Unraveling the Seven

Riddles of the Universe

Unraveling the Seven

Riddles of the Universe

Alexander R. Mazziotti

HAMILTON BOOKS

an imprint of

Rowman & Littlefield

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Published by Hamilton Books

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Copyright © 2022 Alexander R. Mazziotti

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ISBN 9780761872894 (pbk : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780761872900 (ebook)

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Contents

Preface

Part I Unraveling the Seven Riddles of the Universe

1 Emil Du Bois-Reymond: The Man and his Work

2 Riddle 1: Ultimate Nature of Matter, Force, and Energy

3 Riddle 2: The Origin of Motion

4 Riddle 3: The Origin of Life

5 Riddle 4: Teleology and a Preordained Purpose in Our Lives

6 Process Philosophy and Theology

7 Riddles 5 and 6: Origin of Sensation, Consciousness, Reasoning, and Language

8 Riddle 7: Free Will

9 The Second Tier Riddles

10 Final Thoughts on the Riddles

Part II Two Theologies for the Seven Riddles of the Universe

11 What is Religion/Theology?

12 Alfred North Whitehead Life and Works Part 2

13 William DeWitt HydeHis Life and Works

14 Process Theology Further Analysis

15 Social Theology

16 Comparison of the two Theologies

17 Science and Religion

18 Religion’s Trajectory

19 Miracles and Mortality

20 Wisdom

Bibliography

Index

About the Author

Preface

A riddle generally has a veiled meaning almost like a parable. The challenge of a riddle can be intriguing. This book is about seven fundamental riddles that our universe presents us with. The origin of the presentation of these riddles goes back to a speech given on August 14, 1872 by Emil Du Bois-Reymond, a famous physiologist, entitled The Limits of Natural Science and addressed to the Scientific Congress at Leipzig, Germany. Emil had applied science to understand how electricity flows in our nerves and muscles, which at the time resulted in a great blow to those who believed in Vitalism. He presented these seven riddles with the belief that some of them would probably never be solved. This speech marked the beginning of the end of the existing scientific euphoria regarding the notion that we, through science, could understand everything. With the coming turn of the century, Einstein founded the theory of relativity and then de Broglie, Schrodinger, Bohr, Heisenberg, and others ushered in the quantum world of uncertainty.

The idea for this book originated from finding an old book: Haeckel, Ernst. The Riddle Of The Universe At The Close Of The Nineteenth Century (Harper Brothers, 1905). Haeckel’s view, in contrast to Emil’s, was that most of the seven riddles were solved or solvable. Upon reading the book, I wanted to find out how one might currently view the riddles, who Emil Du Bois-Reymond was, and what led him to speak about the riddles. I was intrigued by the book in that it was written at a time just before the world of physics was about to undergo a revolution. The seven riddles are:

The Ultimate Nature of Matter, Energy, and Force

The Origin of Motion

The Origin of Life

Is there a Pre-Ordained Purpose (Teleology) for Living Beings?

The Origin of Sensations

The Origin of Consciousness, Language, and Rational Thought

Does man have Free Will?

In this book, we examine each of the seven riddles in relation to current knowledge. Chapter one describes the life and times of Emil Du Bois-Reymond, a man who possessed a tremendous intellect, a vivid imagination, and who found great joy in science and truth. The riddles converge on riddle number four, which is the question regarding the ultimate purpose of our lives. The riddles nest together science and philosophy as we emphasize a global picture based on Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy. Beyond philosophy, we discuss the role of faith versus nihilism in interpreting the incomplete riddles since the human journey is a continual struggle between reason and faith. We also examine what are called ‘second tier riddles’ which encompass mankind’s moral problems such as the elimination of violence and discuss their essential connections to the global riddles.

Current U.S. religious institutions are in serious trouble as many young adults, now about fifty percent, view them as irrelevant and do not plan to raise their children in them. In addition to their concern about the rise of violent religious extremism, they believe that people who subscribe to organized religion are often more intolerant of differing opinions. They perceive religious leaders as weak moral examples often espousing political agendas that hurt the poor, the disenfranchised, and immigrants.

Part two responds to our conclusions on the need for a deity by examining two theologies which are consistent with the process approach, namely in alignment with fundamental human needs and are a sound attempt at making sense of the remaining unknowns within the seven riddles. In addition to a further examination of Process Theology we consider Social Theology which was developed by the teacher and scholar William DeWitt Hyde. A chapter will also discuss DeWitt Hyde’s life and other works. Religion’s future trajectory and its relationship to science are investigated. The notion of the miraculous and the possibility of an afterlife are probed. All our endeavors ultimately can yield for us some wisdom in our lives. The nature of wisdom is surveyed.

