially unrelatedactivities lead to the failure of the store. The creative

process driving Johns business was overwhelmed by

creative processes in the larger universe.

7.) On August 29, 2005, Katrina, a

category 3 hurricane, left 80% of the


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city of New Orleans under water. Over

1,800 people were killed, and the

property damage amounted to an

estimated $81.2B.1

As of this writing, June 2008, many sections of the

city and surrounding area still lie in ruins. Many former

residents have opted not to return. The combination of

high winds, heavy rains, weakened levees, low-lying

streets, etc. transformed an active, vibrant city into a

scene of chaos and desolation.

We often do not realize that the past creates the

present which in turn creates the future. Using the

entities available at timet-1, the creative process

transforms and transcends them to create the entities

at timet, which transform into the entities at timet+1,

timet+2,,timet+n. Anticipating the science of ecology

by a hundred years, Charles Darwin wrote:

8.) but humble-bees alone visit the

common red cloveras other bees

cannot reach the nectar. Hence I have

very little doubt, that if the whole genus

of humble-bees became extinct or very

rare in England, the heartsease and red

clover would become very rare, or

wholly disappear. The number of

humble-bees in any district depends in

1 Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.


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17 INTRODUCTION

a great degree on the number of field-

mice, which destroy their combs and

nests; and Mr. H. Newman, who has

long attended to the habits of humble-

bees, believes that more than two

thirds of them are destroyed all over

England. Now the number of mice is

largely dependent, as every one knows,

on the number of cats; and Mr. Newmansays, Near villages and small towns I

have found the nests of humble-bees

more numerous than elsewhere, which I

attribute to the number of cats that

destroy the mice. Hence it is quitecredible that the presence of the feline

animal in large numbers in a district

might determine, through the

intervention first of mice and then of

bees, the frequency of certain flowers in

that district!2

The number of flowers is dependent upon the

availability of instincts and actions of humble-bees,

field-mice and cats for use by the creative process.

The one thing that all of our examples have incommon is that individual entities were somehow

transcended and transformed to create new and often

different entities. Persons with a religious outlook will

attribute the underlying process to God, Jehovah,

2 Charles Darwin, The Origin of Species, Crown Publishers,Inc., Avenel 1979 Edition.


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Allah, etc. while those with a scientific outlook will

attribute it to entropy or perhaps "tiny strings vibrating

through ten or eleven dimensions." Throughout this

book I will attribute this activity to the action of the

Spirit. Although the term has a religious connotation, I

cannot think of a more descriptive name. I hope those

with a scientific bent will bear with me.


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The Wisdom of Genesis

THEFACTTHATTHEREIS a great deal of controversy

regarding the physical creation as outlined in the book

of Genesis is not new, and the disagreement will

probably continue for a long time, perhaps forever. So

I will ignore the details of physical creation and

concentrate on the spiritual matters related in that

wise book.

With each phase of creation God saw that it was

good. But how could that be? Although not specifically

mentioned, the creation must have included such

things as sharks, jellyfish, poisonous snakes, deadly


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THESPIRITRUNSTHROUGHIT 20germs, and fearsome creatures of all kinds, which

could hardly be classified as good by any stretch of the

imagination.

God simply considered the actof creation to be

good. For God, the means (creating) justified the ends

(creation). Because man had not yet been formed,

mankinds good and evil had not yet been

invented.

After man was created, God presented all the

created objects to him for naming. Language was

born! And mans eating the forbidden fruit of the tree

of good and evil signifies the primeval (perhaps I

should say the prime evil) classification, because this

was the birth not only of mans greatest achievements,

but also his deepest troubles. Now man could assign

things to an infinite number of categories: not only

good and evil, but also large and small, friendly and

hostile, similar and different, red and green, etc., by

means of the Spirit working through language. Thus itwould appear as if mans new toy, speech, brought

with it a universe of troubles.

But it is not that simple. Through the power of

speech, the Spirit was able to create religion,

architecture, music, democracy, love, altruism, and all

those achievements which we judge to be good.

Unfortunately, since the Spirit praises the actrather

than the results of creating, it also brought forth

murder, incest, wars, hatred, jealously, AIDS, and

other pestilences.


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21 THE WISDOM OF GENESIS

Genesis proclaims that man was created, not from

nothing, but from the dust of the ground. Man was not

a supernatural being; he was, and still is, an integral

part of nature. But what an exciting part! Because ofits ability to store concepts, his brain holds the

potential for memory, insight, emotions, imagination;

entities that had never before existed. For the first

time in history the Spirit could look out and see what it

had done. It could combine what it saw with the

hidden cranial potentials and create all sorts of new

things. Because of the power of the Spirit working

through his brain, man received dominion over the

earth. Creativity took a quantum leap forward. And as

Genesis says, mankind was driven from the Garden of

Eden. His ability to speak and to classify separated him

from non-speaking nature, but not from the Spirit.


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The Growth of Language

WHATWASMANLIKE before the development of speech? Ofcourse, we will never really know, but undoubtedly he

shared some of the characteristics of lower animals.

We know that some higher animals dream, so

most likely early man also had dreams. For example,

when a dog sleeps, he sometimes wags his tail or

emits growls. It is quite natural to assume he is

dreaming of something pleasurable in the first

instance, and a threatening situation in the second. It

is likely that early man had similar dreams. Probably

he enjoyed a good meal, both in his daily life and in his


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23 THE GROWTH OF LANGUAGE

dreams. Whether awake or asleep, he undoubtedly

encountered situations which aroused fear, and in

either case he fled just as a gazelle flees from an

approaching lion.

Certainly a lower mammal is capable of fleeing

from a threat, or enjoying a good meal, but he can

react to a situation only as it transpires. He cannot sit

down and plan what he will do if the dog in the next

block threatens him, or even what he will do if he finds

himself in a generally threatened position. Nor can he

plan ahead in other than the most rudimentary way,

such as going hunting when he is hungry, or sleeping

when he is tired.

One thing is certain: the animal is not thinking

logically. He can never think to himself, If situation A

occurs I will react according to plan B. Logic is

impossible except through the use of language. It is

strictly wordplay, and is of value only insofar as its

premises have some connection to the surrounding

world. Regardless of the world from which ones

premises arise, it is wise to touch base with the real

world before taking action based on a logical

conclusion.

