> Dear Santosh, > >Both Goanet and America have been a great source of >learning for me.................................... ...................................................... > >that traditional philosophy itself has become obsolete >in light of advances made by science. >
Dear Selma, You are quite right. Gilbert is also right in this respect. My previous posts showed how the principle of causality has become obsolete because of scientific findings, apart from other reasons related to the alternative non-causal philosophical models of the universe. In additional support of your above statement, Fr. Ivo's post below inadvertently shows how the philosophical notion that something cannot spontaneously emerge from nothing is also obsolete. Recent discoveries and theoretical insights have shown that "nothing" in the natural universe is actually quantum vacuum, which can spontaneously (i.e. without any cause) generate positive and negative energy particles. They have also shown that the total amount of matter and energy in the universe is zero. Because of generation of equal number of positive and negative energy particles in each such spontaneous "creation" event, the matter/energy total always remains zero, and therefore, the first law of thermodynamics is never violated. Of course, Fr. Ivo mistakenly confuses the principle of causality with creation ex-nihilo. He fails to recognize that the reason quantum fluctuations make the principle of causality obsolete is because they are spontaneous i.e. by pure chance or without any preceding cause. He also seems to assume that there is such a thing as absolute nothingness in the natural world. The discovery of quantum vacuum also makes the latter philosophical concept obsolete, as far as the natural world is concerned. Cheers, Santosh Fr. Ivo wrote: > > The microstructure of the quantum vacuum is a sea > of continually forming and dissolving particles > which borrow energy from the vacuum for their brief > existence. A quantum vacuum is thus far from > nothing, and vacuum fluctuations do not constitute an >exception to the > principle that whatever > begins to exist has a cause. Further, creation ex > nihilo contradicts the > first law of thermodynamics. >