People Must Unify Theology, Religion, and Science

A USA PROBLEM: The founders of the USA authorized God in the first two paragraphs of the US Declaration of Independence. They also gave meaning to God in the Preamble of the US Constitution when they say that government must form a more perfect Union. These two founding documents define the USA as a free nation under God. Under God, the USA cannot change its founding documents unless God is proven to be false. Clearly, the founders created a very new political experiment in 1776. However, this experiment has changed illegally.

THE CAUSE: It is well known that theology and religion separated from science before the USA was founded. But, theology, religion, and science were unified in the USA by the founding documents. However, US science began to separate from US theology and religion in the 1970s. I say that this separation occurred mostly because Plato’s negative is not used by US scientists. Without Plato’s negative, history tells us that the minds of US citizens can be expected to degenerate to atheism. This degeneration is very noticeable over the last 40 years of US Supreme Court decisions in support of atheism. This paper shows how people can eliminate many evils.

This paper expands the book I published in 2006 on "The First Scientific Proof of God."(www.authorhouse.com/). It also shows what the atheistic book reviewers of my book on Amazon.com did not know.

I. Important Histories of Theology, Religion, and Science
Many people are unaware of the meanings of theology and religion. Theology is the study of God whereas religions select a theory of God and practice it. However, since a monotheistic God is incomprehensive, all theories offered by a theologian can only be opinions.

Theology and religion appeared long ago when a small number of people created a society. The people in this society became followers of one theologian who developed an accepted belief about God. This ancient theologian is known as a God King. As the number of people grew in the society, other religions emerged. The first wide area religion was polytheism. Its many gods caused people to worship idols, that is, things in the universe. Then, in the early years of the 2nd millennium BC, the Jewish theologian, Abraham, taught a new theology known as monotheism. It led to Judaism and its early people spoke of God as the ‘Infinite One.’

The oldest scripture was written 23,000 years ago. It was found in a French cave. The oldest scripture in the Western world was made in 3200 BC in Egypt. It used hieroglyphics. Then, in the 13th century BC, Moses taught monotheism and developed teachings such as the Ten Commandments. Jews say that Moses wrote the first five books of the Old Testament, which was written during the period 1200 BC to 100 BC. The birth of Jesus Christ added new thoughts to the Old Testament. These new thoughts are found in the New Testament of Christians.

The illiterate theologian, Mohammad, made a third scripture in the 7th century AD. He says that he received messages during dreams from the angel named Gabriel. The scripture of Islam was studied by Nicholas of Cusa. He was a 15th century bishop in the Roman Church. His study says that Mohammad was a Nester Christian. After Mohammad’s death, Cusa says that crafty Jews approached Alis, who had become the owner of the writings of Muhammad. These Jews persuaded Alis to elevate himself to a prophet. They added passages so that Muhammad would also be viewed as a prophet. This modified scripture was aligned closely to the Old Testament and became known as the Qur’an. This scripture led to Islam.

Jews say that the words in the Old Testament are inspired by God. This means that God dictated to the scribes through the Holy Spirit. I reject this dictation because a monotheistic God’s language, if he has one, is not a discursive language like we use. Christians say that Jesus Christ appeared as the Son of God. This saying implies that the teachings of Jesus are of a divine origin. I conclude that this appearance is possible but is still unknown scientifically. Muslims say that the language in the Qur’an is the language of God. Again, I reject this saying because the language of a monotheistic God cannot be discursive.

In my research, I reject the existence of a celestial world that some people propose in between God and our finite world. So, I conclude that angels, demons, devils, Satan, ... etc. are illusions of the mind of some people. My research indicates that Western religions have developed good thoughts about God and the universe and have reported them in scriptures. However, theologians and religions do not prove the sayings in their scriptures as scientists prove their thoughts and theories.

In the 2nd century AD, Christians began to divide into the Eastern and Western Christians. This division was caused by the different writings of Plato and Aristotle. The Eastern Christians will follow Plato and Western Christians will follow Aristotle. After the deaths of Plato and Aristotle, people would try to unify Plato and Aristotle. But, they failed. Eventually, the administration of Western Christians moved to Rome. The Eastern Christians stayed at Constantinople and many are found in Moscow, Russia today.

Like the history if theology and religion, the history of science is dynamic. Formal science begins with the writings of Plato and Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Artists express their differences by showing them walking and talking. Plato is pointing upwardly with one finger whereas all of Aristotle’s fingers point forward. Plato’s finger means that he seeks transcendental ideas whereas Aristotle fingers mean that he seeks ideas only about the universe.

