OF DICE AND MEN-- What is the meaning of Life?
Well this is precisely what this blog purports.
Blog premise: God MUST play dice with man.
With a never ending envy of Einstein, I initially approached this concept with trepidation. But as I continued with the thinking, I was struck by how this premise parallels many of his ideas of mankind. Unfortunately, he focused his mind on the physical rather than the spiritual.
I wrote this in a provocative, informal style, often taunting HIM with his own words. But I do this for a reason, which will be revealed in a later blog.
PART 1 - Why did he miss it?
This part discusses several of the reasons why Einstein never found his ultimate goal. Using his own quotes to demonstrate his shortcomings in the study of humans. I show a plausible conclusion that yes; God does play dice, and has all along.
Thanks to Kevin Harris' site for these quotes, as well as the one above, which provide a backdrop for this discussion.
"The only real valuable thing is intuition"
Now that was profound. Einstein's intuition was quite amazing. Yes, his best physical theories first started as with "intuition." But I'm saddened by the many discoveries that he missed by ignoring his most important intuitions.....those that characterized the human being.
In fact, intuition is most lucid in humor. I'm amazed that he didn't see this in himself.
Humor, is the embodiment of human value (I think I'll do a blog on this sometime). Why is it that the most truly intelligent among us have the most insatiable appetite for humor. His humor is classic as many of the following quotes demonstrate. Let's start with a quote of my own.
"At the root of Humor is profound intuition"
--Dr. Humanstein
So, why then would did he not recognize the value of this? I hope to ask him someday.
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
That is because gravitation is a logical, precise, theory of the physical world. And to use it, even in jest, to explain or NOT explain Love is a cop-out. I wish he would have studied this concept.
For a supplemental discussion of Love,
please see my blog: WHY DID GOD MAKE PETS? and WHAT IS LOVE?
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
Exactly, "roll the dice" once in a while. It's about taking chances... never knowing what will happen. Be curious, try, fail, fail again. You knew it in humor, you practiced it, your learned from it, it IS your being. Why then do you say that "God doesn't play dice?" Obviously, he does it all the time.
And so, when will that meteorite hit earth and kill us all? Can that be calculated? Are you sure? What if we send a rocket up into outerspace and give it a nudge? Are we playing God? Or God's game?
I think I'll skip that little thing about genetic engineering.
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
So why is this Mr. Einstein? Perhaps you should have combined this with the thought above. Maybe you had too much education on the topic of God.
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing."
Exactly. So you say "God doesn't play dice". Did you ever question that? Were you ever curious as to why God doesn't gamble? You took gambles didn't you?
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z. Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
Personally, I think Einstein understood all that I have said up to this point in the blog. My taunting was for fun.
Clearly he worked and played. I'm convinced he knew the value of play. And after all, "play = chance", does it not? So, therefore, he must have known the importance of play. And thereby God's placement of Chance in the universe.
But he also knew his peers, most of which, sadly, never played. So, he kept his mouth shut on the play side of the equation. In fact, he was a human too. He wanted success and recognition. He chose success over the truly profound human ideas--and only hinted at them in humor. He was, after all, paralyzed by being human and the desire for success.
And, if chance is in our minds, why then, can it not be in the mind of the atom? As the quantumists say.
I think that this paradox was exactly what he struggled with until his death.
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
A bold face lie and he must have known it.
Many, many, equations have been disproved. Even he disproved or improved the equations of other scientists. And the string theorists of today are trying to do the same.
But politics, a human equation, will never end. Let's work on that one.
Part2 - HE, the Casino Owner
So, weather you agree with these ideas or not, keep one thing in mind.
If God does play dice, then he most certainly owns the Casino and sets the olds to pre-determine the ultimate outcome. How else can you explain that ultimately.... throughout time... Love and Good always triumphs over Hate and Evil.
I'm not sure of the exact odds. Maybe 60/40, maybe 70/30. But wouldn't 51/49 be much more interesting?
Part3 - Conclusion
So, why DID he miss it? With all his concepts and clearly understood ideas of mankind... Why then did he miss this variability of destiny?
Well, perhaps he already knew it and yet, could not understand it. Perhaps he knew he could never explain it to the world. Perhaps he was afraid of exposing God himself.
And perhaps.... just perhaps.... Einstein was just going for the low hanging fruit all along. Studying the physical world and God's universe and avoiding God's real beauty... man.
But then again, he did concur most of his day's physical theories. And time too! Then he seemed to work on something else that was sadly beyond his grasp, the illusive "theory of everything".
Question: WHAT IS THE MEANING OF LIFE?
Answer: Life is just a crapshoot, but God controls the odds.