Somewhere along the way man developed one

thing which gave him a huge advantage over other

animals: a highly developed brain. We know this

because of his tool-making ability, for which evidence

abounds, not only in archaeological digs, but also in

anthropological studies of primitive tribes which even


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today turn up from time to time. Although a few lower

animals have developed rudimentary tools, none has

been able to match even the axes, hammers, arrows

and spears not to mention the computers, aircraft,

economic systems, religions, etc. which the human

race has invented. And the increasing complexity of

mans tools is evidence of the persistent pressure of

the Spirit, primarily through the use of logic, to

transcend and transform.

The expansion of the memory and the computing

ability of the human brain were absolute prerequisites

to the development of language. Without the brain one

could remember neither the words, nor their

connections to the outside world. And without access

to the memories of the vast number of events and

situations stored in the human brain, there would be

no way of creating solutions to the problems faced by

the early humans. Mankind would be no better off than

other animals.

Most likely the first words were little more than

cries to warn others of approaching danger. But as

with all things, once the first words became

available, they were transcended and transformed.

Using the sounds found in nature birdsong,

waterfalls, animal cries, rustling leaves, storms, etc.

as models, naming of objects probably followed soon

afterwards.

But because of the infinity of objects man found in

his world, naming was a little more complicated than


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Genesis implies; it was impossible to label each

individual. Man might be able to give one name to the

duck he saw this morning, and a different name to the

one he saw this afternoon, but that became

impractical the first time he had to speak about a flock

of ducks. However, once he developed the power of

classification what Genesis calls eating the fruit of

the tree of good and evil the problem was solved.

Each object came to be a member of a class, and

then was identified by modifiers to differentiate it from

other members of its class. For example, a duck is

placed in the class of birds, then identified as the

bird with the wide bill, short legs, and other attributes

which make the duck different from other birds. If

necessary, man could name one duck Donald in the

morning and another one Daisy in the afternoon, but

he could also speak intelligently about the flock of

ducks that flew over last evening.

Eventually man discovered that in addition to

naming and classifying objects, he could impart some

information about their activity. What was the lion

doing? Lion hunting or lion sleeping conveys

substantially more important information to the

listener than just pointing the finger while saying

lion.

Through the power of language man was able to

pass along skills to children or apprentices. Whether

through logic or trial and error, a workman could

develop a new flaking process for the manufacture of


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arrowheads, then teach it to others in his trade.

Practical information learned through experience

the best place to hunt, how to track game, the location

of the closest berry patch, etc. could be passed to

children and clan members while seated around the

campfire.

But the real power of language lay in its enabling

man to speak of things in his inside world: his

ambitions, hopes, dreams, fears, emotions, insights,

ideas, etc. It is obvious that other animals feel certain

emotions, for example, the gazelle fears the lion. But

the gazelle who escapes the lion cannot tell other

gazelles about the intense fear he felt.

The classification system built into the young

language soon enabled man to divide the world into

subjective categories: good vs. evil, fast vs. slow,

dangerous vs. safe, green vs. red, friend vs. foe, clan

vs. everyone else, etc.

Drawing upon the growing inventory of words, the

Spirit, as the saying goes, jumped on its horse and

rode off in all directions. Man could contemplate

objects and events which had no referent in the real

world. Imagination was born!

It may be true that an infinite number of monkeys,

each with his own word processor, would, in an

infinitely long period of time, write all the documents

that man ever did, or ever will, produce. But the

monkeys would not understand one word of what they

wrote.


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Working with language and logic, the Spirit could

rearrange, combine, and transform the vast number of

memories in the human brain to create wholly new

solutions (and problems). The speed of creativity was

increased by many orders of magnitude. Insights

became possible. For the first time, a man could run

through the streets screaming, Eureka, I have found

it. He could also say, If you dont bow down before

my god, I will kill you.


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Man Takes Control

EARLYMANFOUNDHIMSELF in a world buzzing with activity.Wild animals attacked, violent storms uprooted trees

and made streams and rivers overflow, and countless

other dangers and unknowns threatened him. But

mans powerful new tool, language, soon supplied a

vast array of concepts which he could use to cope withthe surrounding world.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries

anthropologists have had the opportunity to study

many primitive cultures which have turned up in

remote areas of the world. In most cases these


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29 MAN TAKES CONTROL

cultures have followed similar paths to understanding

their environment.

In all cases the earliest and biggest mystery

confronting man was that of the death of people close

to him: mates, children, clan members, etc. A common

acceptance concept was that of a soul which survived

the death of the body, either to wander about as an

animal or a disembodied spirit, or to be born again in

another form.

In many cultures the soul left the body temporarily

in sleep; if it left permanently, the body would die.

Thus it was important that the soul be induced to

return from any absence. In some cases dreams are

considered to be actual adventures of the soul while

the body is asleep, as illustrated by the following:

1.) The Santals, a large tribe in India,

told of a man who fell asleep, and his

soul, in the form of a lizard, entered a

pitcher for a drink of water. While the

soul was inside, the owner of the pitcher

covered it; consequently, the soul could

not return, and the man died. While his

friends were preparing to burn the

body, someone uncovered the pitcher

and the soul returned to the body,

which immediately revived. He said he

had been down in a well to get water,

but had found it hard to get out.3

3 Sir James George Frazer, The Golden Bough, MacmillanPublishing Company, New York, 1922


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Through the action of the Spirit, man arrived at the

next logical step: whatever moved man also moved

other entities. In particular, primitive man conceived

the concept that animals possessed feelings and

intelligence, and like men, they also possessed a soul.

Because animals were now on equal footing with

himself, the primitive hunter also believed that every

animal also had ties of kinship, etc. with others of the

same species. Thus if he killed an animal, he exposed

himself to reprisal, either from the soul of the

deceased animal, or at the hands of the victims

relatives. Accordingly, many tribes made it a rule to

spare the life of any animals which they had no

pressing motive to kill, particularly dangerous animals

from which rather bloody reprisals could be expected.