Plato’s higher ideas were applied immediately by Alexander-the-Great to improve human life and free slaves. Aristotle’s logic was applied immediately by Euclid to develop geometry. For instance, Euclid’s geometry says that "parallel lines do not intersect." But, in the 19th century, non Euclidian geometries appear. For instance, spherical geometry says that the parallel time zones on planet earth do intersect, at the North and South poles. So, flaws of logic emerged long ago. Cicero applied logic to make poor laws for the Roman Empire. And the Roman Church applied logic to make poor religious laws. Later, Galileo, a scientist, would reveal a religious problem when he said that the earth is not at the center of the universe. With this challenge of religion, Galileo was ruled as a heretic and was imprisoned.

I argue that the use of logic can cause mental problems. I conclude that the Roman mind was degenerating by logic because cultures outside of the Roman Empire were developing new technologies. Clearly, the degeneration of the Roman mind caused the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century. But, the Eastern Empire (the Byzantine Empire) did not fall until 1453.
The Italian Renaissance saved the Western Christians. It was during the Renaissance that the Eastern Christians gave Western Christians copies of Plato’s writings. The great historian, Ernst Cassirer, says that one can understand the Renaissance only if one knows the work of Nicholas of Cusa. In his book "On Learned Ignorance," Cusa says, "the more we know what we cannot know, the more we will learn." For instance, we have learned that a monotheistic God is incomprehensible. Although we can’t know God, we can know the things that God created. Today, religions fight amongst each other as if they know everything about God. The different religions in Iraq are examples of such irrational fights.

Following Plato, Cusa rejects positive theologies. Instead, he develops a new theology known as ‘negative theology.’ He also transformed the early Christian Trinity --- Father, Son and, Holy Ghost --- into a science. This new science expressed the Christian Trinity as "ONE, EQUALITY (of ONE), and UNION." Using this scientific Trinity and logic, I found that the universe also has a Trinity and is expressed with the opposing words--- MANY, DIFFERENT, and RELATED.

Unifying theology, religion, and science will be difficult because theologians and religions do not admit their errors freely. The first religious error was admitted when Pope John Paul apologized for Galileo’s imprisonment. Scientists differ because they admit errors freely. This difference arises because the ancient theologians and religions thought that God made their scripture. Scriptures are made by people, not God. So people must review the religious statement that scriptures contain words of God.

In his book on "Critique of Pure Reason"Immanuel Kant tried to unify theology, religion, and science by trying to unify empiricists and rationalists. He tried to unify Plato’s higher ideas with Aristotle’s logical categories. He failed and philosophy became quiet until the 1920s when linguists discovered that "empirical data are primarily symbolic." Unfortunately, US scientists are still not using this important scientific discovery.

Instead of applying Plato’s work, US science is applying Aristotle’s logic. By the 1970s, logical reasoning led most scientists into atheism. Today, atheism is supported by the US Supreme Court after it decided in favor of Madelyn O’Hair’s effort in 1967 to remove school prayers. With Aristotle’s logic and Supreme Court decisions in favor of atheism, godless physical theories and godless biological theories have filled US TV channels and schools. But, I predict that these fancy theories will fail. So, instead of building a nation under God, US science, the US Supreme Court, and the American Civil Liberty Union are turning the USA into a godless nation.

II. The Power of Plato's Writings and How to Use Plato's Negative
The writing by Plato on Parmenides is important. Many teachings in the New Testament align to Parmenides. In this writing, Plato investigates the word ‘one.’ This investigation concludes that a monotheistic God has no existence alone. Thus, a monotheistic God must create things. This togetherness means that God and the things in the universe form a single world. Further, since a monotheistic God has no cause, this single world had no beginning and will have no end. Parmenides will challenge the thoughts of every theologian, religion, and scientist.

An equally important writing of Plato is his negative. Nicholas of Cusa used Plato’s negative to develop his negative theology. Plato’s negative is found in the Sophist at 257b. There, Plato says, When we speak of ‘that which is not,’ it seems that we do not mean something contrary to what exists but only something that is different.
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Plato’s negative is found in every new born child. When feeding a baby, watch the baby turn his or here head side to side. This occurs when the baby has eaten enough food or does not like the food. If eaten enough, the baby gives a sign. The sign is made with side-to-side motions of the baby’s face. In science, this mental sign is made with the word ‘not.’ The word ‘not’ moves the mind from one positive thought to a different positive thought. For instance, when thinking about the word ‘finite,’ the word ‘not’ can move the mind to the word ‘not-finite.’ In today’s dictionaries, not-finite is written as ‘infinite.’ So, the word ‘not’ is able to move the mind from the word ‘finite’ to the word ‘infinite.’ I use Plato’s negative in my book when I say that ‘all finite things are originated by an infinite thing.

