|
no1nose -> RE: Evolution's Observer and Math Problems (6/30/2008 6:27:56 PM)
|
quote:
QM does not provide any connection between consciousness and atomic changes. An observer will collapse the wave function. The observer need not be intelligent or conscious. It can be an instrument
This doesn't make any sense to me.
quote:
I won't disagree with your conclusions, but the definition of random that you hold in your head and your application of the term 'random mutation' are not the same definition used by evolutionary biologists.
In what way? Please explain.
quote:
This notion being suggested by new age-y physics fans amounts to nothing more than affirming that free will may be compatible with supposedly sciency views of the physical world. This is no revelation to any Christians on this site. (It is only interesting to those who have found it convenient in the past to deny free will based on a deterministic worldview, which was never more than a hypothesis.)
I say this only because of the name "no1nose", and the textual associations carried with it.
The Transfiguration is an example of this. Here is my take on this subject:
Most cultures have heroes and superheroes that in some way define the culture they come from. Of all the pop culture heroes that I know of I find Superman and Dr Who the most interesting. The reason for this is that they both assume their superhero roles by stepping out of a phone booth. Lately I see superman has given up on the practice but once it was the phone booth where the man of steel changed into his superman outfit. Dr. Who’s phone booth is much more important and serves also as a time machine by which he travels through time to save the world.
Superman is almost immortal and Dr Who can travel though time but it is the phone booth that catches my curiosity. Why a phone booth? Actually the idea of superheroes emerging from booths to save the world is an ancient one. In the Gospels there is the story of the Transfiguration in which the disciple Peter offers to build booths for Jesus, Moses and Elijah. These booths or tabernacles were small shelters made of branches and then adorned with objects that represented parts of the body such as eyes and ears. The Jewish people would camp out in these booths for seven days during the Feast of Tabernacles. In time these shelters came to symbolize the bodies that the righteous who would come out of them to establish God’s Kingdom.
At the Transfiguration Peter offered to make these booths because he thought that the day has come. He was wrong but the Transfiguration itself has made an enormous impression on people at that time. To the early church it was truly an extraordinary event of great importance. It is one of the few miracles mentioned in the gospels that are referred to by an Apostle in his writings. Here is how Peter would later say about this event:
For we did not follow cunningly devised fables when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of His majesty. For He received from God the Father honour and glory when such a voice came to Him from the Excellent Glory: "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” And we heard this voice which came from heaven when we were with Him on the holy mountain. 2Peter 1:16-18
But as time passed the memory of what happened faded. Today scholars are puzzled by the Biblical account and don’t know quite what to make of it. Scholars pretty much agree that the Transfiguration is a demonstration of Jesus’ divinity. Jesus was attempting to teach the disciples that he must die and the transfiguration was meant to strengthen them and help them get through this shattering event. What puzzles the scholars are the details of the account that raise more questions than answers.
At the Transfiguration Jesus takes Peter, James and John up a high mountain and is “transfigured” before them shining brightly. While this is happening God speaks from a cloud and Moses and Elijah appear and met with Jesus. The story of the transfiguration is found in Matthew, Mark and Luke’s gospels. Here is the account from Mark:
Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John, and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. And Elijah appeared to them with Moses, and they were talking with Jesus. Then Peter answered and said to Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; and let us make three tabernacles: one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah” - because he did not know what to say, for they were greatly afraid. And a cloud came and overshadowed them; and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is My beloved Son. Hear Him!” Suddenly, when they had looked around, they saw no one anymore, but only Jesus with themselves. Mark 9:2-8
The first question that scholars have is the phrase “after 6 days”. This phrase seems to indicate that the passage is connected with another event. If we search the Bible we will find this connection to this account of Moses
Now the glory of the LORD rested on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The sight of the glory of the LORD was like a consuming fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.
Exodus24:16-17
In this account Moses is being called up Mount Sinai to meet with God. The common elements between the two accounts are the time period of “after 6 days”. Both events occur on a mountain top where there is an extremely bright light that is shining. And in both events God speaks from a cloud. In the exodus account Moses meets with God and at the Transfiguration Moses meets with Jesus. One could think that both of these accounts are referring to the same event except for the time gap and each event appears to refer to a different mountain.