For example:

2.) Certain natives of Madagascar would

kill a crocodile only in revenge for the

crocodiles first killing a man. The

natives who lived near the lake made a

proclamation every year to the

crocodiles, announcing they would kill

the same number of crocodiles as the

number of men killed by the crocodiles,

and warning well-intentioned crocodiles

to keep out of their way. If one of the

crocodiles killed a man, the natives

summoned the family of the offender to


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deliver up the culprit. A baited hook was

cast into the water, and next day the

offender or a member of his family was

dragged ashore, and after a trial, he

was executed.4

Eventually man concluded that if he could control

his own movements, perhaps he could also control the

movements of the other entities in his environment.

There was no language with which he could directly

address the surrounding world even his ability to

address other men was extremely rudimentary but

perhaps he could assert control by his actions. Magic

was born!

3.) Some natives of Melanesia believed

that certain stones had magical powers,

which corresponded in their nature to

the shape of the stone. For example, if a

piece of water-worn coral were to be

found that looked somewhat like a

bread-fruit, the man who found it would

lay it at the root of one of his bread-fruit

trees in order to make it bear well. If the

tree did indeed produce as expected,

the owner would, for a fee, allow less

endowed stones of other men to be laid

near his stone in order that they might

pick up some of the magic which

4 ibid


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resides in it. The power was not in the

stone itself, but in the spirit which

resided in the stone.5

So far in our discussion we have seen primitive

man practicing what may be called private magic,

i.e. magical rites and incantations practiced for the

benefit or injury of individuals. But whether it was

because of consistently good results from private

practice, seeing a cultural advantage, or some other

reason, certain individuals soon began practicing as

shamans, wizards, or witch doctors. Magic moved from

the private to the public sector.

4.) When the Mara tribe of Northern

Australia wanted rain, the rain-maker

went to a pool and sang his magic song

over it. Then he took some of the water

in his hands, drank it, and spit it out in

various directions. After that he threw

water all over himself, scattered it

around, and returned quietly to camp.

Rain was supposed to follow.6

Eventually it became apparent that most of the

attempts to control nature were not working. This did

not erase the idea that nature had powers; it merely

showed that they were vastly superior to mans.

5 ibid

6 ibid


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Nature was now controlled by gods operating behind

the scenes.

But if the gods could not be controlled, perhaps

they could be induced to communicate their plans for

the group. Under divine inspiration, priests and

priestesses could prophesy as to the will of the

particular god they served. In most cases the

achievement of divine inspiration required the

practitioner to become temporarily possessed by the

god. This was the beginning of religion.

5.) Among the Kuruvikkarans of

Southern India, it was believed that the

goddess Kali descended upon the priest,

and he gave oracular replies after

sucking the blood streaming from the

cut throat of a goat.7

From beliefs such as these, it is an easy step to the

conviction that certain persons are permanently

possessed by a deity, or in some way are able to

exercise supernatural power to the extent that they

deserve some degree of homage and sacrifice.

Sometimes they also have extreme political power, in

which case they are kings or queens as well as gods.

For example:

6.) In the Marquesas, there was a class

of men who were deified to the extent

that they could control the elements,

7 ibid


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harvests, disease and even death.

Human sacrifices were offered to them.

They lived in seclusion, and their

powers were sometimes hereditary.

Except for the days when sacrifices

were offered, only persons dedicated to

the service of the god/king were allowed

to approach him.8

Perhaps because the gods answers to the desires

of humans were unpredictable, the Greeks endowed

their gods with the same fancies and whims that they

observed in their fellow mortals. Thus we find that the

leader of the gods, Zeus, was a playboy who had

affairs with both human women and goddesses. After

suffering a painful punishment for her part in a revolt

against her husband, his wife, Hera, spent much of her

time bestowing revenge upon the objects of Zeuss

amorous advances. Since all other gods in the GreekPantheon also had their idiosyncrasies, unexpected

results, or no results at all, to human pleadings were

not surprising.

But the greatest example of transformation and

transcendence in mans attempt to control his

surroundings was the Hebrew concept of monotheism.

Although the details are lost in antiquity, it appears

that this concept grew out of the idea of one god who

was superior to all other gods. At some time after that,

8 ibid


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all other gods became superfluous. This one god was

admittedly a jealous god, and demanded rigorous

standards of worship from his chosen people. He was a

stern father figure.

It was the achievement of Christianity to graft the

idea of hope to the one god concept. In particular,

Christianity promised hope that the strict Hebraic god

would always be available to the worshiper, offer

forgiveness of sins instead of stern punishment, and

that everlasting life would overcome death.

The foregoing examples illustrate the points I wish

to make. From them we can conclude the following:

(1) The Spirit always builds on what has

come before; nothing appears out of

nothing.

(2) Through the use of language, man

has always attempted to control real

world events by the expansion of

concepts.

(3) In lock-step with the rapid

expansion of concepts, the actions of

the believers were also affected by the

Spirit. New concepts were accompanied

by new human activities.

Although language is a part of nature, it has one

property that is not found in other actions of the Spirit:

it is transformed and transcended at a rate many

orders of magnitude faster than any other entity.


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Concept is piled upon concept until it is difficult to see

any relationship between mans mental images and

the passing show. Joyce Carol Oates best describes the

situation, Homo sapiens is the species that invents

symbols in which to invest passion and authority, then

forgets that the symbols are inventions.


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Constructs

IN

PREVIOUS

CHAPTERS

I have tried to illustrate howlanguage began, and how man attempted to use it to

control his environment. Now I wish to examine

exactly how the Spirit works with language through

the use ofconstructs.

The term constructis usually used as a verb,

although Websters Encyclopedic Unabridged

Dictionary also defines it as a noun, i.e. (1) something

constructed or (2) an image, idea or theory, especially

a complex one formed from a number of simpler

elements.


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Definition (1) covers anything from a physical bird

nest or beaver dam to a jet plane or a super highway,

and carries the connotation that the constructor has

some definite use planned, either consciously or

instinctively, for the construct.

Definition (2) is a little trickier; here I am thinking

of a mental or instinctive construct. It could be a plan,

say for a business or invention, or it could be a

concept, e.g., a political ideal, free will, consciousness,

etc., or it could be a thought experiment or a scientific

theory, or it could be the recipe for mothers chicken

soup. It could also be the idea behind the behavior of a

sea otter when he cracks an oyster shell on a stone on

his chest, or the reason gray whales migrate to a

Mexican cove for mating. It includes any thing we

can conceive but not hold, touch or otherwise detect

by the use of the senses or other instruments.

