Equilibrium, Justice and Life

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jul 8, 2015 at 06:42

Hello again, Waz

I devoted the last post to talking, literally, about "nothing"; so maybe in this post, I can speak about something.

Before we utterly dismiss Muhammed's notions about the curative properties of camel's piss, note:

As early as the 12th century, the theologian and physician Moses Maimonides wrote "Chicken soup . . . is recommended as an excellent food as well as medication." 2 He further specified that "One should not use the too large, that is of more than 2 years of age; nor the too small, that is those in whom the mucus still prevails; neither too lean, nor those who through feeding becomes obese; but those that are fat by nature without being stuffed."
-- http://www.drugs.com/npp/chicken-soup.html

This may be the basis of Jewish mothers ther world over cooking chicken soup to cure one's ills. One puts one's self in danger, speaking evil of Muhammed; but woe to him who criticizes Jewish mothers!

On other matters, I've been pondering some of the seeming contradictions in the universe. One of them, If I am correct, is the seeming disconnect between the relativistic view and quantum mechanical view of physics. Each seems to work "pretty well" in its own regime -- over vast distances in the former case, and very small distances in the latter. It's as though God were mapping out the universe like the transcontinental railroad in America: The Union Railroad laying track from the east and the Pacific Railroad laying from the west. In the universal case, though, the tracks don't seem to meet in the middle. It's sort of like the railroad gauge crossover there used to be between Victoria and New South Wales.

It occurred to me, that when things match up perfectly, they are essentially "dead". Another example is the difference between elements in an equilibrium state, like ice on a surface of a lake, on the one hand; and on the other hand a kinetic condition such as ice melting or water flowing. Curiously, the Jewish rabbis refer to flowing water as "living" water.

Note also that our very universe seems to be in a kinetic condition of expanding without limit -- indicating that what it's destined to become in eons future is nothing like what it was in eons past. An "equilibrium" condition, on the other hand, would be something like an oscillating universe, going eternally through cycles of expansion and contraction. Here again, it seems God wants us to live in a "kinetic", "unbalanced", if you will, condition -- a condition called "life". We long for some sort of equilibrium, just as scientists used to believe the universe was in a "steady state" equilibrium; but the observed universe indicates that we are "out of balance" without the unseen God to balance us out.

It also occurred to me, that men seek an equilibrium condition in morals as well: One person wrongs another, and people believe there should be justice of some sort. In this world, try as we may with laws and statutes, we cannot strike this equilibrium. We let things get further and further out of whack, until war results. Then we begin the process over again. The underlying desire to attain equilibrium, though, seems to be programmed in us by nature, giving us an "innate" sense of morality. We tend to measure this morality in a skewed way, though, as Lamech did in Genesis:

Genesis 4:
[23] And Lamech said unto his wives, Adah and Zillah, Hear my voice; ye wives of Lamech, hearken unto my speech: for I have slain a man to my wounding, and a young man to my hurt.
[24] If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, truly Lamech seventy and sevenfold.

Lamech apparently saw himself as being 77 times as important as other "mere mortals". God commanded a more sober, even-handed justice, though: "a hand for a hand, an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth", holding all (free) men to be equal before the law.

That's all for now -- just some musings.

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