But while Moses goes up Mount Sinai the mountain that Jesus and his disciples climb is never named. Peter refers to the mountain as the “holy mountain” which fits Mount Sinai or perhaps Mount Zion in Jerusalem but not any of the mountains in the area where Transfiguration took place. To add to the mystery Jesus makes this statement coming down from the mountain after the transfiguration:
I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.
Matthew 17:20
Another problem is that Mark’s account implies that they were very much alone on the mountain. This is found in the verse “ and led them up on a high mountain apart by themselves”. The “apart” and “by themselves” in the original Greek implies much more than the English translation that they were alone on the mountain. This would have been a problem at that time as the area was populated. When Jesus and the disciples came down the mountain they found that “great multitude” of people had assembled. When they saw Jesus they were “amazed” and ran to him. The assembly of a multitude of agitated people running to him bears witness that something extraordinary had happened in a populated area. The Exodus account takes place in the wilderness where there were few people. And to insure absolute privacy God instructs Moses to place a boundary around Mount Sinai:
"You shall set bounds for the people all around, saying, 'Take heed to yourselves that you do not go up to the mountain or touch its base. Whoever touches the mountain shall surely be put to death.” Exodus 19:12
In Mark’s account of the Transfiguration we are told next that Jesus was “transfigured” and his clothes shown exceeding brightly. Here scholars are in agreement – the shining Jesus is the glorified Jesus. The problem here is that Jesus did not become glorified until after the resurrection. In other words Jesus at the Transfiguration is from the future. This preview of Jesus’ future would be an important encouragement for the disciples in the days ahead. But its future sense has lead many modern scholars to believe that this account actually happened after the resurrection and was misplaced by the writers of the three gospels. However this raises the question of is why the writers would misplace it in the first place. Furthermore it is unlikely that the writers of the three gospels would independently place this story in the same exact place in Jesus’ life.
What was the exact nature of Jesus’ shining? Here we have two choices. Firstly, some believe that the shinning light was symbolic of Jesus’ glory and never really happened. The second option is that we can choose to believe that the events of the Transfiguration did in fact happen and was an encounter with the super dimensional world of heaven. If this is the case then we would expect the account of this fragmented or partial – just as a view of a 3 dimensional object in 2 dimensions incomplete.
At this point in Jesus’ ministry the disciples were certain that they were on the way to establishing the long awaited Messianic Kingdom. A kingdom in which they would hold key positions. Jesus was now teaching them something they did not want to hear – that he was going to suffer and die. But at the same time he wanted to reassure them that he was indeed the Messiah. To do this he would show them a glance of the glorious kingdom that one day would stretch into eternity but not at this time. Before going up the mount Jesus said this to his disciples.
And He said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that there are some standing here who will not taste death till they see the kingdom of God present with power."
Mark 9:1
Six days after saying this Jesus took Peter, James and John up the mount where they saw the future Jesus and experienced for moment the glories of his kingdom.
At the Transfiguration Jesus shone as a bright light. There were other times he spoke of himself as being the light of the world and the light of life. The apostle John said that God is light. We can understand God being light from a spiritual point of view. Light shows up what is hidden and world around us. And life as we know it cannot go on without the light from the sun. These are well known qualities of light. However recently scientists have studied the nature of light and have discovered other qualities of light that were unknown to the writers of the gospels. How do these newly discovered qualities compare? Has this account become dated in light of these new discoveries?
Before we do this we should remember that there will be some limitations. The transfiguration was a brief merger between our earthly world and the Kingdom of God - a brief time when inaccessible dimensions of heaven opened up on a mountain top. So just as trying to explain a three dimensional object in only two dimensions we can only expect to get fragments and not an exhaustive picture of this event. The question that we can still ask is; are these fragments consistent with mankind’s new knowledge about light?
