Some Basic Truths

The world is magical.

Science wishes to tell us that there is no mystery in the world.  But a 3-year-old able to ask the question "why" can deconstruct this illusion with five questions:

Child: Daddy, why is there a moon at night?

Daddy: Because the orbit of the moon around the earth is such and so.

Child: Why is the orbit of the moon around the earth such and so?

Daddy: Because gravity holds the moon in that orbit and the earth has such and such a position in the solar system.

Child: Why does gravity hold the moon in an orbit?

Daddy: Because gravity holds all things together.

Child:  Why does gravity hold all things together?

Daddy: Because it is one of the fundamental laws of nature.

Child: Why is gravity one of the fundamental laws of nature?

Daddy: ...

The common answer of course is the same as "why is there anything at all?"  Usually there are two answers - to give up trying to answer the question or to answer it with a hard answer - "God".

In the case of "God" the assertion is that God is simply the name for the thing which is necessary and by which all other things which are not necessary come to be.  The existence of this necessary being is proved in many ways, some of them provided in scientific theory itself (e.g. the anthropic principle) and some provided by pure reason - nothing is without reason, therefore everything has a reason for being what it is.  

God too has a reason for being what God is.   God is a bridge between the possible and the actual - making what is merely possible into actual things in the real world.  The existence of this bridge is also demonstrable - if there were no actual things, then nothing would be possible either for the mere possibility of what is actual is itself actual.

As a result, God is "magical" in the common sense of being able to choose between laws of nature, as it were, at will.  A law of nature is merely one of an array of possible laws of nature.    Why isn't gravity the weak nuclear force?  

Then there is the anthropic principle itself - why should it be that there are people so that there is a world that supports people?

"Why" is all-powerful in its penetration to the deep magic.

What is the deep magic?

To choose between what merely might be and what actually is, is the deep magic, the power of God.  We have that power - we choose what is now and what will be - God has given it to us in this small amount.  

Can we change the laws of physics?

Uri Geller claimed to have done it, but hey, we all have to make a living.

What is God's domain and what is our domain?  Many practitioners of magic claim to be able to change the laws of the universe locally.  It is our illusion, why not change it?  And yet there is another path, those who are enlisted in the service of God also can change the laws of physics locally in order to, presumably, better serve the purposes of God.  

What does God want?

Why did God make this world?

Stay tuned, next week ...