God & Time Crystals

1750 words, 8 minute read

For centuries (Aquinas), if not millennia (Cicero), philosophers have struggled to prove the existence of God. According to most logicians, they have failed, either because God does not in fact exist or because the existence of such an entity is not within the universe of propositions subject to proof.

Christians believe that the existence of God is revealed in Scripture, in the life of Jesus, and in prayer. Roman Catholics believe that the existence of God can also be adduced via experience and reason alone (aka science); and now we have important new confirmation of this premise.

According to Christian cosmology, the universe not only has a beginning (the Alpha point) but also an end (the Omega point). Call it Eschaton, Parousia, Kingdom of Heaven…or whatever. Science agrees! Call it Big Crunch, Big Freeze, or Heat Death; the universe has a sell by date. 

Genesis (Alpha) and Apocalypse (Omega) do not occur within time. They happen outside of time; they are to time as bookends are to literature. My choice of decorative bookends for my library contributes nothing to the content or quality of the books I place between them. They are of a different logical order entirely. So it is with Alpha and Omega.

The transition from Genesis to Apocalypse occurs in what we call ‘time’. In fact, this ‘transition’ is time. But where we regard time as a line segment or ray, it is seen as a single point from the perspectives of Alpha and Omega. It is as though they see the timeline rotated 90°. They look at it from its end points. Therefore, from their perspectives, spacetime is a dimensionless point…and the same point in both cases.

But if Alpha sees the ‘first point’ on the line and Omega sees the ‘last’ point, how can we say that they both see the same point? Because all of the structure at all of the moments in time is visible from either end.  Imagine looking through a kaleidoscope from both ends: same pattern, different perspectives. That’s Alpha & Omega!

Both Alpha and Omega are perfectly ordered states. They are what ‘order’ is. They define it. And between these two ordered states? Chaos, spacetime, i.e. where we live. 

Our temporal realm is globally disordered; however, local islands of order can and do emerge, to wit: this dialog we are having right now. This ‘local order’ is imperfect and transient. It inevitably dissolves back into the flux. That’s what we mean by entropy: 

“Islands in the stream, that is what we are.” (Kenny Rogers, et al.)

How is it that order can emerge out of Chaos? How come ‘islands of order’, if any, don’t just flicker in and out like virtual particles? In fact, pockets of order, when they do occur, seem to be auto-reinforcing. They are homeostatic, recursive, and they have a ‘dissipative’ relationship with the chaotic background.

Which brings us to the fundamental question of cosmology, if not philosophy itself, “Why (or how) is there something rather than nothing?”

The recent discovery of a new state of matter/energy called a Rondeau Time Crystal provides a relevant physical model. This entity cycles perpetually from an ordered state (Alpha) through a disordered state (Chaos) to an ordered state (Omega). Rinse and repeat.

This is not a purely mathematical concept. It’s a physical reality. But how is it that local order emerges and endures in the midst of global chaos?

While a theist might credit God (Alpha & Omega in this context), a secularist might posit some property of being itself (e.g. negative vacuum pressure). Turns out, both are right!

To be clear, causality vanishes at the shoreline of Chaos. Whatever order emerges out of Chaos is sui generis and causa sui. However, the fact that Chaos is suspended between Alpha and Omega ‘shapes it’ or ‘fine tunes it’ in a way that allows for the emergence of independent islands of local order. 

Again, there are physical analogies. Imagine a hammock strung between two trees. The trees contribute nothing to the hammock other than potentiality. However, the strung hammock automatically assumes its signature catenary shape which defines the hammock in the universe of Platonic forms.

The ‘islands of order’ that populate Chaos do not emerge accidentally. If that were the case, they would be fragile and extremely short lived, flickering in and out like fireflies. In fact they are remarkably resilient and enduring. What’s the half-life of a diamond? “Diamonds are forever” (DeBeers); well, maybe not forever forever but still…

Events are homeostatic, dissipative, and recursive. They struggle heroically against inexorable entropy. Their raison d’etre appears to be being itself…and that’s half true. They devise incredible strategies in pursuit of that goal, for example, reproduction. 

We take it for granted that things want to be: one example, the so-called survival instinct, another, surface tension. But not everything ‘wants to be’. Cells practice apoptosis, people commit suicide.

So the survival instinct can’t be primal. Entities that ‘want to be’ must want to be for an even more fundamental reason. That reason is what Whitehead called their Subjective Aim. For most of us, survival is a necessary condition for the furtherance of our aims. But for some cells in some circumstances, apoptosis is a more appropriate strategy.

