Trying On An Idea

 

Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry - Astrological Man

(What if Astrology were true, back then?)

An idea occurred to me recently and I wondered what others would think of it. Is it beyond the realms of possibility? Or do you have a sneaking idea, like I do, that there might actually be something to it?

It goes something like this.

What if people in the very old days were not crazy or stupid? What if all the ideas they had about reality were true…true then, not now? An example, what if there were dragons out in the oceans? Then, not now.

It doesn’t seem at all possible, looking back, that any of that stuff could be the way things were.

The reason I was thinking about this is Isaac Asimov’s fault. He and I had a little letter exchange years ago in which he said it was silly to think that the planet stopped literally for Joshuah. I said God could stop it and make it all hang together and survive if He wanted it to. We didn’t reach a conclusion.

But, at this late date I am wondering. We know that it wouldn’t work now. But maybe it wouldn’t work now because we know it wouldn’t now. Maybe in Joshuah’s day it did work? I admit that it would have been an epic miracle back then also, but maybe it was possible.

Seems to me that there are four possibilities.

1. Physical reality is immutable. OR

2. Physical reality can change based on human beliefs. OR

3. Beliefs about physical reality change regardless of physical reality. OR

4. Any combination of those things is possible.

In a relative nutshell, that’s the crazy concept. What do you think? Did God set up an unchanging system, or not?  Do we participate in continuing creation, willy nilly even?


Are there more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in philosophy?