Of all the constructs we humans use, the most

common is one that we seldom recognize: our

language. While we realize that the word is not the

thing, we implicitly assume that there is some

correspondence between the word and the thing. We

rarely realize that we are partners in a strict

agreement to cut up our view of the world in ways

over which we have no control. This agreement was

entered into by our remote ancestors, and we have

been stuck with it ever since.

It is obvious that constructs change over time. In

the very early days of the human race, if caveman


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39 CONSTRUCTS

Alley Oop wanted to warn his friend Foozy that Dinny

the dinosaur was about to attack, all he could do was

yell or make some other noise to call Foozys attention

to the impending disaster.9 It took a long, long time to

develop a sophisticated form of communication such

as language.

Even then, the world was a magical place where

anything was possible. Natural history as we know it

did not exist. As illustrated by the examples in the

previous chapter, rivers, mountains, gods and men

were united in strange combinations. Even though the

minotaur, the sphinx and the unicorn had never been

seen, their existence was accepted without question.

Such was the situation when the Greek

philosophers and scientists came on the scene. These

unbelievably brilliant men invented language

constructs that we have been locked into ever since.

What were these constructs? There were two: the

law of identityand the law of the excluded middle.

The law of identity was a huge step forward.

Simply put, it states that a dog is a dog and nothing

else; likewise a tree is a tree and a river is a river.

Technically, A is A and not non-A.

The law of the excluded middle states that a

proposition is either true or false; there is no middle

ground.

9 I am well aware that dinosaurs and men did not coexistduring the same time period. It's just a fanciful example.


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Taken together these two principles brought order

out of chaos. They refined the principle of classification

the capability of distinguishing between animal,

vegetable and mineral, and between the various

species. Things were classified according to their

natures and attributes. It was the nature of fire to

burn, smoke to rise and water to flow. Grass had the

attribute of greenness, the sky had the attribute of

blueness and rocks had the attribute of hardness. Thesubject/predicate structure of language was fixed.

Eventually men began to detect interactions

among the components of the universe; interactions

that could be described in the language of

mathematics. New constructs, the laws of nature,

redefined the old constructs. Planets followed regular

orbits, velocity and acceleration could be described

precisely, electricity and radiation were discovered;

the world bustled with activity.

Then Einstein fine-tuned the old constructs with his

theories of relativity10. Since then, the universe is

understood to consist of an infinite number of

point/events. Between point/event A and point/event B

are an infinite number of possibilities. Light is both a

particle and a wave, electron orbits are not real only

probability functions and if we know the position of

a particle we cant know its velocity and vice versa. In

10 His general theory of relativity published in 1916

expanded his special theory which he had published in1905.


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41 CONSTRUCTS

some situations, the law of identity and the law of the

excluded middle do not apply.

Physicists tell us that the only thing we know about

nature is what we say about it. Our static construct,

language, even the language of mathematics, is no

longer adequate to explain todays physical world.11

The situation is worse when we use language for

mental constructs. These days the big bone of

contention in politics is morality. Is abortion moral?

Is war ever moral? Should people be allowed to die

when they become brain dead? Under what

circumstances are any of these positions moral or

immoral? What does the construct moral signify?

As we have seen, the Spirit always builds on what

has come before; nothing appears out of nothing. If a

construct with reference to an object in physics or

chemistry is inadequate or incorrect, it will soon be

replaced by new and more accurate constructs. The

original hard object is still available for further

transcendence and transformation. A construct with

respect to a strictly mental construct, e.g., morality,

justice, love, etc. is hard to refine because its referent

varies from user to user.

11 Recent studies have called Einstein's theories into

question. Undoubtedly they will be revised in the not toodistant future.


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Constructs For UnderstandingThe Spirit

IWISHTOCREATE four constructs which I have found to be

helpful in understanding how the Spirit works. The

basic idea is to define constructs of language which

will include all entities in the universe real,

imaginary, physical or mental and enable us toexamine their interactions.

The External Constructs

The first two of these constructs include all

physical entities; things that occupy a volume of


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43 CONSTRUCTS FORUNDERSTANDING THE SPIRIT

space, however small or large, and exist for a period of

time, however short or long. They include entities as

small as a subatomic particle which can be detected

only by a vapor trail in a cloud chamber, or as large as

the entire physical universe. Because these entities

have extension in space and time, I define these

constructs as external, and divide them into an

external individual construct (EI) and an external

group construct (EG).

When we observe an individual persons

appearance or activities, a fish, a tree or an auto we

are referring to a member of the EI construct. The EI

construct also includes physical entities that are

usually hidden from view, e.g., a neuron, a kidney, an

atom within a rock, an undetected comet in deep

space, etc.

The EG construct comprises the outward

manifestation of an underlying group or system. For a

civilization it includes such things as its buildings as a

display of its architecture, its highways as a display of

its infrastructure, the proceedings in its courtrooms as

a display of its justice system, etc. It also includes a

rain dance as a display of a group's beliefs, the

synchronized movements of a school of fish as a

display of an as yet unknown system of animal

communication, or the plants and animals of a forest

as a display of its underlying ecology.

The Internal Constructs


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The other constructs include all entities not

included in the external constructs: ideas, emotions,

instincts, attitudes, feelings, etc. Because they occur

within physical entities, I call them internal individual

(II) and internal group (IG) constructs.

As with the EI construct, it is not difficult to

understand what I mean by emotions, attitudes, ideas,

etc. within an individual, but what about internal items

within a group? Let me give a few examples.

We can observe the rites of a religion; we can

photograph or record them, but we cannot record the

emotions, beliefs and attitudes which the participants

entertain as a group. Likewise we can photograph a

rain dance, but the photos do not indicate what the

group has in mind as a group. We can observe the zigs

and zags of a school of sardines, but we cannot

photograph the instincts or communications behind

the highly synchronized motions as a group.

Table I Internal External

Individual

Emotions

Ideas

Insights

Memories

Instincts

Space/time events

Facial expressions

Bodily movement

Inorganic entities

Group

Beliefs

Customs

Laws

Religion

Church buildings

Transportation systems

Infrastructure

Sports facilities

Rites

Holiday observances


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Table I shows the relationships between the

various constructs.

