Magnitude and Resolution

I wanted to explore the idea that the difference between an atheist or agnostic worldview and a traditionally theist view is that of the order on which we look at the world. The metaphor as presented in class is fairly simple. In the macroscopic world, we have a lot of diversity. A pencil is not at all the same as a can of coke is not at all the same as a salmon. But look at things on a much smaller scale and all three are made up of the same kinds of atoms, really similar to each other, and on an even smaller scale, protons and neutrons and electrons compose all three objects. Now if we try to determine a set of rules to predict the behaviour of pencils and coke and salmon, well, we will find some similarities, and be able to compose a hefty list, but there are still definitely some descrepancies between the three, and now rule set on the macroscopic scale can account for them. Of course, people are intelligent, and understand that fish are not writing utensils, so we can still have macroscopic assumptions, and understand the reasons and conditions for exceptions. Drop a thing in a stream and it will move with the water. Of course, this is not always true for a salmon, which we can see will swim.

The discussion between Woody Allen and Billy Graham highlights this perfectly. Both men had working understandings of the world around them, which worked in very different ways. Graham had presented his themes: "If you drop an object in the water it will move with the water." and Allen had his obvious counters "Well what if you drop a salmon in the water that's silly." and Graham said "Well you know a salmon can swim, that isn't quite the same thing is it." But Woody Allen was seeking a set of rules that are universal, and to find such a set the universe must be explored on a completely different scaling.

We see attempts to understand human nature and life at different levels all of the time. Psychology explores the workings of the human brain in an attempt to understand our nature. Biology examines how the rest of our physical make up can genetically influence us. Nature vs Nurture. And modern art attempts to get us to question the level that we normally think of and look at our world from another scale.

Another good analogy is classical and modern physics. In highschool and early in college, physics students are taught dominantly classical models of physics as determined by the physicists of the 19th century and earlier. As it turns out, these models do not work for all situations, and in the past 100 years or so, great leaps in conceptualization have allowed for new understandings of physics with quantum theory and relativity. Now, I don't claim that the new models are entirely correct, but we are sure that the classical models do not account for everything, and yet students are still taught the old models! The classical models were based largely on macroscopic observation by early scientists without the microscopy techniques and advanced mathematics that modern scientists possess. They still are of great value today because they are macroscopic. It is easy to understand how rocks fall according to Newton, because gravity on earth is something we experience every day. However, it still stands that, though more complicated and requiring much more energy to learn, modern theories provide correct answers for a greater number of situations. They are more correct. Do they have more utility?

What's important to realize is that neither frame is stand alone. The macroscopic frame is simply higher order... too complex to fully analyze into simple system. It will not always be correct. Woody Allen brought up some examples where it didn't make sense. But we do not live in a microscopic world, and our more correct conclusions must still come from macroscopic experience. Ultimately, both frames are experiential, and this simply tells us that our efforts should not go to arguing the validity of one over the other. Instead, we should understand exactly how we experience the world, what sway we have over that experience, and the consequences personally and otherwise, of exactly how we choose to sway.