Physicist Receives Million-Pound Prize for Predicting a 'Hypercosmic God'

ICR ^ | March 24, 2009 | Jeffrey Tomkins, Ph.D.

[GodGunsGuts]

On March 16, 2009, the Templeton Foundation announced the winner of its annual 1 million pound sterling (1.42 million USD) prize, an amount that exceeds the payoff of the prestigious Nobel Prize...Dr. d’Espagnat was awarded the prize for his work using theoretical physics to predict the reality of a hypercosmic god, who exists outside of the physical universe...

[GodGunsGuts]

Ping!

[pgyanke]

The Church’s funding problems are solved!!

[Just another Joe]

Additionally, events in one dimension are able to simultaneously affect events in the other dimension and distance is not an issue, even though the second dimension is non-local.

In this model, there is no way to know this divine being or connect with him in a meaningful way.

It's one or the other.
You can't have it both ways.

If events in one dimension affect events in the other dimension then, logically, it should go both ways.

[Mrs. Don-o]

for reading later

[Alex Murphy]

Dr. d’Espagnat was awarded the prize for his work using theoretical physics to predict the reality of a hypercosmic god, who exists outside of the physical universe...

"Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens?"
- Isaiah 40:12a

[Moonman62]

In this model, there is no way to know this divine being or connect with him in a meaningful way. D’Espagnat’s notion of the impersonal/unknowable aspect of this god is not actually predicted by the model, but simply represents his own opinion on the matter.

Just his opinion and no predictions. He's worse than the evolutionists, but not worse than the religious fundamentalists.

[chesley]

Full disclosure. I am a Christian. But I don't see this as evidence of anything.

For what it's worth, if you could put God in a test tube and shake Him up with some litmus paper and watch it turn blue, would that God be worth worshiping?

Not in my opinion.

[Louis Foxwell]

If events in one dimension affect events in the other dimension then, logically, it should go both ways.

Paul Tillich dealt with this conumdrum by positing that all knowing about an other is through God, making of all relationships a triangle with no contact between the points of the base. The one dimensional aspect of God fits neatly with some aspects of string theory. Each particulate of matter is interdependent only insofar as it is linked with God, otherwise it is isolated. God is the glue that holds it all together. He is also the channel through which particulates know each other. We can not know God since He is the link to our knowing. This describes an absolutely personal God, not an abstract phenomenon.

[Boxen]

Although d’Espagnat concedes the theological implications of the term “veiled reality,” he guards against using it as justification for specific religious doctrines which can be falsified by reason and facts.

[hosepipe]

To prove God exists(in any form) or does not exist..
You must know WHat God is...
Who does?

Surely not this Templeton Primate..

[Don Corleone]

That’s 4 million pounds/hour for his 15 minutes of fame. Not a bad hourly wage in these tough times.

[mdk1960]

We do not know what God is. God Himself does not know what He is, because He is not anything. Literally, God is not, because He transcends being.
- John Scotus Erigina, A.D. 840, as paraphrased by Philip K. Dick

[fso301]

I’ll read this later.

[Wacka]

So God is a mouse!

Read “So Long and Thanks for all the Fish.” by the late Douglas Adams to see what I am talking about.

[D-fendr]

From what little I can tell from the article, the prize is for “predicting.”

It reads to me like the scientific part is a restatement of Bell’s Theorem/EPR Paradox.

[Pinetop]

Well,that explains a lot. The theories of quantum mechanics also explain the afterlife.

Well, now you know that there is an invisible world and we live in it.

[Wacka]

Wrong book. Read all of his Hitchikers Guide to the Galaxy series.

[shibumi]

Where's my check?

[WVNan]

Wow! It is strange to find someone who has figured this out in the same way that I have. I do think the String theory is the most plausible one for creation/God.

[GodGunsGuts]

That’s true, we figured it out way before he did!

[Just another Joe]

Even so. if God can affect events in this dimension by actions in his dimension, then we, by actions in our dimension (praying, fasting, believing) should be able to affect events in God's dimension (getting his attention).

I'm taking as a given that the persons hypothesis is true.

[steve86]

I always thought Loop Quantum Gravity had a certain Byzantine character.

[Salamander]

It’s in the mail.

Go wait by the box.

[shibumi]

Read the “Current Project” on my homepage that I posted here over 4 years ago.