I also use a double negative. To use a double negative, the human mind uses the word ‘not’ twice to move the mind from the word ‘finite’ upwardly to the word ‘not-not-finite.’ This new word is higher than the words, not-finite and finite. This highest word is the scientific name of a monotheistic God, who unifies all opposites.

Plato’s negative, which appeared in the 4th century BC, was hidden from the Western world. Instead of using Plato’s negative, Western Christians were separated from the Eastern Christians and many good Western scientists who were burned at the stake as heretics. A second separation occurred when the Roman Church was divided into Catholic and Protestant churches. This separation occurred in the 16th century and became known as the Reformation.

Although Cusa’s writings did not appear in the USA until 1979, Plato’s negative began to develop in Germany in the 18th century by Friedrich Hegel. Hegel’s use of Plato’s negative led to a huge following in Europe and some small groups in the USA. Karl Marx became a follower of Hegel and built the Soviet Union. However, the Soviet Union fell in the late 1980s because the Soviet scientists, like the US scientists, did not use Plato’s negative. The fall of the Soviet Union, and the failure of US science beginning in the 1970s, are caused by not using Plato’s negative.

Hegel and Marx also used the double negation to identify the stuff that underlies all changing things. Hegel says that this stuff is the unchanging God. Marx, who was a follower of Heraclitus, rejected God. But, Marx thought that the revolution of labor against the rich is the only permanence found in the universe. Without God, Marx and US scientists try to build a one-sided world with logic alone. I say that they will fail.

Those who accept a monotheistic God must recognize that an infinite God has only one essential quality. This one quality of God is also infinite and thus cannot be understood with any human language. Thus, in order to create anything, God must contract this single quality by plurality, finitude and, relation. Through this contraction process we learn how God ‘s creates.

By contracting God’s one essential quality, all created things receive both essential qualities and unessential qualities. Essential qualities are necessary qualities. For instance, it is necessary for humans to walk upright so they are able to develop the vocal tract and a talking language. On the other hand, unessential qualities are contingent qualities. For instance, it is not necessary that humans walk upright in order to eat. However, contingent essentials also give every created thing independence. The essential and non essential qualities are mentioned by our founders in the Declaration of Independence as Laws of Nature and Nature’s God. Thus, the first two paragraphs in the US Declaration of Independence are very important to every US citizen.

Today, we know that a monotheistic God creates things that are independent. Thus, both Hegel and Marx would agree with the following teaching of St. Paul at Rom. 1:20: "For the invisible of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse." Thus, every thing is a thing-in-itself and has a purpose. Positive qualities thus exist is every created thing. So, when Plato’s negative is used, the positive qualitative content of a thing is distinguished from the positive qualitative content of all other things. So, every thing-in-itself has many godly negatives because they identify all other things in the universe. Thus, it is with our knowledge of the things-in-themselves that we learn about God’s Intelligent Design of the universe.

Today, US astrophysicists say that a Big Bang explosion is the origin of all things in the universe. Hegel and Marx would agree that all things in the universe have an origin. To Hegel, God is the origin of all things. But, since Marx and US scientists reject God, they say that the origin of all things in the universe is ‘matter.’ But, Marxists and US scientists have never found this matter. Today, US scientists speak of dark matter but never speak of God.

When Plato’s negative is not used, scientists are creating dangerous waste products. I call these wastes ‘dirty negatives.’ For instance, US scientists created dirty atom bombs in the 1940s to stop Japan’s war. But, these dirty bombs produced waste. This waste emits dangerous radiation. Further, other dirty bombs were created during the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union after WWII. Unfortunately, no one knows how to destroy this dangerous waste material. So, I do not believe that more nuclear energy systems should be made. Instead, fusion energy, which is clean energy and has no dirty negatives, should be developed.

Man is forming many other dirty negatives. For instance, pharmaceutical companies are producing pills that cause side effects in a patient. Further, dirty negatives are being dumped into our good drinking water systems. Furthermore, when people make false statements, dirty negatives can enter the mind of people and cause mental illness. Perhaps, the world’s logicians are producing the most dirty negatives when they apply sequiturs to all sciences. Technically, hoarding is a waste product. And depleting natural resources is a waste product. Apparently, man’s creation of dirty negatives is a new form of evilness that must be stopped. The negatives produced by God’s creation are good negatives. People must develop negatives properly if they want to learn how to stop wars, terrorism, evils, and human conflicts.

III. Two Views of the Human Mind
The way we view the human mind can cause mental problems and other dirty negatives. Tody two basic views of the human mind exist. The first view is held by naturalists and other atheists. To them, mind is needed so that people can survive a lifetime. So, just as lower animals learn how to survive from their predators, this view says that mind learns. For instance, man can learn by trial and error. The second view is held by believers in God. To them, mind is needed so that people can survive eternally. So, the reincarnation of man is natural in this view.

