Systematic Political Science

Periodic Tables' Dependence on a Cosmological Constant (Λ) in the Mereology of Natural Law as Seen in Joy and Madness

by Dallas F. Bell, Jr.

The periodic table in chemistry provides the relevant variable structural information of elements that compose all known things in the particle universe.  The periodic table of systematic political science provides the relevant structural information of variables for the behavioral elements that compose all possible political cycles in societies. 

The Tytler Cycle, often attributed in part to Alexander F. Tytler (1747-1813), observes that all nations follow the same sequence: from bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from great courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back into bondage.  This observation is a rudimentary description of the levels found in systematic political science tables. 

For each of the periodic tables to be accurate there must be an underlying and unchanging law that operates as a constant of mathematical precision.  Galileo said that mathematics is the language with which God has written the universe.  Johannes Kepler said man should investigate the world to find the rational order and harmony imposed on it by God who reveals it to us in the language of mathematics.  The 1963 Nobel Prize winner, Eugene Wigner, wrote an essay that described "the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences." 

Henry F. Schaefer III, director of the Center for Computational Quantum Chemistry at the University of Georgia, writes that cosmology is the study of the universe as a whole, to include its structure, origin and development.  Within that pursuit, the argument naturally arises as to why there is something rather than nothing.  The cosmological argument leads to the impossibility of an infinite temporal regress of causes. 

Robert C. Koons, professor of philosophy at the University of Texas, has compiled 8 axioms that address the legitimacy of the argument for the first cause to which all effects are contingent.  Of course, the skeptic can devise ways to discount this logic.  For example, aspects of string theory can be used to interpolate cosmological explanations and be used to produce eschatological extrapolation.  Koons would insist that, at the least, human experience warrants adopting the causal principle as a default rule in the absence of evidence to the contrary where it may be inferred that all effects have a cause. 

The cosmological constant (Λ) was proposed to describe the universe as stationary.  Problems arose with that view given the latest data that indicates the universe is expanding.  Steven Weinberg, winner of the 1979 Nobel Prize, describes the Λ as the energy of empty space.  It could have any value, but from first principles one would think that this constant should be very large and positive, the Λ would act as a repulsive force that increases with distance, a force that would prevent matter from clumping together.  If large and negative the Λ would act as an attractive force increasing with distance, a force that would almost immediately reverse the expansion of the universe and cause it to collapse.  In fact, astronomical observation shows that the Λ is quite small, very much smaller than would have been guessed from first principles.  This makes the measured values of the Λ favorable for intelligent life. 

Bruce Reichenbach, professor of philosophy at Augsburg College, says that the Λ could be part of the Thomistic version (from the philosophic school of St. Thomas Aquinas) of the Λ, since the argument has as its initial premise that a contingent being exists and the Λ would appear to be a contingent fact.  However, since less abstract contingents work in a much more obvious way to ground the initial premise, Reichenbach sees no need to introduce this notion.  He believes that it would not play a role in the Kalam Λ (a contemporary version of the teleological argument), where it is noted that certain mutually unrelated features of the universe have to be present, often within a very narrow and improbable range, if sentient beings are going to exist which are able to view the universe.  Had not all these features been present in their current range, perhaps including the Λ, sentient life would not have been able to thrive.  (Bruce Reichenbach's remarks were taken from an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in November, 2009.

As in physics, there is a Λ for human behavior.  This does not mean that there is a static human existence without an eternal dynamic equilibrium separate from God's holiness.  People are born and people die.  Laws set boundaries for this universe of existence and the existence after death consistent with God's immutable character.  God is always on the throne (II Chr. 18:18; Job 26:9; Ps. 9:4, 7; 11:4; 45:6; 47:2; Is. 6:1-5; Eze. 1:26; Dan. 7:9-10; Acts 2:30; 7:49; Heb. 8:1; 12:2; Rev. 3:21; 19:2-11; 22:1, 3).  Amid all change in human life God is the constant.  We see Him through His immutable law. 

Children from birth do not want to be murdered, do not want to be stolen from or lied to etc.  Those moral Natural Laws of Freewill (NLF) are mereologically combined with amoral Physical Natural Law (NLP) to form the whole of NL.  God's NLP makes His sun to rise on the evil (unjust people not compliant with NLF) and on the good (just people compliant with NLF) and He sends rain on the just and unjust (Matt. 5:45). 

