Law is more fundamental than matter or energy; ancient concepts

Submitted by Michael S (United States), Jul 13, 2015 at 04:15

Hi, Waz. You said,

What defines both energy and matter is a "law" that can be expressed mathematically (i.e. in mathematical "words"). Plato's world,

Without the underlying law, there would be no matter and no energy, but simply chaos. so there is intelligence and harmony behind everything.

I haven't read much of Plato; but if he thought that all things are held together by immutable laws, then I agree with him in that respect.

Concerning your second statement, yes, of course I believe there is intelligence behind everything. As for "harmony", let's just say that "harmony" involves the syncronizing of two entities. I believe That there is only one God, the creator of all things. He doesn't actually have to be in "harmony" with anyone or anything. The Chinese Communists are said to "harmonize" people to the government, with prisons, terror, re-education camps, etc.; so I'm not especially fond of the word.

I came across an ancient Egyptian creation legend, the "Memphite Theology of Creation", translated by John A. Wilson. The introduction in ANET 4-5 says,

"The extracts presented here are particularly interesting, because creation is treated in an intellectual sense, whereas other creation stories (like ANET, PP 3-4) are given in purely physical terms. Her the god Ptah conceives the elements of the universe with his mind ("heart") and brings them into being by his commanding speech ("tongue"). Thus, at the beginning of Egyptian history, there was an approach to the Logos Doctrine."

The translation begins,

(53) There came into being as the heart and there came into being as the tongue (something) in the form of Atum. The mighty Great one is Ptah, who transmited [life to all gods], as well as (to their ) ka's, through this heart, by which Horus became Ptah, and through this tongue, by which Thoth became Ptah...

This notion seems to have been around for a long time. In the Akkadian Creation Epic, Marduk battles with and defeats Tiamat, a Dragon/ Devil - like god, which represented Chaos. In this case, "absence of chaos" was necessary for forming the world we know. "Absence of chaos", of course, means the rule of order.

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