Interactions of the Constructs

The following hypothetical case is an illustration of

the interactions of the Spirit within the constructs of

two widely separated cultures:

A comet is captured by the gravity

of the sun; subsequently it falls into a

path which will take it from deep space

to within a few million miles of the

earth. Long before it is visible to the

unaided eye, a modern astronomer

spots it through a telescope.

Immediately he informs NASA, which

has been waiting for just such an

opportunity. After a few months of

feverish activity, a space probe, which

will pass through the tail of the comet

and return information regarding its

chemical composition to earth, is

launched. The probe is successful.

Because of the current civilizations

belief in the importance of science, a

great deal of information regarding the

early makeup of the universe is now

widely available.

In the meantime, when the comet

becomes visible to the human eye, it is


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spotted by a primitive tribesman deep

in the jungles of West Papua. The tribes

Shaman declares that this is a sign that

the gods are angry. The tribe

immediately begins a series of activities

designed to appease them: huge

bonfires, dances and other rites. Since

the omen eventually passes from sight

without incident, the tribe believes itsappeasement efforts have been

successful.

For the modern individuals, curiosity was the

driving force behind all the activity. Each person

involved in the discovery, and the planning and

preparation of the probe probably had private feelings

and emotions about the enterprise, but I believe it is

safe to say that in almost all cases the II feelings

included anticipation of the results and enthusiasm forthe project. Because of the IG attitude of the society

toward scientific discovery, the technology for the

probe was available.

The primitive individuals were undoubtedly driven

by fear, awe and the urgency to appease the gods

through the use of religious rites.

Table II illustrates the various constructs involved.


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A Comprehensive Example

THE SPIRITACTSCONTINUOUSLY in all areas of the universe.

The Spirit itself cannot be analyzed, but its results in

the real world can be observed and analyzed. Here are

two scenarios.

A Trip To the Store - 1809

In the year 1809 Smith1 discovered that he needed

to go to the store for some salt. Since going to the

store was quite a project, he made a list of everything

else he needed in order to get it all done in one trip.


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49 A COMPREHENSIVE EXAMPLE

After selecting the pelts which he planned to trade

for the items on his list, he hitched his horse to the

wagon, picked up his salt container and his Kentucky

Long Rifle, and drove for over an hour. The roads were

little more than tree-shrouded paths through the

wilderness, and were barely wide enough for the

wagon.

The store was very small; in fact it occupied the

front room of the proprietors home. The inventory

consisted of staple goods: salt, molasses, flour, etc.

still in the big barrels or wooden boxes in which they

had been shipped. There were also several bolts of

cloth, some tools and possibly a few miscellaneous

items.

The proprietor scooped the required quantity from

the salt barrel, weighed it under Smith1s watchful eye

(Smith1 was sure he had been cheated on his last salt

purchase), and poured it into the customers container.

The other items on Smith1s list were handled in more

or less similar fashion.

While looking around, Smith1 remembered that his

wife had been complaining about her worn out aprons,

so he decided to add a couple of yards of material to

his list. The value of his pelts more than covered the

cost of his supplies, so after the proprietor gave him

the difference in cash from a wooden box under the

counter, Smith1 drove home.

A Trip To the Store - 2009


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In the year 2009 Smith2 discovered he needed to

go to the store for some salt. Since the store was only

a few blocks away, he started his car and drove for a

few minutes. Although he was pretty sure he needed

some other things, the store was so close that he

figured it wasnt worth his time to compile a list. He

was too preoccupied to notice the beautiful elm trees

and the lovely flowers lining the four-lane streets and

median strip.

The huge supermarket was packed with tens of

thousands of items, most of them prepackaged, and

included a pharmacy, a bank and an optometry

department. A security guard stood by the door, and a

sign warned that surveillance was being conducted by

cameras mounted in the ceiling, and that shoplifters

would be prosecuted.

Smith2 found many kinds of salt: plain, iodized,

garlic, seasoned, kosher, sea and rock among others.

There was salt specially designed for curing meat;

another type was made just for flavoring popcorn.

Most contained additives to keep the product from

clumping or sticking. Salt also came in several

varieties of prepackaged containers, from little shakers

to cardboard cylinders with metal pour spouts. There

were large bags of rock salt, which was used to melt

ice and snow.

Suddenly he remembered that tomorrow was his

wedding anniversary, so he bought his wife a bouquet.

Smith2 laid his selections on a conveyor belt, and


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swiped his credit card through a reader. The clerk

picked up the salt and flowers, passed them by a

scanner, and a bill printed out. Smith2 signed the bill

and drove home.

Comparisons

In this section I want to examine these scenarios

using the constructs we developed previously.

Individual Internal Comparisons

When Smith1 decided he needed some salt, what

other thoughts ran through his mind? Was he

frustrated because he had too many other things to

do? Was he worried that his old horse might not bestrong enough to make the trip, or was he happy

because he had a new young horse that he wanted to

try out? Was he angry because he felt the store owner

had cheated him on his last trip? Did he have enough

nails to finish the cabin repairs? Was he concerned

that it might rain before he got home? Was he afraid

he might not have enough pelts to cover the cost of

his supplies? Did he take his gun because he feared he

might run into highwaymen in the forest, or because

he was hopeful that he might find additional meat for

the winter in the form of a bear or a deer? Which

material would his wife like best for her aprons?

In addition to all these possibilities, every physical

move he made had a mental parallel in his brain:

writing the list, hitching the horse, driving through the

forest, talking to the storekeeper, etc.


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Smith2 also had many thoughts running through

his mind. Was he upset because his alma maters

football team was on TV, and he would miss the

kickoff? Why didnt he get the car washed this

morning? Anyway, its time to get a new one. Why did

that kid of his get such poor grades? All these salts

which one should he get? Large or small size?

Definitely get iodized salt (the government says it

prevents goiter), but what flavor? Winter was coming should he get a supply of rock salt? Oops, almost

forgot the anniversary. Would his wife prefer roses or

violets? Red roses perfect! He was going to have to

do something about that huge balance on his credit

card. Perhaps he should get a part time job.

All these and more, in addition to the mental

parallels of his motions, flitted through his mind:

walking to the car, driving down the street, physically

picking up the salt container and the bouquet, etc.

Individual External Comparisons:

The individual external comparisons include all the

visible activities of both Smiths as described above. In

addition, it includes their facial expressions or other

outward indications of their underlying emotions: looks

of fear, satisfaction, worry, indecision, etc.