The concept of Aim implies the existence of Value. We ‘aim’ for what we consider ‘good’. Robert Browning: “A man’s reach (aim) should exceed his grasp or what’s a heaven for.” 

In the Gospel of John we read, “No one has greater love than to sacrifice their life for another.” (15: 13) And what parent would not risk their own life to ensure the survival of their child? Good trumps all, even life itself! 

But where do we find this Value, this Good? Not in our chaotic realm!  Nietzsche: “…One belongs to the whole, one is in the whole – there exists nothing which could judge, measure, compare, condemn our being, for that would be to judge, measure, compare, condemn the whole… But nothing exists apart from the whole!” (Twilight of the Idols)  

The Gospel of Mark quotes Jesus: “Why do you call me ‘good’? Only God is Good.” (10: 18) In Nietzsche’s realm (i.e. our own) things are ‘good’ relative to one another but Good per se characterizes God and only God. Good is God.

Nietzsche was right: “…One belongs to the whole, one is in the whole – there exists nothing which could judge, measure, compare, condemn…the whole.” 

Nietzsche was wrong: “But nothing exists apart from the whole!” Yes, it does! Value exists apart from the whole. Robert Browning says so!

The whole exists as it is, but Value (Good) allows, impels, the whole to pass judgment on itself (and on each of its parts). My wife says I’m judgmental. Damn straight! But judgment does not preclude tolerance or mercy; in fact, it is their prerequisite. 

Aim is the culmination of a multistep process, beginning with the requirement that the universe pass judgment on itself (conceptual recursion). Ordering (physical recursion) is the active consequence of that judgment. 

Just as ‘faith’ is not true faith unless it leads to works (Letter of James), so judgment leads to execution. In the context of Value, execution is the inevitable consequence of judgment: identify and optimize!

But in our chaotic world, “nothing exists apart from the whole.” Nothing except, non-thetically, Alpha and Omega. Of course, these are states of maximal order and value per se. 

Value (i.e. Good) defines Alpha and Omega and so ‘shapes’ the Chaos (as trees shape a hammock): Value gives Chaos its topology - that is how Value is felt in the midst of Chaos. 

Value forms the basis of the judgments that motivate the islands of order we call events. Of course, these local manifestations of order are ephemeral; they are bound to be reabsorbed into Chaos. 

“…Our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits and are melted into air, into thin air; and—like the baseless fabric of this vision— the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces, the solemn temples, the great globe itself, yea, all which it inherit shall dissolve, and like this insubstantial pageant faded, leave not a rack behind.” (Shakespeare, Tempest)

But order has a definitive signature. The strings of a lyre can be ‘tuned’ continuously within a range. When each string is tuned to a particular frequency, the lyre is capable of producing a series of pleasant, harmonious tones which we can identify, record (musical notation), and remember – e.g. a melody.

Local islands of order are like a few bars of Brahms heard over the cacophony that is Lower Manhattan. 

Fortunately, the vibrations of a string can be reproduced via ‘sympathetic resonance’ in other strings so long as those ‘other strings’ are tuned to a compatible frequency. 

When a string vibrates, it creates sound waves that travel through the air. If these waves encounter another object that naturally resonates at the same frequency (or a harmonic of that frequency), they can set that second object in motion. The second object "responds" to the vibration because the incoming frequency matches one of its naturally resonant frequencies. Strings are like AM radios, tuned to sound, rather than EM, waves. 

In this analogy, melodies are manifestations of the Good that resides in both Alpha and Omega. When a melody emerges out of the chaotic medium, it resonates with that same melody in Alpha & Omega. The two become one. The temporal realm and the eternal realm merge. 

A melody is a melody regardless of the medium. The Ode to Joy is the Ode to Joy no matter who (competently) performs it, whether it’s on paper (musical notation), on tape (recording), or in concert. It has its own unique identity (signature) regardless of context or medium.

Likewise, the local islands of order that emerge within Chaos, to the extent that they manifest Good, resonate with the perfect order eternally resident in Alpha & Omega. But it is the same ‘melody’ whether in a state of perfect, eternal order or transiently emerging out of Chaos. It is both temporal and eternal. Here I’ll take the wisdom of Yogi Berra over that of Bill Clinton: Whatever is, is!

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Henri Matisse’s The Joy of Life (1905–06) presents a radiant pastoral scene where nude figures dance, recline, and play music within a boldly colored, flattened landscape. Rejecting realistic perspective, Matisse uses intense, non-naturalistic color and simplified forms to convey emotional harmony rather than physical accuracy. The painting celebrates sensual pleasure, freedom, and a utopian vision of life, marking a defining moment in the development of Fauvism.