The Daily Nash-on

One of the much famed philosophical implications of the 20th Century is Kurt Goedel’s “Incompleteness theorem” . An implication of this logical proof is that even if the Universe was created by God….his existence is irrelevant to a closed system such as the Universe we live in. In other words, even if there was a God, his existence has no bearing on what occurs inside the Universe – by the definition that the Universe was created by God.

Today, I found indications that ancient Hindu text came very close to stating the same thing – albeit not in the same words. The Advaita philosophy, explained by Adi Shankara states the ” Kārya-kāraṇa ananyatva ” principle :

“Ananyatve’pi kāryakāraṇayoḥ kāryasya kāraṇātmatvaṃ na tu kāraṇasya kāryātmatvaṃ”

Translated, it means : The effect is of the nature of the cause and not the cause the nature of the effect. Therefore the qualities of the effect cannot touch the cause.

Further, the Advaita vedanta states as an example : Jagat (the world) is not different from Brahman; however Brahman is different from Jagat.

Putting these two together, I think it could be inferred, that if a God is the cause of the World, the world might have qualities from God. But none of the actions or qualities in the World would have any effect on God. Thinking of this principle on the basic level of information transfer between the cause and the effect, it means that information will flow from Cause to Effect, but NOT from Effect to Cause.

Continuing the train of thought, if the World is an Effect of God’s actions, then information cannot flow from the World to God. In other words, even if there is a God, his existence is irrelevant to the World since nothing that happens in the World/Universe can reach or affect God ……

….a.k.a Goedel’s theorem.

So then, who’s praying ?