Group Internal Comparisons:

Smith1 belonged to a society which valued self-

reliance and independence. Life was difficult and


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dangerous, and the husbands job was to protect the

family and provide the necessities. Women raised the

children and generally kept the home functioning.

Governments major function was the apprehension

and punishment of outlaws.

In Smith2s society, technology had practically

eliminated hardship; people expected a vast array of

leisure time activities, a huge selection of goods

packaged for convenience, easy credit, and

government protection from tainted foods, potentially

dangerous conditions and terrorists.

Group External Comparisons:

The society in which Smith1 lived had simple

homes, small isolated stores, earthen roads,

transportation by wagon and manufacturing by hand.

Smith2s society displayed homes with indoor

plumbing, hi-tech gadgets, paved and beautified

highways, mega-stores filled with a huge supply of

goods, credit cards and hi-speed data processing

equipment.

See Table III for a side by side comparison.


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It is important to understand that the Spirit is

occurring in all constructs simultaneously. For

example, the automobile could not have been

invented until sufficient progress had been made in

metallurgy, electrical engineering, fuels,

communication, materials, etc.

When an inventor or scientist has an idea (II) for an

advance in his particular field, he creates a physical

construct (EI) in the form of a model, experiment, etc.,

which becomes available to the surrounding society.

An idea for making stronger steel may make it possible

to build higher buildings, or the discovery of a new

tropical plant may provide a cure for a previously fatal

disease. As new constructs proliferate throughout

society (EG), the societys internal beliefs, customs,

etc. (IG) gradually change, which leads to further

external individual and group changes. Every new

situation, whether a philosophy, an idea, a tool, a

design, even a casual remark to a friend or the sight of

a falling apple, is instantly available for the Spirits use

in all categories.

I do not mean to give the impression that each

advance is brought about by the conscious creative

efforts of individuals. The Spirit is blind and non-

directional; it is not about improvement; it is about the

act of creation. New constructs are born from the

constructs available at a given time, and along the

way it is likely that there are as many creative failures


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as successes. But as constructs become available for

further use, the failures tend to disappear, while the

successes lead to further successes.


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An In-depth Look At The SpiritsActivity

INTHEPREVIOUSCHAPTERWEDISCUSSED how the Spirit works

through the use of certain special constructs: internal

and external, individual and group. This method of

investigation is useful as a crutch, and while it has the

advantage of being easily understandable, it has the

disadvantage of giving an incomplete picture.

In order to expand our understanding of the Spirit,

I need to set up a new construct: space/time. When

most of us think of dimensions, we picture the


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three spatial dimensions: length, width and height.

We can also navigate in four dimensions the above

three plus a time dimension.

For example, if we schedule a meeting on the third

floor of the building at the intersection of King and

Queen Streets at 9:00 am, most of us would have no

trouble attending. We have simply substituted King

Street for length, Queen Street for width, third floor for

height, and added the time.

For our purpose, a point is defined as a specific

location in space. It is the tiniest imaginable unit, but it

is not quite nothing.

In this diagram, point (x,y,z) is located at the

convergence of a

fixed number of

units along the

x-coordinate

(length), another

fixed number of

units along the

y-coordinate

(width), and a

third fixed number of units along the z-coordinate

(height). If any of the three coordinates are changed, it

is no longer point (x,y,z). For example, if z is moved

one unit further along the z-coordinate, it becomes the

point (x,y,z+1).

Thepoint/event(x,y,z,t) denotes the given point at

time t. Note that the location of (x,y,z) remains the


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59 AN IN-DEPTH LOOKAT THE SPIRIT'S ACTIVITY

same in relation to the coordinate system shown here,

regardless of the change in t or the movement of the

coordinate system itself, although the conditions in

effect at the point may change along with t. The

number of conditions possible for any given

point/event, as well as between any two point/events,

is infinite.

This does not mean that any given point can

change its condition randomly in the interval from t to

t+1; the Spirit transcends and transforms the

condition ofeach point/eventin conjunction with the

preceding condition of each point/event in its

immediate neighborhood. The actual condition of

(x,y,z,t) is dependent upon three things: (1) the

condition at (x,y,z,t-1), (2) the conditions of the

point/events in the neighborhood of (x,y,z,t-1), and (3)

the action of the Spirit

It is important to understand that the Spirit is

operating throughout the entire universe

simultaneously for all point/events. Imagine that each

instant in time corresponds to a station on an

assembly line. This organic line differs from the usual

mechanistic assembly line in that there is no overall

blueprint for the product being assembled. Each

station must take whatever point/events are passed

to it, and through the action of the Spirit, make its own

transformation. In this way constructs are built up,

and their constant expansion and jostling makes up

the world we see. Each construct at all times attempts


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to adjust itself harmoniously to the other constructs in

its environment.

It is easy to see how ever expanding constructs

can interfere with each other. Thorns can choke out

plants, changing economic conditions can ruin a

business, and cats can wipe out a colony of field-mice.

Within the human brain, bigotry can destroy

understanding, and fear can prevent creative thinking.

But creative interference can also lead to healthy

competition, as when athletes compete in sports and

games. In some cases it can lead to peaceful

coexistence between nations or religions; in others it

can lead to war. "Good" and "bad" results such as

these are obvious.

When we look at constructs which require both

cooperation and a limitation on component size, the

idea of creative interference needs to replaced by a

more subtle construct. What controls the size of

organs within a human body? Why would not the Spirit

continue to increase the size of a kidney, liver,

pancreas, etc. until the organ crowds out all the

surrounding organs? Is there some organizing center

that controls the construction of the various body

parts?

Suppose station one receives the point/events

comprising an egg which has just been penetrated by

a sperm. In the next instant, station two begins to

fuse the nuclear materials to form the chromosomes of

a somatic cell. Ensuing stations continue this process


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to form a zygote. Later stations begin to form cells; a

few days later they occupy a volume of space/time

that we call a fetus.

At each of the ensuing stations new

transformations take place, each one taking what has

been passed to it, and contributing its own activity.

Nutrients are received from the mother, blood vessels

are built up, and enzymes and other proteins are

prepared and passed into the ever growing blood

stream. Based on point/events receivedfrom its own

expanding internal constructs, in addition to those

received from the mother, genes are turned on and

off, leading to transformations culminating in the

appearance of the internal organs.

