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Eight - DISTINGUISHING TRUTH

  Truth is always congruous and agrees with itself;
every truth in the universe agrees with all the others.
Daniel Webster
 

When I was in high school, a revelation was given to me by an algebra teacher whose name was Mr. Gatrell. My high school annual does not give the first names of the faculty, but his may have been Paul. In any case, he was the only Mr. Gatrell at Midland Senior High School at that time. Very possibly, he gave this wonderful revelation to most of us. This seems likely because Mr. Gatrell made every effort to do so. Very likely, we could not have passed algebra in his class had we not understood the revelation that he insisted we have.

Mr. Gatrell would ask us to work a problem and explain its solution to the rest of the class. At each step of the solution, he wanted to know why the step was used. If we gave a simple memorized rule as an answer, he would ask "Why." If we gave another pat answer, he would ask again, "Why." He insisted that we learn to know the real reasons behind everything. "Reasons" that merely sounded like answers were not acceptable. And after a month or so, we began to understand what constituted a reason as opposed to what was nothing more than words with the "right" sound.

Without the revelation he gave us, we would never have succeeded in learning properly, and would never have been capable of reasoning as opposed to memorizing rules. We would then never have become as successful as most of us have become. And the world would not have benefitted from our successes.
 

In about 1285 AD, William Occam (or Ocham) was born in Surrey, England. He became a Franciscan monk and one of the great philosophers of his time. He was the author of numerous treatises which were written in Latin, of course.

Occam insisted that the Pope was not infallible and that, in fact, no one person alone nor any group of people were infallible. He also insisted that the Pope was a man who should be appointed by the local ruler. Being a Franciscan, Occam idealized the simple life of Christ, without wealth, and looked askance at the Pope in his palace, surrounded by his wealth. As a result, Occam and several of his supporters were excommunicated. Undismayed, Occam replied with a treatise demonstrating that Pope John (John XXII) was a heretic.
 

William Occam is noted for a guideline that has come to be called "Occam's Razor," the "law of economy," or the "law of parsimony." In Latin it is given as:

Non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem
Pluralitas non est ponenda sine necessitate
Frustra fit per plura quod potest fieri per pauciora
Entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem

Briefly, in English, it can be given as:

Never multiply explanations
or make them more complicated than necessary.
It is vain to do with more
what can be done with less.

This law has become a cornerstone of investigative disciplines. It should always be considered even if not followed to the letter. Generally speaking, it can be correctly used in discovering all truths whenever the correct data and the correct assumptions are presented.

Probably for political reasons at their places of employment - and for certain principles known to apply to corporations as well as to other authoritarian organizations - many of today's physicists may sometimes appear to be unaware of the value of Occam's razor. Life can be difficult if one's beliefs or areas of research conflict with the beliefs or livelihood of one's employer. With a family to feed, the employment can often supercede the preferred research.

As you examine nether theory as opposed to much of currently accepted theory, bear in mind the implications of Occam's razor. A theory which explains things simply and directly is preferable to one in which the explanations are less simple and direct. Theories should avoid complications whenever necessary.

Mr. Gatrell's why should be a part of your consideration. If a theory is composed of empty words which merely propose a set of rules without explaining why they appear to work, then it is not a valid theory. Instead it is merely a set of rules.

And lastly, consider Daniel Webster's words at the beginning of this chapter. A valid theory should be consistent within itself. Every real truth in the universe agrees with all of the others.
 

Everyone should have three basic files in their memories. One is for things you know are false. I call this the BS file and keep things in it just so that I won't be taking time in the future to look at the same things again. Another is for things that you are holding until you know enough to decide whether they are true or not. This should be the largest file. You can add related things to each item in this file until you can make an informed decision. The third file is for the few things you know to be true.

After all the speculation about time in this little book, it may be difficult for you to see what is possibly true and what is not true. My suggestion is that the time and fourth dimension speculations be placed in your hold file. That is where I keep them. We may never know enough to be able to verify where nether actually goes.

On the other hand, there are some things in this book which I have placed in my "true" file and, perhaps, you might eventually decide to do the same. They are listed next.

1.     We live in a nether universe. In my own mind, after about 49 years of researching and theorizing, this is a simple fact. Nether may be called "space," "ether," "dynamic ether," "matrix," or whatever, but it exists and we live within it as a part of it.

2.     There is an inertial reference frame and the precepts of special relativity are wrong. Neither a vorticle nor a solar system can exist without centrifugal force, and centrifugal force cannot exist without an inertial reference frame. An article called "Is Space Finite" in the April 1999 issue of Scientific American brings this out very clearly on page 92.

3. The universe exists due to imbalances, and should continue to exist, in one form or another, as long as imbalances exist.

4. There is a vacuum at the center of each vorticle as opposed to the nether pressure of the universe. This imbalance, which I call a pressure differential, creates the energy which is responsible for everything in the universe. We can't be sure what happens to the nether when it goes into the vacuum, but the energy created by its entry is a fundamental reason for our existence. Some of these vacuum centers appear to be very long lived.

The nether theory for gravity (gravity is one of the creations of the pressure differential) is quite compatible with quantum theory. In fact, gravity according to nether theory is really a part of quantum theory even though, at the time of this writing, the quantum physicists do not know it. On the other hand, the only partly accepted theory of gravity at this time is Einstein's, and it is not considered to agree with quantum theory.

5. The time-types given are valid except possibly for the speculative part of "real time." This is still in my hold file.

6. Time dilation and its consequences in nether theory are facts. But time dilation only occurs for anything moving at substantially high velocities relative to the nether.

7. The Lorentz equations as they apply in relativity are correct, but the correct relativity is when things are relative to the nether.

8. The universe is expanding at a slowly accelerating rate. This fact will probably be verified beyond any doubt within the next few years.
 

It is astounding how many highly regarded men and women of ancient civilizations considered space as having substance, and the cosmos and everything in it as existing within the same formless creative Force. Some of these people worshipped this creative Force, some revered It as a treasured ancestor, some were simply awed by It, and others simply acknowledged It with respect. But there is a pronounced similarity in their thinking. The following examples are but a few of many. Is there a reason for this trend in thought which seems to have become a large part of humanity's subconscious hard-wiring?

Even today, many cosmologists think in terms of a Nothing which is the sum total of all energy and matter. And indeed, what other choice have we?
 

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