The Fly in Dr. Tipler's Ointment
John L. Waters
November 15, 2005
After reading about him in Thomas Keyes and Hal von Luebbert's recent argumentative Useless Knowledge Magazine articles on the Internet, I checked out Dr. Frank J. Tipler of Tulane University. Dr. Tipler is an eminent mathematical physicist. I suggest that you read his article "From 2100 to the End of Time" This article explains Dr. Tipler's big idea.
According to professor and theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg of the University of Munich, Dr. Tipler makes three basic presuppositions. (1) In his article "Modern Cosmology: God and the Resurrection of the Dead," Pannenberg states that "The most important one is the anthropic principle in its sharpest form as final anthropic principle claiming that life and intelligent life are not only necessary within our universe, but can also no more disappear after their first emergence. Rather they are destined to pervade and dominate the entire universe."
(2) Tipler's second assumption is that the universe is expanding but it will start contracting in due time, and ultimately shrink to a point singularity at the end of time. Finally (3) Tipler assumes that the universe has infinite (unlimited) energy.
All this crunching of the universe into something smaller than a pinhead somehow produces eternal life. Tipler's gospel sounds like the man's been reading a lot of science fiction magazines as well as The Bible. Furthermore, not being math physicists, very few regular folks can actually follow Tipler's technical arguments. Last but not least, the technical reasoning might sound great to science fiction buffs, but what about those three unproven assumptions? They definitely constitute a large fly in Dr. Tipler's ointment.
Indeed it seems like professor Tipler's been seduced by technological wonders, as are many persons today, but sending non-messianic human codings out into the far reaches of space will only proliferate more and more space warfare and more and more space garbage. The essential human codings that Dr. Tipler proposes he can't actually define, so in his theorizing he's jumped the gun. Maybe he's got mathematics and physics down pat, but he doesn't show us the peaceable, benign, messianic human relations and wasteless messianic economics. These messianic teachings aren't taught as university mathematics or physics. In fact the messianic teachings are not yet taught at any university! Neither do theologians yet know what these messianic teachings are.
Programming humanity's premessianic codings into 400 atoms sounds great but right now the scientists simply don't know the messianic codings. No teacher, inspired or not, yet has ever made these codings crystal clear. So even if all of Dr. Tipler's physics and mathematics is 100% correct, and even if all three of his preliminary speculations is 100% valid, without the thrift-making, peace-making and true messianic message, Tipler's project remains without issue. A universe littered with space trash and refuse from space wars is not what the good doctor ordered!
Consequently, for all the hype and popular support of Dr. Tipler and his big idea, just recall the old rhyme from Mother Goose:
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Copyright 2005 by John L. Waters. All Rights Reserved
LINKS
My website at Humboldt State University
My search for a publisher
My letters of recommendation
According to professor and theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg of the University of Munich, Dr. Tipler makes three basic presuppositions. (1) In his article "Modern Cosmology: God and the Resurrection of the Dead," Pannenberg states that "The most important one is the anthropic principle in its sharpest form as final anthropic principle claiming that life and intelligent life are not only necessary within our universe, but can also no more disappear after their first emergence. Rather they are destined to pervade and dominate the entire universe."
(2) Tipler's second assumption is that the universe is expanding but it will start contracting in due time, and ultimately shrink to a point singularity at the end of time. Finally (3) Tipler assumes that the universe has infinite (unlimited) energy.
All this crunching of the universe into something smaller than a pinhead somehow produces eternal life. Tipler's gospel sounds like the man's been reading a lot of science fiction magazines as well as The Bible. Furthermore, not being math physicists, very few regular folks can actually follow Tipler's technical arguments. Last but not least, the technical reasoning might sound great to science fiction buffs, but what about those three unproven assumptions? They definitely constitute a large fly in Dr. Tipler's ointment.
Indeed it seems like professor Tipler's been seduced by technological wonders, as are many persons today, but sending non-messianic human codings out into the far reaches of space will only proliferate more and more space warfare and more and more space garbage. The essential human codings that Dr. Tipler proposes he can't actually define, so in his theorizing he's jumped the gun. Maybe he's got mathematics and physics down pat, but he doesn't show us the peaceable, benign, messianic human relations and wasteless messianic economics. These messianic teachings aren't taught as university mathematics or physics. In fact the messianic teachings are not yet taught at any university! Neither do theologians yet know what these messianic teachings are.
Programming humanity's premessianic codings into 400 atoms sounds great but right now the scientists simply don't know the messianic codings. No teacher, inspired or not, yet has ever made these codings crystal clear. So even if all of Dr. Tipler's physics and mathematics is 100% correct, and even if all three of his preliminary speculations is 100% valid, without the thrift-making, peace-making and true messianic message, Tipler's project remains without issue. A universe littered with space trash and refuse from space wars is not what the good doctor ordered!
Consequently, for all the hype and popular support of Dr. Tipler and his big idea, just recall the old rhyme from Mother Goose:
For Want of a Nail
For want of a nail the shoe was lost.
For want of a shoe the horse was lost.
For want of a horse the rider was lost.
For want of a rider the battle was lost.
For want of a battle the kingdom was lost.
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.
Copyright 2005 by John L. Waters. All Rights Reserved
LINKS
My website at Humboldt State University
My search for a publisher
My letters of recommendation
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