At no time is there any hint of what the product

is becoming; only the materials here and now are

available for transcendence and transformation. This

eliminates the notion of top-down causation [which]

is incoherent [in] that it involves spooky forces exerted

by wholes upon their components.12 Eventually an

infant is born.

But if there is no foreknowledge of the outcome of

the Spirits activity, why does every fetus go through

the same process? Why does the outcome of the

egg/sperm combination of a given species always

result in a similar infant?

12 Carl F. Carver and William Bechtel, Philosophy-

Neuroscience-Psychology Program, Washington University,St. Louis.


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While not actually determined, the action of the

Spirit is consistent. The egg/sperm combination of any

particular species starts nearly the same way. Similar

point/event combinations lead to similar

transformations and transcendences. The nearly

unique combinations of bovine sperm/egg

combinations cannot lead to equine sperm/egg

outcomes. And the fact that such combinations are

nearly unique, and yet not quite identical, leads to thevariety of individuals we see around us, as well as to

an occasional birth defect.13

While it is not difficult to apply the assembly line

metaphor to external constructs, it is not so simple to

picture how it applies to internal constructs. How can a

noun such as love, pain, joy, jealousy or beauty apply

to a volume of space/time?

Subjective nouns are a description of the internal

states of certain portions of the brain. An external

analogy would be the comparison of a container to its

contents. If I say there is a glass of milk on the

counter, and state further that the contents are

buttermilk as opposed to whole milk, chocolate milk or

2% milk, that is analogous to saying that the internal

13 Birth defects can also result from occasional

creative variations, whether good or bad, in the

actions of the Spirit during the assembly line

process.


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conditions of my brain are such that I am joyful, as

opposed to depressed, happy, or in pain.

The internal conditions of the brain do not cause or

lead to joy, depression, et. al.; these conditions are

joy, depression, happiness, etc. Because the animal

body is a group of point/events which are fully

imbedded in nature, these conditions are irrevocably

subject to the actions of the Spirit. I shall have more to

say on this subject in a later chapter.


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Matter Matters

INTHEFIRSTSEVENCHAPTERS I discussed the Spirit's activity

in the macro world constructs which can be sensed,

or inferred through the use of special instruments. In

chapter eight I wrote about the micro world the

space/time world of point/events. Now I wish to

examine the connection between the two. First let me

take you through a short history of the universe.

The Spirit's activity started simultaneously with the

creation of the universe. Within a tiny fraction of the


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65 MATTERMATTERS

first second, the point/events which were to become

the universe were transformed into a gaseous mixture

of quarks, electrons, photons, neutrinos and other

particles. A few minutes later they began to combine

to form the nuclei of the lighter elements: hydrogen,

helium and lithium.

It took the next 300,000 years for the nuclei to

start capturing electrons to form neutral atoms.

Matter, in the form ofcomplete atoms of the light

elements, was born!

Some 300 million years later the first stars ignited,

enabling the formation of approximately 90 heavier

natural elements within their interiors. These elements

were ejected into the surrounding space as "stardust."

About 5 billion years ago, a small star on one of

the outlying arms of the Milky Way Galaxy was ignited.

We call it the Sun. The solar system, including our

beautiful Earth, coalesced out of the surrounding

stardust about 4.5+ billion years ago. At least for us, it

was the Spirit's crowning achievement. We still get

stardust as well as occasional other visitors

(meteorites) from outer space.

For over 13 billion years the Spirit has been

transcending and transforming point/events to adjust

to their immediate surroundings. The primeval

constructs were the most stable: quarks, electrons,

etc.; constructs with such complete internal

adjustments that they are impossible to tear apart.

These were the "clay" from which atoms, the basic


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building blocks of the physical universe, were

constructed.

The atomic nuclei which followed were somewhat

less stable. The hierarchy continued with the capture

of electrons, the accumulation into stars, the formation

of the heavier elements, planets, etc. Each tier in the

hierarchy, although still relatively stable, was

somewhat less so than its predecessors.

The culmination was the appearance of the least

stable tier of all: life itself! Living organisms did not

come into the universe; they came out of it! We are all

created from stardust!

None of the above history would have been

possible had it not been for the Spirit's activities in

empty space; the space within the atom as well as the

space between the atoms.

Textbooks tell us that atoms are ridiculously small

about one tenth of a millionth of a millimeter across.

That means that a human hair, one of the narrowest

things visible to the eye, is roughly a million atoms

across. Put another way, there are more atoms in a

glass of water than there are glasses of water in all the

oceans in the world.

Now for the hard part: The atom is 99.99% (13

nines after the decimal point) empty space! If you

were to remove all the empty space in the atoms that

make up a human being, he or she would be a lot

smaller than a grain of salt!


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67 MATTERMATTERS

The action of the Spirit holds each atomic nucleus

together and tethers its orbiting electrons to it; the

Spirit also holds planets, comets and other stellar

bodies in their orbits. An interaction of the Spirit

between an occupied volume and an empty volume of

space/time is called a force, as is an interaction

between two occupied volumes of space/time, e.g.

gravity.

Depending upon the structure of the individual

atoms, electrons can be either shared between atoms

or, in some cases, moved from one atom to another.

This results in the formation of molecules which, along

with the basic elements, make up the physical

constructs that we have discussed in previous

chapters.


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Causality14

INTHEPREVIOUSCHAPTER I discussed how the physical

universe progresses by means of the Spirits activities

on the space, atoms and molecules that comprise it.

But our language is composed of a different kind of

construct, i.e. words, which carve out volumes of

space/time from the surrounding flow of events. This

14 Portions of this chapter are taken from Dowe, Phil, "CausalProcesses", The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall2008 Edition), Edward N. Zalta (ed.), URL =.


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69 CAUSALITY

chapter will examine how we use language to talk

about this process.