Around the turn of the 20th century it was shown that light behaves like a particle. This particle was named the “photon” and simply speaking behaves like a ball that is thrown and hits something. Before this it had long been shown the light behaves like a wave flowing out in a pond after a pebble is dropped in the water. These two qualities seem to be exclusive of each other. If something is a wave then it cannot act like a particle and if something is a particle it cannot act like a wave. In the 100 years since this was discovered scientists are still unable to explain this paradox.
While not exactly a perfect fit, Jesus did take on a second nature at the transfiguration. At that time Jesus began to shine. On one hand he was still a solid person but now he shown brightly. Consider for a moment that there is no mention of heat in the account. The disciples did not feel heat coming from Jesus. The light coming from Jesus was not like that of a piece of metal heated in a forge. If not a fire then one can say that it came from a second nature. Considering the difficulty in putting words to what happened this account is consistent with the dual nature of light.
Also remember that not only did Jesus say that he was light but also the bread of life, the true vine, and living water. It would have been easy to include one of these aspects in the account. If the Transfiguration included “living water” flowing from Jesus while he was shining then it would be inconsistent with what we know of light. Yet there is nothing extra in the Transfiguration that would be inconsistent with the nature of light. This is good evidence that account was not something that was made up.
Jesus had appeared shining like lighting. This first century description fits a modern paradox. The scientific mystery of how light can both radiate like a wave and yet act like a solid particle simultaneously. Jesus appeared as radiating light energy and yet appeared to have a solid form at the same time. Nothing more or less than what we now know light to be.
Einstein received a Nobel Prize for showing that light behaves like a particle. He received a second Nobel Prize for his Theory of Relativity. From this it has been proven that as an object approaches the speed that light travels time slows down. At the speed of light time actually stops for the object. A photon traveling from the far edge of the universe does not experience any time at all. If that photon was released at the moment of creation at the outer edge of the universe then there would only be two events in its life. There would be its creation and then the instant encounter with our world as it is now. It would not sense any time in between. To the photon our present world would appear to be instantly created.
Amazingly, one of the most extraordinary features of the transfiguration is that people from other times and places suddenly appear while Jesus is shining. When Jesus begins to shine Moses and Elijah suddenly appear. They do not appear before Jesus shines or after but only while he is shinning. Luke's Gospel tells us that Elijah and Moses who appeared are men, that is, not spirits, angels or men raised from the dead. That is, in the course of their lives Moses and Elijah encountered God as Jesus on a mountain and the disciples witnessed this event in their own time. When one looks at the lives of Moses and Elijah, we find that both encountered God on Mount Sinai during their life times.
In Exodus, when Moses encountered God the mountain was covered with a cloud from which God spoke. This also happened at the transfiguration. We are also told that when Moses came down from the mountain his face was shining in such an extraordinary way that he had to cover himself with a veil. This matches up with Luke's gospel that tells us that at the transfiguration Moses appeared in "glorious splendor".
While Elijah did meet with God on Sinai the nature of that encounter was different from the transfiguration (I kings 19:8 ). In this account there is no bright shining light or mention of Moses. According to the II Kings 2:11 Elijah was taken while still living into heaven. Etched in the popular mind was the belief that Elijah was alive in heaven. For example at the crucifixion many people thought that Elijah would come and save Jesus.
The rest said, "Let Him alone; let us see if Elijah will come to save Him.
Matthew 27:49
The belief in Elijah’s return was belief as likely based in part on this Old Testament passage.
Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD. Malachi 4:5
It would appear that Elijah arrival at the transfiguration was from heaven itself, again confirming that the transfiguration was a brief merger of heaven and earth.
At the transfiguration the past, the present and the future were all present in the same place. Moses is the past, the disciples are the present. Jesus himself is the future.
The "place" where the transfiguration took place is both Galilee and at Mount Sinai since Moses encounters God on Mount Sinai and the disciples went up a mountain with Jesus in Galilee. At the time that the Transfiguration account was written the qualities of light that makes these things possible were unknown. The fact that they are represented with such concise accuracy is a testimony to the truthfulness of the account. The Transfiguration is a three dimensional view of the super dimensional kingdom of God. It shows Jesus as Lord over time and space. He is God and as such he is not the subject of creation but the master of it.
|
|
|
|