The first mind is physical and is part of the brain. It forms images of sensations collected by the senses and can reason logically. These images must be structured with symbols. Today, symbolic laws of nature have been found for nonliving things. So, some sense certainties exist. However, sense certainties have never been found for living things. Nor have scientists made living things from nonliving things. So this view of mind has no way of explaining life. It also seems to be impotent on subjects such as atoms and cosmology.

The second mind is metaphysical or spiritual. It is thus a created and independent thing-in-itself that uses Plato’s negative. This mind can sense,. reasons many ways, conceives, and becomes an image of the thing being measured. In order to survive eternally, this mind searches for the Laws of Nature and Nature’s God mentioned by the US founders in the Declaration of Independence. As man’s knowledge of these natural and moral laws increase, sense certainties also increase. This mind can produce truths about nonliving things and increasing degrees of truths about life.

IV. Conclusions
I conclude that a common way of developing truths by all fields of thought was found during the Renaissance. This way is known as the two-step scientific method of proof. With this method, new scientific proofs can be expressed with symbolic languages so the proof express either an exact truth, with logic, or a higher truth, with Plato’s higher ideas. Finding truths is thus an endless effort of man. This effort means that people must develop a form of brotherly love that produces a basic form of happiness for all men.

I also conclude that people can learn errors from history. But, to develop true knowledge, I conclude that people must believe in God, must view the mind as a spiritual thing, and must use Plato’s negative. The unification of theology, religion, and science is thus possible. The Big Bang theory and Darwin’s evolutionary theory must end. If theology, religion, and science are not unified, I conclude that wars, terrorism, evils, and human conflicts will be natural human events.

Important Books

On Plato
Hamilton, Edith and Huntington Cairns, Editors (1961) Plato -The Collected Dialogues, Princeton: Princeton University Press

On Nicholas of Cusa (Some of these books are available at http://cla.umn.edu/sites/jhopkins/)
1. Dolan, John P. (1962) "Unity and Reform;" Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press. [Includes translations of Nicholas' Idiota de Sapientia (1450), de Pace Fidei (1453), Idiota de Staticis Experimentis (1450), and de Visione dei (1453).]
2. Nicholas of (Translated by Emma Gurney Salter, 1960) "The Vision of God;" New York: Frederick Unger Publishing.
3.Hopkins, Jasper (1978) "A Concise Introduction to the Philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa;" Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. [Includes a translation of Nicholas’ de Possest (1460).]
4.Nicholas of Cusa (Translated by Clyde Lee Miller, 1979) "The Layman: About Mind;" New York: Abaris Books.
5. Nicholas of Cusa (Translated by Jasper Hopkins, 1979) "On the Not-Other;" Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
6.Nicholas of Cusa (Translated by Jasper Hopkins, 1981) "On Learned Ignorance," Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press.
7.Hopkins, Jasper (1983) "Nicholas of Nicholas’ Metaphysic of Contraction;" Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press.
8.Hopkins, Jasper (1985) "Nicholas of Nicholas’ Dialectical Mysticism;" Minneapolis: The Arthur J. Banning Press. [Includes translation and interpretative study of de Visione dei (1453).]
9.Nicholas of Cusa (Translated by Pauline Moffitt Watts, 1986), "The Game of Spheres;" New York: Abaris Books.
10.Nicholas of Cusa (Translated by Paul E. Sigmund, 1991) "The Catholic Concordance;" New York: Cambridge University Press.
11. Wertz, William F., Trans. (1993) "Toward a New Council of Florence;" Washington, D.C.: Schiller Institute, Inc. [Includes a translation of the following writings: On Conjectures (1440), On the Hidden God (1444), On Searching for God (1445), On the Filiation of God (1445), On the Gift of the Father of Lights (1446), Dialogue on Genesis (1447), On the Peace of Faith (1453), The Theological Complement Represented in the Mathematical Complements (1453), On Beryllus (1458), On the Origin (1459), On Equality: The Life Was the Light of Men (1459), Prologues to an Examination of the Qur’an (1461), On the Not-Other (1462), On the Hunt for Wisdom (1463), Compendium (1464), On the Summit of Vision (1464).]

On Friedrich Hegel
1. Weiss, Frederick G. (1974) " Hegel: The Essential Writings," Harper Torch Books.
2. G. W.. F. Hegel (1977, Trans., A. M. Miller) " Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, Oxford University Press."
3. G. W. F. Hegel (1990, Ed., Ernst Behler) "Encyclopedia Of the Philosophical Sciences in Outline and Critical Writings."The Continuum Publishing Company.