Romans and Egyptions are often equated to their gigantic creations, some of which still stand today, if not for another thousand years. If we do not purposely remove each stone from the pyramids, they might still last another 10,000 years or more. Also, during in a similar period of time, some relatively few sessions of cataclysmic weathering might do away with them altogether.
In space, especially, there are much tinier things that can be many billions of years old, unchanging in the coldest shadows of comets or stones. These little tiny specks of matter have always been there -- in one form or another -- before any thing else. And the tinier a thing is the more of them there can exist. Only a single universe the size of the universe can exist, but octillions of things can exist if they are smaller than .5 octillionths of the universe.
This is the "bottom up" approach. This states that all these little bits of matter and energy pre-existed (or were created by some mysterious process) and that they have recombined and recombined into much more complex and powerful structures. It is often said that something is insignificantly small -- so that it does not matter. This is clearly not possible. It is very important that something be in each and every state before it can be called "something".
A piece of dust is an imprecise phrase. Dust can be infintesimally small or can be the size of large grains of sand. But very small dust is actually atomic or subatomic phenomena and very large dust might actually be gravel or pebbles. But the general idea remains that whatever these bits of existence are called, it is by successively larger constructions or supercombinations that they eventually become livers and feet and brains, or even just the condensed and crystallized lava we call rocks.
How many levels of combination are there? It may be that combinations of any finite number of elements is finite as well. Yet if there were 100 different things, there would be 100 factorial ways to rearrange those 100 things. For an octillion factorial, things get really hard to name. It is not true infinity but practical infinity. The universe may perish as a whole before every combination could ever be achieved and there may be some mutually exclusive combinations so that they could not be simultaneously achieved.
A human being, with its trillions of cells and intricate intercombinations, represents an astounding number of simultaneous states. A mouse is only a tiny bit less complicated when this method of abstraction is applied. And a single celled organism is only a slight bit less complicated still, since it is still consisting of trillions of atoms and must survive in an even greater complexity in its environment.
To a single cell, every rogue molecule that bobs by is a potential destroyer. It might be catalytic like chlorine or platinum. It might be a solvent or corrosive or able to plug up chemical pathways. And there may be huge numbers of rogue molecules in the soup, such as in our own blood, and the cells are under constant threat of disintegration. We don't consciously care of such battles -- at our level of abstraction we are more afraid of tigers or sharks or other people with various weapons. Yet the battles all wage simultaneously.
The idea of God having purposely created us from the Top Down contains within it the problem of having to also create all of the tiny atoms and subatomic apparatus that makes us function. And all of those top down designs -- elephants, trees, fish, stones, water, stars -- all must also be made of immutably identical bits of bottom up designs.
Therefore, God would not have just created a man, willy nilly, but must have created the entire system of bits and pieces from which everything else is created. In this way it matters little whether God creates a pig or a chicken, the little atomic bits are no different, only the combinations of them ever distinguish the higher order things.
Pigs are kind of like shuffling the cards one way, and chickens are shuffled in another way. Humans are yet another shuffle.
Likewise are words, with letters like a,b,c and sometime symbols like ! and ?, there are little bits that combine into higher order abstractions. Words, phrases, sentences, concepts, articles, books, bookshelves, book rooms, ad infinitum, all made from the dust of letters, and letters formed in the dust of human minds.
History is also made from bits. As time goes on the bits roll up into a giant dust bunny, they form into lumps and landscapes of history, and time keeps on leaving a trail of dust behind.
In space, especially, there are much tinier things that can be many billions of years old, unchanging in the coldest shadows of comets or stones. These little tiny specks of matter have always been there -- in one form or another -- before any thing else. And the tinier a thing is the more of them there can exist. Only a single universe the size of the universe can exist, but octillions of things can exist if they are smaller than .5 octillionths of the universe.
This is the "bottom up" approach. This states that all these little bits of matter and energy pre-existed (or were created by some mysterious process) and that they have recombined and recombined into much more complex and powerful structures. It is often said that something is insignificantly small -- so that it does not matter. This is clearly not possible. It is very important that something be in each and every state before it can be called "something".
A piece of dust is an imprecise phrase. Dust can be infintesimally small or can be the size of large grains of sand. But very small dust is actually atomic or subatomic phenomena and very large dust might actually be gravel or pebbles. But the general idea remains that whatever these bits of existence are called, it is by successively larger constructions or supercombinations that they eventually become livers and feet and brains, or even just the condensed and crystallized lava we call rocks.
How many levels of combination are there? It may be that combinations of any finite number of elements is finite as well. Yet if there were 100 different things, there would be 100 factorial ways to rearrange those 100 things. For an octillion factorial, things get really hard to name. It is not true infinity but practical infinity. The universe may perish as a whole before every combination could ever be achieved and there may be some mutually exclusive combinations so that they could not be simultaneously achieved.
A human being, with its trillions of cells and intricate intercombinations, represents an astounding number of simultaneous states. A mouse is only a tiny bit less complicated when this method of abstraction is applied. And a single celled organism is only a slight bit less complicated still, since it is still consisting of trillions of atoms and must survive in an even greater complexity in its environment.
To a single cell, every rogue molecule that bobs by is a potential destroyer. It might be catalytic like chlorine or platinum. It might be a solvent or corrosive or able to plug up chemical pathways. And there may be huge numbers of rogue molecules in the soup, such as in our own blood, and the cells are under constant threat of disintegration. We don't consciously care of such battles -- at our level of abstraction we are more afraid of tigers or sharks or other people with various weapons. Yet the battles all wage simultaneously.
The idea of God having purposely created us from the Top Down contains within it the problem of having to also create all of the tiny atoms and subatomic apparatus that makes us function. And all of those top down designs -- elephants, trees, fish, stones, water, stars -- all must also be made of immutably identical bits of bottom up designs.
Therefore, God would not have just created a man, willy nilly, but must have created the entire system of bits and pieces from which everything else is created. In this way it matters little whether God creates a pig or a chicken, the little atomic bits are no different, only the combinations of them ever distinguish the higher order things.
Pigs are kind of like shuffling the cards one way, and chickens are shuffled in another way. Humans are yet another shuffle.
Likewise are words, with letters like a,b,c and sometime symbols like ! and ?, there are little bits that combine into higher order abstractions. Words, phrases, sentences, concepts, articles, books, bookshelves, book rooms, ad infinitum, all made from the dust of letters, and letters formed in the dust of human minds.
History is also made from bits. As time goes on the bits roll up into a giant dust bunny, they form into lumps and landscapes of history, and time keeps on leaving a trail of dust behind.
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