We believe that those in organized religions and those outside of them can learn from this analysis and that appropriate religious strength and religious institutions are still very important for a society currently plagued by unacceptable school, church, mall, etc. shootings and declining life expectancy from both drug dependency and Covid-19.

The nearly 150 years since Du Bois-Reymond’s speech have seen remarkable advances in science and medicine, but each generation confronts, consciously or not, the riddles of the universe using their entire set of family and religious beliefs, their current knowledge, experience, and emotion to formulate internally a faith for themselves as life evolves. We hope this book helps you to find value and purpose for yourself, your family, and those you encounter during your life’s journey. We also hope it results in your appreciation of the tremendous contributions that science has made to society, especially at this time when science and reason have often been brutalized by political whim.

I wish to thank my sons, David and Mark, for their unfailing support and for their reading of the manuscript. A special thanks to my wife, Janet, whose love and timeless encouragement has made this book possible. Also, I would like to express my appreciation to the countless scientific researchers and philosophers who have vastly extended our knowledge of the riddles since the time of Du Bois-Reymond. Finally, to my parents who steadfastly retained and shared their faith in God, family, and humanity through good and difficult times.

Alexander Mazziotti M.D., Ph.D.

Hawthorne, New Jersey

June, 2021

Part I

Unraveling the Seven Riddles of the Universe

Chapter 1

Emil Du Bois-Reymond

The Man and his Work

Who was the man who postulated the seven riddles of the universe and understood the limitations of science despite the tremendous progress of the scientific research of his time? Emil Du Bois-Reymond was born on November 7, 1818, in Berlin. His father, Felix-Henri was from French controlled Neuchatel where he had been a teacher and moved to Berlin in 1804 with his wife, Minette Henry, a Huguenot. Neuchatel had just come under the control of the King of Prussia and the move was facilitated by the fact that Minette’s father was a French diplomat in Berlin. In Berlin, Felix was a civil servant and a diplomat, but Felix remained a teacher and researcher at heart. However, both of his sons became successful in academic careers.

Emil was one of five children and in his youth, his parents believed he was inferior to his brother, Gustavo. At six years old, Gustavo unfortunately died of scarlet fever, and his father never fully recovered from the tremendous loss. Emil’s younger brother, Paul, was born when Emil was thirteen and ultimately became a famous mathematician. Paul was aided by his older brother in his development. Interestingly, Paul’s work on partial differential equations led to the realization that limitations existed in understanding fundamental mathematical foundations. He highlighted a particular continuous function that could be nowhere differentiable, seemingly contradicting mathematical intuition. He wrote at the time, I cannot help thinking that entering deeper into the matter will finally lead us to the limits of our intellect.¹ Thus, he shared with his brother his belief in the grandeur and the limitations of scientific and mathematical endeavors.

During his youth, Emil enjoyed family trips, and he kept detailed diaries of them. He particularly liked the visit to his dad’s hometown in France and frolicked in the forest with new friends. He would later spend a year at school near the area. In 1836, he entered the University of Berlin and eventually transferred to the University of Bonn. He was initially interested in history and philosophy but then he dabbled in geology. However, he eventually fell in love with medicine and physiology. Emil was athletic and enjoyed swimming, hiking, and horseback riding.

He was fortunate enough to have Johannes Muller, a famous physiology professor, take him under his wing. Muller was a vitalist because he believed that physical laws could only explain living beings to a certain extent, and he felt that science should attempt to apply these laws as much as possible with careful observation and experimentation. In that framework, he gave Emil a copy of a paper concerning the electric properties of animals written by the Italian researcher, Carlo Matteucci. Emil loved the topic yet he found that some of Matteucci’s work while groundbreaking was often not carefully conducted.

Emil improved the methods of study and created new instruments to better verify and quantify the results. In 1841, Emil confirmed with the use of a galvanometer that an electrical impulse in a frog’s nerve was responsible for the frog’s movement. He published his work without the full details to avoid giving Matteucci any, in his opinion, unfair advantage. He understood that chemicals in the body were somehow responsible for nerve transmission, and he even alluded to the notion of what would eventually be discovered and called the synapse. In 1848, he showed that current flowed from the back to the front of the eye when the eye was illuminated.

The year 1848 was also a time of revolution in Germany. As was happening in other European monarchies, there was a demand for a representative government. On March 10, workers rioted in Berlin. Emil wrote to his lifelong friend and fellow scientist, Carl Ludwig, about this and said,

It is the great, new, glorious era that has befallen us. Also, "This endless night continued thus until five in the morning, when, within my hearing range, the battle ceased. After a few hours’ sleep, all Berlin went out into its streets, for the most part to see what had actually been going on. The description I give you here does in fact fit the great majority of all people of our stamp. What a site the streets were! covered with scattered barricades, with tiles smashed from the roofs, the pavement torn up, the windows and walls shot to pieces, front doors smashed in, and, here and