[Salamander]

The Tao that can be known is not the Tao.

[substitute God for Tao and there you have it]....:))

God simply *is*.

[metmom]

Paul Tillich dealt with this conumdrum by positing that all knowing about an other is through God, making of all relationships a triangle with no contact between the points of the base. The one dimensional aspect of God fits neatly with some aspects of string theory. Each particulate of matter is interdependent only insofar as it is linked with God, otherwise it is isolated. God is the glue that holds it all together.

Col 1:17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

[tacticalogic]

In this model, there is no way to know this divine being or connect with him in a meaningful way.

This is good news?

[ADemocratNoMore]

BTTT

[varon]

God simply *is*.

Does God have self awareness or know what *is* is, I ask with sincerity.

[Salamander]

Unlike Bill Clinton, yes.

[Excellence]

bfl

[CottShop]

[[If events in one dimension affect events in the other dimension then, logically, it should go both ways]]

Not if there’s a check valve

[CottShop]

[[Does God have self awareness or know what *is* is, I ask with sincerity.]]

Depends on when- if we know when when is, then we start to understand what is is

[Nipplemancer]

but the answer to life, the universe, and everthing is 42. I wonder if Slartibartfast knows the origins of the great flood. after all, he did create the fjords of norway.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!

[csense]

If events in one dimension affect events in the other dimension then, logically, it should go both ways.

Interesting principle. Let's test it. Give me one example in which your adulthood has affected your childhood.

Anyone?

[dr_lew]

Anyone?

Category error.

[csense]

Seems like I have the categories of time and space covered. Which category, or categories, are you referring to.

[dr_lew]

Adulthood and childhood are categories of future and past. Your challenge is exactly equivalent to saying, “If the past can affect the future, why can’t the future affect the past?”

The principle, enunciated by Lucretius, that “that cannot be touched which cannot be touched itself”, is sound insofar as it refers to objects conceived as persisting in time. “Adulthood” and “childhood” are not in this category. The closest correct version of your implied principle would be, “If the parent can affect the child, the child can affect the parent.”

Cf. “Dr. Diagoras” by Stanislav Lem

[dr_lew]

“that cannot be touched which cannot be touched itself”

Yikes. s/b "that cannot touch which may not be touched itself."

[Just another Joe]

Interesting principle. Let's test it. Give me one example in which your adulthood has affected your childhood.

Not apples to apples.

A more apt example would be - Give me one way that your adulthood ahs affected your spouses adulthood.

[Louis Foxwell]

Wow! It is strange to find someone who has figured this out in the same way that I have. I do think the String theory is the most plausible one for creation/God.

Truth is universal and absolute. Its perception requires extraordinary perception. Congrats.

[Louis Foxwell]

To prove God exists(in any form) or does not exist.. You must know WHat God is... Who does? Surely not this Templeton Primate..

Hence his inability to take the next logical step, one based on certain knowledge of which he has only some.

[Louis Foxwell]

“[[If events in one dimension affect events in the other dimension then, logically, it should go both ways]]

Not if there’s a check valve”

LOL Very good. God has asured us, however, that there is no check valve.

[LearnsFromMistakes]

Give me one example in which your adulthood has affected your childhood.

Since the past only lives within us, our current moods and experiences impact how we see events in our past, thus 'changing history'.

[Louis Foxwell]

Give me one example in which your adulthood has affected your childhood.

If we experience but one dimension there is no time, rendering your query meaqningless.

[adorno]

To prove God exists(in any form) or does not exist.. You must know WHat God is... Who does?

Try this experiment with your cat...

If you have a small area rug or floor mat, lay your cat on top of it. Then drag the mat around with the cat on it. If your cat is just like mine, the cat will react to the carpet and try to attack it or scratch it.

Neither my cat nor yours (if you have one), is smart enough to understand cause and effect. It's not smart enough to understand that the mat is not alive, and it's not smart enough to realize that it's me dragging around the mat that's suddenly "come alive".

My point is that, we are just like cats in the overall scheme of the universe. Cats don't have the intelligence to understand some very basic concepts, such as cause and effect. We humans don't yet have the intelligence to understand the huge complexities of the universe. We may never grow big enough brains or intelligence to understand the universe or it's beginning. If there really is a God, then we are not capable of understanding His/Her/Its capabilities.