Although he was writing about pornography when

he said, I shall not today attempt further to define the

kinds of material but I know it when I see it, Supreme

Court Justice Potter Stewart might just as well been

speaking about causality. Philosophers have been

trying to explain, or even to define, causality for

twenty-five hundred years, and have yet to reach anagreement. The physicists have come closest to

agreeing, but even they are floating competing

theories. A couple of examples follow:

In 1948 Bertrand Russell, who had

previously rejected the notion of

causality, suggested that under certain

conditions the idea had some

usefulness as a shorthand mechanism,

primarily in scientific inductive

reasoning. Briefly, his theory suggestedthat a persistence of something, a

person, a table, a photon, or what not

may be considered as a string of events

having a causal connection with each

other. Under Russells definition, a chairat time t is connected to a chair at time

t-1 and also at t+1. As he put it, Given

a certain event at a certain time, then

at any slightly earlier or slightly later

time there is, at some neighbouring

place, a closely similar event. The chair


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at time t is caused by the earlier chair

(at t-1), and is the cause of the later

chair (at t+1).

One problem with the theory was that there are

some events that look like they are a persistence of

something, but are not, and Russells theory could not

distinguish between real causal processes and so-

calledpseudo processes. For example, a moving spot

of light at time t on a wall seems to be related to the

spot at t-1 and also at t+1, but its not. Each

manifestation of the spot is related to the interaction

of the light source and the wall, not the preceding

spot. Likewise, a shadow appears to be related

causally to itself in the interval between t-1 and t+1,

but again it is related only to the interaction of the

light source, the intervening body and the ground.

Wesley Salmon (1925 2001) attempted to overcome

the shortcomings of Russells theory as follows:

Suppose that there is a process P,

which has some characteristic that,

without intervening interactions, would

remain unchanged between t-1 and

t+1. Then at some point, say t, there is

an interaction which introduces a mark,

defined as a modification of that

particular characteristic. If and only if

that characteristic remains changed at


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71 CAUSALITY

all points between t and t+1, P is a

causal process.

Unfortunately, Salmons theory requires that the

process P must be self-propagating without further

interaction. This would seem to rule out falling bodies,

electric currents, sound waves and others. These are

causal processes, but they are not self-propagating

without outside interaction. Falling bodies and

electricity are moved by their respective fields, and

sound waves do not exist without air, water or some

other medium.

In addition, some pseudo processes are not

excluded by Salmons theory. Consider the shadow

cast by a car. If someone inside the car sticks an arm

out the window while holding up a flag, the mark, the

change in the shadow, is transmitted from the flag to

the shadow on the ground. Sticking out the arm

seemingly qualifies as a mark which modifies a

characteristic of the shadow.

These objections can be overcome by requiring

that causal processes, not pseudo processes, transmit

some conserved quantity, such as mass-energy, linear

momentum, etc. from one occasion to the next.

But why bother to separate pseudo processes from

real processes? According to Einsteins Special Theory

of Relativity, information cannot travel faster than the

speed of light (approximately 186,000 miles per

second). But there are things which can travel faster


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than that, at least theoretically. For example, suppose

one could build a circular wall, similar to a wall around

a castle, with a radius of approximately 29,600 miles.

Such a wall would be 186,000 miles in circumference.

At the center of the circular wall there is a laser which

projects a spot on the wall. If the laser revolves at the

rate of one revolution per second, the spot will move

along the wall at 186,000 miles per second. If the wall

is moved say, 500 miles further away from the laser,the spot will move about 189,125 miles per second,

which would violate the theory. The Special Theory

does not apply to pseudo processes.

With these restrictions, causality differs from the

way it is normally understood in ordinary language.

Sentences such as The horse got away because I

forgot to close the barn door, and, The eight ball

didnt go into the pocket because someone bumped

the table, would not be covered under the meaning of

causality. Some philosophers deny that omissions andpreventions such as these are cases of causation, but

if not, what are they?

Patches to the conserved energy theory, as well as

alternative physical theories, abound. For example,

see Aronson, 1971; Fair, 1979; Skyrms, 1980; and

others.

If the understanding of causation is iffy among

physicists, it gets even more so in other sciences. For

example, if one mixes baking soda and vinegar,

carbon dioxide forms. Is the cause of carbon dioxide


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73 CAUSALITY

the baking soda, the vinegar, or the mixing? What

about more complex reactions? In most cases, there is

not just one cause. By the time one gets into biology

or psychology, the physicists explanation of cause

has slipped out of sight.

In attempting to apply an overall causal law to

economics, Nancy Cartwright has arrived at the

following conclusion:

There is a variety of different kinds

of causal laws that operate in a variety

of different ways, and a variety of

different kinds of causal questions that

we can ask.

Each of these can have its own

characteristic markers; but there are no

interesting features that they all share

in common. (2004, p.814).

Ordinary usage implies that Russell was correct in

saying that under certain conditions causality has

some usefulness as a shorthand mechanism. It is a

quick and easy way for a scientist, or anyone else, to

describe an event, but it is necessary to keep in mind

that causality is a creation of language a way of

talking about the world; it is not an objective real world

event. In order to avoid misunderstandings, one needs

to be sure that the certain conditions underlying his

shorthand mechanism are in sync with those of his

listeners. This is especially true when an expert


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addresses laymen, e.g. when a scientist speaks to an

audience of non-scientists.

But how do we non-scientists use causality in daily

conversation? Here is an informal working definition:

We may say event A causes event B if

all of the following statements apply:

1. B follows A.

2. If A had not occurred, neither would

B.

3. Either A is in physical contact with B,

or between A and B there is a string of

connected events x, such that if x were

interrupted, B would not occur.

Note that event B may be triggered by events

other than A, but whenever B occurs, there must be a

triggering event, A, C, etc. which satisfies all of the

above conditions. That seems simple enough.

Here are a few examples:

(1) We see the bat hit the baseball, and

the ball changes direction. All three

conditions are satisfied. In particular,

the ball and bat are in direct contact.We may say, Striking the ball with the

bat caused the fly ball.

(2) We see the baseball hit the ground,

and the ball takes a bad bounce away

from the shortstop. All three conditions


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75 CAUSALITY

are satisfied. In examples 1 and 2, the

ball changes direction, but the

triggering events are different. We may

say, The shortstop missed the ball

because it took a bad bounce.

(3) The cue ball strikes the eight ball,

which rolls into the corner pocket. Again

all three conditions are satisfied. Thestriking of the eight ball by the cue ball

and the sinking into the corner pocket

are connected by the string of events

(x) which are manifested by the rolling

of the ball. We may sa

The Spirit Runs Through It

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