Einstein And God

God does not play dice.

I cannot imagine a God who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation and is but a reflection of human frailty.

I do not believe in the God of theology who rewards good and punishes evil.

If people are good only because they fear punishment, and hope for reward, then we are a sorry lot indeed.

Morality is of the highest importance - but for us, not for God.

My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able to perceive with our frail and feeble mind.

True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness.

Albert Einstein (source)

Amen to all of that!

Pessimistic Incompatibilism

Do humans have a free will? Quick answer: No!

I am one of the proponents of determinism (read more)... And asserting determinism can lead to one conclusion: We don't have true free will! Our actions are the effect of past incidents, that's all! Our thoughts are the natural consequence to the experiences of our past; Nothing is original we are only living the consequences of the past...

We don't have a free will, we have a naturally-dictated predetermined will...

But what this entry is about to add is that even if determinism was false, and indeterminism was actually true, this doesn't mean that we'd have a free will, it simply changes from a predetermined will, to random will... But never free will!

This view is called pessimistic incompatibilism! Pessimistic incompatibilists generally view that the term "will" itself is nonsense...

My Theory Of: "Nothing Can Go Wrong"

My theory is simple: Anything that happens has a truth value as TRUE! This view is derived from the materialist view of the world... Physics has a truth value because it is self-preserving! Consider the simple rule of gravity: does physics need any guardian to make sure that all objects follow the "law of gravity"? Nope! because such rule is not breakable in the first place.. There is no kind of rule stating: "if an object doesn't experience the force of gravity it will be sentenced to death"

Thus, nothing can go wrong when nature exhibits gravity; For a true rule there are no exception; Another way to put this is as stated before: Anything that happens has a truth value as TRUE! Similarly, a theory or a law where "something can go wrong" has truth value as FALSE!!
In other words, TRUTH is self-preserving...

PS: The truth value of Newton's laws is not relevant to this debate

The Random Factor

Is it really possible that our universe is not deterministic? Some physicists, especially quantum physics pioneers including but not limited to "Niels Bohr", claim that our world is not deterministic, and actually includes a probabilistic random factor. Many physicists, including but not limited to "Albert Einstein" one of the founders of the quantum theory refutes this indeterministic factor, and suggests the existence of a "local hidden variable"... thus Albert Einstein apparently supports the deterministic view of this world, and agrees that there is no such thing as unpredictability. (source)
The local hidden variable theory supports my personal view that: "Uncertainty is the direct consequence to lack of knowledge." (read more)

Yet, I find one stone in the road: In accordance to my personal understanding of the world, and assuming that the universe started as a singular point as the theory of big-bang suggests, its is very tempting to conclude that the universe should exhibit perfect symmetry.... Obviously our world has nothing to do with symmetry: A perfect symmetry is like a perfect sphere; our world is nothing like that! It is tempting to associate lack of randomness with symmetry... So does this mean that there is actually a "random factor" in this universe?

To better understand the argument it is useful to understand the basic assumptions:
1- Determinism
2- The world started as a singular point
3- A singular point is necessarily symmetrical
4- Expansion of the singular point under deterministic physics laws leads to universal symmetry
5- Lack of randomness implies symmetry (in other words, asymmetry needs randomness)
6- Determinism defies *deep* randomness (consider)
7- The universe is not perfectly symmetric

This argument is probably flawed; or maybe not.... The weakest link I think is the 4th assumption that expansion of a symmetrical point needs to be symmetrical under deterministic physics. Also the 3rd assumption that the singular point was symmetrical is not necessarily supported by big-bang theorists...

Please share any scientific or philosophical (or otherwise) views on this issue.... I am too eager to find a satisfying answer to this counter-determinism argument!

PS: The scientific validity of this post is NOT asserted

Fate: A Commonly Misunderstood Truth

"We may regard the present state of the universe as the effect of its past and the cause of its future. An intellect which at any given moment knew all of the forces that animate nature and the mutual positions of the beings that compose it, if this intellect were vast enough to submit the data to analysis, could condense into a single formula the movement of the greatest bodies of the universe and that of the lightest atom; for such an intellect nothing could be uncertain and the future just like the past would be present before its eyes." (source)

-Marquis Pierre Simon de Laplace

"Uncertainty is the direct consequence to lack of knowledge."
"Probability is the science of dealing with lack of science."
"Fate can be pre-calculated."

-Devil's Mind

To look more on the matter, read articles about:
determinism, materialism, free will,
compatibilism, uncertainty, butterfly effect