Mereology (Gr. meros; means part) is the study of the parts of the respective whole of first-order theories.  Peter M. Simons (b. 1950) used mereology to formalize ontology and metaphysics whereas Roberto Casati and Achille Varzi used mereology mainly as a way to understand the material world and human interaction in it. 

Dean Zimmerman, philosophy professor now at Rutgers University, has discussed the mereology of constitution.  For example, some people believe that a piece of marble constituting a statue, or an aggregate of particles constituting a living body, involve two distinct objects in the same place at the same time.  Others say that these objects manage to share space in virtue of sharing a temporal part confined to just that place and time.  Analysis of the relation of sharing all and only the same parts shows that such part sharing is at least a central component of and necessary condition for constitution. 

Modal opposition to mereology may explain that objects belonging to constituted kinds are the necessary result of putting objects belonging to appropriate constituting kinds in the right circumstances, circumstances which constituting objects need not to have been in.  For example, putting man-shaped marble in the right circumstances, by uncovering it from chipping the marble to reveal it, necessarily results in the existence of the second object, the statue constituted by the marble.  But, the piece of marble need not have fallen into these circumstances. 

Link Theory is a calculus of composite abstract relations in tabular form.  It represents what is so or what is possible.  This general theory of structure shows how the core laws of quantum mechanics are derived from mathematical considerations.  Richard Shoup, co-developer of Link Theory, says this theory and other theories of static structures do not incorporate any dynamics or concepts of time.  Thus they are incomplete with respect to modeling any dynamic phenomena in the real world, or in a computer, for that matter.  What is required is the addition of self-reference, i.e. feedback, or a looping structure to introduce sequence and thus a dimension of time.  (The preceding remarks by Richard Shoup were excerpted from an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. during November, 2009.

Proskairos (Gr. for a season of time) is composed of the Greek words pros (meaning a direction forward) and kairos (meaning season).  Solomon said that which has been is now, and that which is to be has already been and God requires that which is past (Eccl. 3:15).  He also wrote that the thing that has been, it is that which shall be: and that which is done is that which shall be done, and there is no new thing under the sun (Eccl. 1:9).  Paul said believers are to forget things behind and reach for things ahead (Phil. 3:13).  Then time within eternity is not static and is moving forward. 

In time, man tries in vain to fill himself with parts from his surroundings to be whole.  Pascal popularized triangular rows of expanding coefficients to find probabilities called Pascal's triangle.  He said man seeks things absent the help he does not obtain in things present.  He continued, these things are inadequate, because the infinite abyss can only be filled by an infinite and immutable object, that is to say, only by God Himself.  Only Jesus Christ makes men whole (Acts 4:9-10).  The joy of wholeness that this brings is everlasting (Is. 51:11), is great (Acts 8:8), is full (I John 1:4), is abundant (II Cor. 8:2), and is unspeakable (I Peter 1:8).  Joy is attributed from God (Eccl. 2:26; Jere. 33:9; Matt. 25:21-23; John 15:11; Jude 24).  Joy is expressed in songs (Gen. 31:27), in musical instruments (I Sam. 18:6; I Kings 1:40), in sounds (I Chr. 15:16), in praises (II Chr. 29:30), in shouting (Ezra 3:12-13; Ps. 32:11; 35:27), and in hearts (I Sam. 2:1). 

Angels are also joyous (Job 38:7; Luke 2:10, 13-14).  Jesus said that there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents, than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance (Luke 15:7, 10).  So joy can be experienced by the finite intellects of humans and angels.  Since joy is based on a perception of circumstance, it is predicated on not having known or experienced that circumstance.  Thus, the gain is not possible for the infinite God who has always known everything.   

This does not infer that God does not reveal Himself in a state of happiness.  Matthew (3:17) records God saying that Jesus was His beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased. God does choose to take pleasure in circumstances.  For example, He said His creation was good (Gen. 1).  It does infer that God may also choose to be grieved.  For example, He was grieved with the sinful world before Noah and the flood (Gen. 6:5-7).  These circumstances are from an infinite intellect and not the result of gain found in joy or loss from unforeseen outcomes. 

Jesus said these things have I spoken to you that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full (John 15:11).  He also said now I come to thee; and these things I speak to the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves (John 17:13).  Jesus, being both man and God, expressed a perfect joy within His man existence by pleasing Father God.  The Holy Spirit's presence facilitates man's joy (Acts 13:52; Rom. 14:17; 15:13; Gal. 5:22; I Thess. 1:6).  Then, the strict definition of joy puts it in the domain of believers and angels. 

The joy for believers (made whole by Christ's presence through the Holy Spirit) is not the same for non-believers (not made whole due to Christ's absence).  Evil men delight in abominations (Is. 65:12; 66:3-4).  Unbelievers do not delight in the Word of God (Jere.6:10) and are pleased with theft, adultery (Ps. 50:18), and wickedness (II Thess. 2:12).  Folly is joy to him that is destitute of wisdom (Prov. 15:21). 

The soul chooses the theology → the brain inputs that rationality epistemologically → the body calibrates its behavior in pursuing the common needs → like minded people join to form their institutions of family, church, business and government based on the soul's eschatology from its chosen theology. 

When the soul chooses a god other than the infinite God of the first cause, emotional and mental derangement occurs--madness.  Madness can be caused by disobeying God's laws (Deut. 28:28) and by God's judgment (Jere. 25:15-17; Dan. 4:31-33; Zech. 12:4).  Madness is manifested by self-destruction (Matt. 17:14-18) and moral instability (Jere. 51:7). 

Euripides (c. 480 B.C. - 406 B.C.) is quoted as having said Quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat (Those whom God wills to destroy He first deprives of their senses.)  Jean Twenge, a psychologist now at San Diego State University, analyzed anxiety scores of American children, ages 9-17.  She found that anxiety scores, on average, for children in the 1980s were higher than the scores for psychiatric patients in the 1950s.  Today, she adds that the scores for children and college students are as high or have increased even more.  Twenge's books, The Narcissism Epidemic and Generation Me, demonstrate the behavioral alternative for people that reject God's wholeness and laws.  For them narcissism and self-love is rational (II Tim. 3:1-9 text is paraphrased in the endnotes). 

Without God's wholeness there is no selfless love.  Elizabeth Carmichael, a medical doctor, and Fellow and Tutor in Theology at Oxford University, explains that love is the fulfilling of the law and is the one virtue in which all others are contained.  (Elizabeth Carmichael's comment is from an email exchange with Dallas F. Bell Jr. in November, 2009.)  So if God's constant of NLF is fulfilled then the monad of love is possible.  From love the subset of joy is possible through wholeness. 

The joy of the Lord is the strength of the believer (Neh. 8:10).  This is why Satan tries to detract from the believer's joy (Job).  A believer's joy cannot be stolen because greater is He that is within us than is he that is in the world (I John 4:4).  The prophet "who embraces" God wrote that although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall the fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls; Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.  The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon my high places (Hab. 3:17-19).   

The joy of the believer is contagious to other believers (Acts 15:3), and is a wonder and attractiveness to unbelievers unto salvation.  The Sumerians are credited with naming the opium poppy plant the "joy plant" (hul gil).  Like other stupefying substances, it chemically manipulates and temporary clouds reality to create a false joy (Judg. 16:25; 1922; I Kings 21:7).  After each use, opiates become less effective in counterfeiting true joy until the user becomes both physically and mentally enslaved. 

The term joy can be theologically confusing for even believers.  Studying God (theology) is not divorced from experiencing God (joy).  Theology often presents God in static and academic terms almost separated from developing an intimate relationship with Him.  Thus, the process predictably and unnecessarily squeezes out joy. 

The neurons that learn theology must also process the joy from the heart as education takes place.  Then this highest human need to self-actualize can be achieved and sustained despite one's circumstances.  The periodic tables depend on the Λ in the mereology of NL (NLP and NLF) as seen in the results of joy or madness.  Our joyful or mad existences are up to us to individually choose and extrapolate our eschatology. 
 

Endnotes:  

This know that in the last days perilous times shall come.  Man shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  They are the sort that creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of truth.  Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.  But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifested unto all men, as theirs also was.   

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